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| Rick_nz |
 Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 6:34 am |
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Site Admin
Joined: 18 Sep 2006
Posts: 1167
Location: Levin,New Zealand
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Hey Lucy.
Whats the difference between the palasan,basiko & labsika sticks that you sell?
Which ones would suit sparring – Abecedario drills/solo drills and which ones would suit tire workouts?
I have kamagong and bahi sticks,so i know what these are like grain and weight wise.
whats a maulave stick?is this similar to the kamagong and bahi sticks?
Thanks in advance Lucy |
_________________
YBIFMA
"Riki the PR Man"
“We have but one life and I intend to enjoy mine”.
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| Lucy O'Malley |
| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:53 am |
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I have actually been writing an article for a magazine about this and you have just given me the encouragment I need to try and finish it. So here is a rough that I have finshed. any thing else you wish to add or ask would help me to cover it for my magazine article too, so do not be shy:
To find a stick that lasts can often be down to the individual stick rather than the type of stick. As a rule the Palasans I do are stronger because they still have their skins and often have more nodes, whereas the basikos are semi skinned and often have less nodes which can make them weaker. But it is not always the case. If you get a good dense feeling basiko of any thickness it can outlast every stick in your bag.
I prefer the basiko's myself because they are varied and you can find a stick for all purposes, light for more contact, dense to last longer, thick, thin or heavy. There is a stick for every occasion and person. I have 2 sticks purely for solo, 2 purely for double stick drills, 1 for espada 'y' daga and another for constant striking of training partner and another for 2 man pair drills. Due to them all having a specific purpose, they last so much longer and as they wear out I just use them for sparring. For an extended life just tape them up if you like and turn them round and use the taped end as a handle/gripping aid.
If they are to be used for a lot of 2 man drills You need a good dense feeling stick, but other than that it is down to preference. I would say go for the palasan if it is a tough stick you are after, but this is in no way a guarantee that it will last any longer than another type of stick. The Labsika's I do, have their skins on and carvings in the handle, but they are much lighter than the palasans and if you are drilling alot the carvings can iritate your hands. But they are nice and their slight flexibility does give the stick some extended life, I use one for Espada ‘y’ daga because it is more linear striking and does not cause too much movement of my hand, so there is no risk of my hand moving into the carving area, but saying that once it has smoothed out it is not really that bad, just make sure you check it and give it a sand down to remove any splinters that may have occurred from training.
If you want a heavy unbreakable stick, go for a Bahi stick. They have the grain running through like a conventional rattan stick but they are made from the trunk of a Coconut tree, very very strong. I have even hit mine on the corner of my house and it left no marks on the stick other than a ruffle in the lacquer, which wiped away with a cloth. They are approx 500g in weight, brilliant for solo and tyre work, may cause some vibration in 2 man drills, but absorbs far more than Kamagong which is a hard wood and does vibrate on impact.
Kamagong is a rare hardwood with many shades of colour often found with a marble like pattern effect, but the favourite among FMA practitioners is the dark almost black finish but be aware that some suppliers add coloured dyes to different types of wood to give this dark effect and claim they are Kamagong wood when they are in fact something else, the only way to know is if you have felt a real one before, it is unique feel and when you pick it up you realise why they also call it ‘ironwood’. .
However, because of Kamagong being a solid wood they can break on impact especially if there are any knots inside the stick, which is sometime hard to tell without external signs of a knot. This can make them very weak against another solid object, but still very effective on flesh and bone, because of it’s shear density, making it a favourite for death matches. But saying that in 7 years of supplying them I think I have only been advised of 2 breakages and it was due to heavy constant stick on stick contact both times, which although I still advise only to use them only for solo training because of the possibility of breakage, the main reason I say it is because the hardwood causes a lot of vibration making it a less enjoyable training experience.
Malauve wood is again a hardwood, but it has a softer density, making it slightly lighter than the Bahi and Kamagong sticks and prone to denting on the surface. Much cheaper to purchase and I have noticed once it has a considerable amount of impact, it tends to become more solid as if it has in fact compacted from the repeated dents it has received.
I prefer the stripped/skinned Basiko stick for abecedario drills because it is very light, making it very easy to control whilst allowing yourself to go full speed on a partner with contact. If you do knock a bone or two it does not cause too much pain for your training partner and very little bruising occurs. But the stick will not last long with stick on stick contact.
These light sticks are favoured in the tournaments for safety and equality, but they really do not last more than 10 minutes at full power, if you want a light stick to last a little longer than the skinned stick go with a semi skinned Basiko stick and do not forget you can tape it up and turn it round to get more use out of it. Do not throw it away until it is bending in half. The only downfall with this, is it loses it’s crisp contact sound on impact which I like to hear as taping causes a dull thud which can often make you feel like you are hitting your opponent less, but for the purpose of only training it is o.k, just make sure in a tournament you use a fresh bare stick to ensure the judges hear every strike.
Any stick can be used for tyre work, depending on how much of a workout you want. I tend to use a standard Basiko or Palasan stick to start a warm up making sure it is of an average weight to suit my ability/style. Once I have warmed up I will use a bahi stick because of it’s ability to maintain itself and stay in shape no matter how much you use it. After a good session with a bahi stick, I go back to a standard weight stick and I can guarantee you will be flying with the lighter weight stick, just do not go using your favourite stick as it will be covered in black rubber within the first few strikes and completely black by the time you have finished even one session and will fray, splinter and break within a couple of long sessions. I personally buy cheap seconds (sticks with pit holes and scarring etc) knowing they will be destroyed in no time, so really does not matter how good a stick it was in the first place.
There are some relatively tough rattans available that I may consider supplying in the future, the problem with these tougher and denser rattans are they are quite expensive for the sole purpose of using as a stick for the purpose of FMA and people would not pay up to £10.00 for a stick for this purpose, even if they know the lifespan could be longer (these sticks also smell of smoke, like they are going to catch fire during two man drills and I have even seen sparks when I have been using them) and they destroy other peoples sticks and armour.
At the end of the day it is down to preference, the right stick is a personal thing, but knowing exactly what you are going to use it for (type of exercises) will help you to get the right stick with the possibility of prolonging it’s life. |
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| Rick_nz |
| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 8:46 am |
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Site Admin
Joined: 18 Sep 2006
Posts: 1167
Location: Levin,New Zealand
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Hey Lucy as usual a very informative reply 
As far as answering my questions regarding the sticks ,All have been answered,thank you.
now as an article,it looks good,
But what is your target audience.
if it is FMA'st then leave it as is.
if your target audience is martial artist and the average Joe.then maybe have some sort of description of what the words palasan,basiko,labsika,kamagong,bahi,Malauve mean at the start of the article,also any word that is not english like abecedario to have in brackets next to it what it means like Abecedario (2-man basic partner drill).Also add pictures of the sticks,colour always looks good next to black and white 
here is a alternative start for your article
This question keeps popping up wherever i go lately,what is palasan or basiko or labsika or kamagong or bahi or Malauve sticks?before i commence on the usage of each stick.I will just give a brief laymans term on each of the words i just used:
Palasan:is a type of rattan
Basiko: is a type of rattan
Labsika:is a type of rattan
Kamagong:is a fruit tree found only in the Philippines, the wood of which is extremely dense and hard, and famous for its dark color. and like many other very hard woods is sometimes called "iron wood".
Bahi:wood of a Coconut tree trunk
Malauve:wood is a type of hardwood
now that i have explained the terms used in my article i shall comence to tell you my story on the sticks.
(now add your article here)
thats just my thoughts there Lucy.Hope it has helped |
_________________
YBIFMA
"Riki the PR Man"
“We have but one life and I intend to enjoy mine”.
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| Lucy O'Malley |
| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 9:45 am |
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Cheers for that.
It is purely aimed at FMA'ers but I still always like to accomodate the newbies, so an explantion is required for my own sense of completion.
The reason it does not have much of an opening yet is because it started out as a reply to someones email, asking about what stick is best, so I have just built it up from there. Before it goes in as an article it will be written to the audience as such and hopefully have more purpose as there should always be a beginning, middle and end to help everyone understand it, I just lef tit off for now because again in was in answer to someones question (yours).
Thanks for the point about explaining the woods, I think that is a good idea and a must regardless of audience.
Love Lucy  |
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| Rick_nz |
| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 9:55 am |
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Site Admin
Joined: 18 Sep 2006
Posts: 1167
Location: Levin,New Zealand
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Sweet as Lucy,
Im glad my input has helped. 
Thanks again for answering my questions |
_________________
YBIFMA
"Riki the PR Man"
“We have but one life and I intend to enjoy mine”.
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