Best material for wooden nunchaku

[fruche]

I want to make a set of really nice wooden nunchaku. My plan is to stain and lacquer them but I don't know what type of timber to use. Does anyone have any ideas?

[Berserkergang]

You should go with oak. You can buy oak broom or rake handles at the hardware store.

[TuKongChucks]

I would say it depends on the money and materials you can get your hands on, and your level of craftsmanship.  If you can afford it you can of course order some fancy-shmancy wood, and if you got the skill, shape it how you will.  Of course if you dont know how to make a perfect round chuck or how to sand down a perfectly balanced octo, you can always go with plain cheap ol dowel wood.  Of course I wouldnt waste the money on staning or lacquering them, but thats the 5-8$ DIY chaku way .  But oak seems a nice easy to work with wood.  But I dont have experience with all that many woods aswell so I couldnt tell you what I really think is superior to the next or how much one weighs to another.

[fruche]

It sounds like I'll have to just go to a sawmill and check a few different types. I didn't know if there was a bit of a standard timber to use for nunchaku.

[Arturas0705]

For singles I'm using oak. It feels great

[shiryu400]

Use cocobolo. It's very heavy.

But really, I myself have been wanting a pair of osage orange. It's a yellow wood which has great flexibility. You can see what it looks like on the woodall's website.

[jmvicuna]

I want to make a set of really nice wooden nunchaku. My plan is to stain and lacquer them but I don't know what type of timber to use. Does anyone have any ideas?

Well, the "best" depend of what you want. I you want a really NICE nunchaku, then go with a exotic wood, scroll this page to know some exotic woods: http://www.customworkshop.biz/wood_choices.html

There are other woods, that aren't exotic, but are really nice, for example, the oak that berserkergang said before.

I would suggest you to know which woods are available for you in your area, and then choose 

[Vypor]

I started my own DIY about 3 or 4 months ago and the only advice I can give you is to NOT go out and buy expensive wood for your first project. Get somthing llike poplar, or any large wooden dowel.

My first DIY's were pretty decent, but im glad I went with cheap stuff first. If your really getting into making nunchaku, each pair only gets better and better, you learn the adjustments and specefications you want each of YOUR nunchaku to be, and over the course of your projects you will spark new ideas about :

Optimal tools to use for cutting, sanding, and drilling.
Where you want your holes to be for your string / chain
How long you want your string / chain
How you want your cord (if being used) tied.

Over the course of 4 months I've made over 20 pairs out of different woods and introduced myself to many different tools I never thought of before.

If you'd like some help reply to me, or if you know what your doing I encourage you to figure stuff out for yourself but if you would like a really good guide just hit me up - Ill show you how to make some pretty decent ones. check out my DIY's here on this forum  I think I only have one uploaded but if you like what you see trust me, the ones I'm making now are 200% better.

But as said before, Oak is a really good wood to use but you dont want to mess up a pair of oak chucks making them your first time, also somebody else said cocobolo is a wonderful wood to use - I agree but its pretty expensive and the same thing goes. You might also want to investigate making some PVC chcucks, they make excellent practice/freestyle chucks.

Ive found that when learning new tricks PVC is the way to go, and once those tricks have been mastered you can safely tranfer those technques to your heavier wooden pairs.

Hit me up man - Im loving this.

[RYOUKAN]

@Vypor.
Good advice

[jmvicuna]

yeah, if it is your first, then try with broom handles before you go for another wood. It would be a shame to lose a good wood 

[ImThexxx1]

i agree with vypor!
PVC's are the way to go, IMO
its helped me along with making wood and everything. i know where i want my strings to be. how long. and where the holes to string them go...
and their basically all i use now (and my acrylics) many new moves have come from the use of my PVC's 

[liqnitrogn]

there is a wood working shop next to my house  try and look for woodworking shops
cuz  i found nice blocks of wood 12 inches long  perfect    i think people make ducks and crap outa them lol
they have purpleheart  vera jatoba cocobolo and even pink ivory all for about 20 bucks
really buitigull stuff the pink ivery was 22 bucks and i made 2 sets of chux from the block
the first one i did was the docote the block was 11 bucks  really nice grain
messewd up on half so i only gor one pair outa that one

but try and look for woodworkin shops lots of cool wood in perfect sizes  evn have exotic dowels
if ya wann go that way  but i prefer a little more work outa it lol

[Berserkergang]

That's why I suggested oak. If you're new to chucking and want to make a pair without spending a lot of money on custom stuff and you just want a nice ol' pair of chucks that work to start with, broom handles are good.

[Arturas0705]

But oak is heavy.
If you are a beginner, better start with light wood.

[Berserkergang]

Only as heavy as you're used to. Start with light and you'll be light, start with heavy and you'll be heavy.