Hi all,
Pretty new here, hoping you’ll have a chance to think this over. I’m looking for a good choice to make Japanese drum sticks. The dimensions are 7/8 inch in diameter by 18 inches in length. I’m looking for readily available dowels. I’m not too concerned with dimensional stability or warping, since these sticks won’t be attached to anything. I’m looking for a wood with average (.40-.65) specific gravity. I’m looking for a diffuse porous wood with even grain, hopefully something that can hold and maintain a smooth surface. Other properties I’m looking for are good tensile strength perpendicular to the grain so the stick won’t simply break during use, strong shear strength parallel to grain so that the tip won’t feather from compression, good shock absorbtion, and high work to maximum load in bending. compressive strength both parallel and perpendicular to the grain is a consideration as well. Hopefully this wood will only be of moderate hardness (deformation is a pain, but it’s easier on the drum). Is there any wood that has all of these specifications? Perhaps an atricificial substance, like a plastic? Thanks for considering this and thanks in advance for any advice you can give.
Charles
Replies
Sounds like to me you've just described ash. It is everything you want. Ash is used for baseball bats and hockey sticks. It is definitely a hard wood but all of your other requirements are satisfied with ash.
From the Helderberg Mountains
Thanks for your reply. Ash is a ring porous wood, and I've found repeated use causes shearing and splintering in any ring porus wood (I've used red and white oak and hickory to disappointing results). Bascially, I need something that will remain basically intact and not spliter after hitting a thick, tensioned leather surface repeatedly. The large and concentrated pores in ring porous woods compress and relax, compress and relax. Over time the fibers that connect annual ring to annual ring break down and the stick falls apart. With diffuse porous woods, the most common problem is low sheer strength that causes the tip of the stick that comes into contact with the drum to splinter in the same way. A Japanese variety of magnolia that's commonly used for this application is lightweight and relatively soft, saving wear and tear from the drum, but the tip becomes rough through compression failure and scratches the drum. Hard maple has many of the characteristics that I'm looking for, but is too heavy and hard. Perhaps soft maple is a good choice? I'm just looking for alternatives I might not otherwise think of. Once again, thanks for taking a chance to think on this.
Charles
ps some woods, such as cherry or poplar simply... pop. Eventually, they simply break off perpendicular to the grain. This can be very dangerous if it occurs during use, so I need something that has a good tensile strength as well.
Shim,
Have you considered quarter-sawn red oak?
BJ
Unfortunately, red oak (since the sticks are basically dowels, quartersawing them doesn't really make a difference) tends to split at the wide band of open pores in the earlywood. Japanese oak dowels are traditionally used (an evergreen oak... like live oak) but they tend to be VERY heavy (not particularily good for the wrists or the drum). Is there maybe a website where I can search by physical properties?
Thanks for your reply,
Charles
I certainly can't comment on the specific characteristics of the species but dogwood may meet your needs. It is a relatively light and strong wood that machines very well. Rarely used for furniture since long segments just don't happen frequently in the dogwood tree. It will hold up to abuse and not splinter. It was/is used in making shuttles for weaving machinery since it could be rendered very smooth.
I figure that if it was appropriate for mill operations it should stand up to a lot of abuse.
What do you think? Windy Wood
From the Helderberg Mountains
Maybe I'm overstating the obvious here, but what do they make them out of already??? Why aren't you using whatever is traditional for them? What are non-Japanese drumsticks made out of and why won't that work?
What are they made of already.....
Japanese white oak... tough, but a bit too heavy and it wears out the drum heads much faster... nearly impossible to get outside of Japan
Japanese cypress... light. strong, perfect except that from repeated impact, it starts to feather at the tips... pretty much impossible to get outside of Japan, Port Orford Cedar is close, but is much more brittle and therefore tends to splinter
Japanese magnolia... lighter than cypress, but can't take as much abuse.... can't find it over here and poplar, probably the closest relative, tend to simply break in half during use
Woods Western drum sticks are made of....
hickory.... too brittle, and the fact that it's ring porous causes a problem as well. The dimensions on a Japanese drum stick are much larger makes this a poor choice, not to mention the fact that there is much greater wear on both the sticks and the drum
maple... a little too heavy, but very tough and resistant to wear. If I could find something as strong but not quite as heavy (something with a specific gravity of .4-.5) that could still hold a nice smooth surface, I think I've found the wood I need
Sorry for all the Goldilockes action, I guess I was hoping for some miracle answer. Perhaps there's some kind of low molecular weight, water dispersable solution that I could make a wood polymer out of? For instance, if I could dip Port Orford Cedar to make it softer and make it more prone to dent than splinter, that would be great. Thanks for all the comments so far.
Charles
Sounds like you need to try Ironwood.., er American Hornbeam.
Carpinus Caroliniana
As far as dowel stock available to answer part of your quandary , how about Ramin dowel stock ? Also a website that may be helpful to you is http://www.thewoodbox.com/index.htm .
good luck
Have you tried rattan? It takes a pounding well... don't know that it'll sound like....
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