This is my unsolvable
As some of you may know I love my B C natural it is my favorite…but B C is dead as a manufacture only a few online stores have a handful of leftover stock.
This leads me with only 2 choices I know of.
Tom Kuhn or Duncan
When I try to look at the future of Tom Kuhn I don’t see it as able to continue for much longer as popularity has dropped and inventiveness stoppled. I have a great deal of admiration for Tom Kuhn but he doesn’t seem to be willing to play in a modern arena, and this might be what ends it for him. Purchasing yo yos from a maker that I think might not be around in a few years could leave me in the same place I am with B C.
My other choice for wooden yo yo makers is Duncan.
When I look at the product line offered I see an attempt to appeal to an age range from Grandfather to Dad to young player.
This leads me to think that Duncan is trying to grab a massive consumerism market. This leads me to prejudge that maybe Duncan is out to make a sale rather than offer a true quality product.
Could some one please advise me on what wooden yo yo maker I can trust maybe other than Duncan or Tom Kuhn.
tom kuhn’s a GREAT guy, but he hasn’t made the yo-yo’s under the name ‘tom kuhn’ for over a decade. bc ran the whole operation through the boom, and continues to sell the leftover stock. the tooling he used has all been sold, so there’s really ZERO likelihood of ‘new’ bc/tk from all i’ve heard (most from tom and brad directly). rumors of the ‘no jive 2’ have not materialized.
i’ve never loved the duncan wood yo-yo’s (and none of THOSE are being made anymore either - most of the newer reissues were made by… wait for it… BC!) there’s a chance they’ll come up with something new, but… i mean why would they?
the single best all-wood yo-yo’s out there (imo) come from eric wolff. he makes custom yo-yo’s in his shop, sometimes on comission; sometimes just when the muse overtakes him. i have 4 of his yo-yo’s, and they are BEYOND brilliant. he’s mainly known for making modern, unresponsive wood yo-yo’s that keep pace with anything out there, but he can make an amazing fixed axle too. james buffington (jerenb on the boards) also makes a KILLER wood yo-yo.
honestly, there were a LOT of bc/tom kuhn yo-yo’s made from the 70’s up to just a few years back. they’re not going anywhere fast. i’ve accumulated more no jives than i’ll ever ‘need’. there are still some shops that sell virtually all of the main models and they pop up on the bay all the time. the fact that they’re not making new stuff shouldn’t deter you from buying their old stock if that’s what you really like to play.
if you just want wood axle, you have LOTS of good options. the proyo/profly, technic, and russell models are all splendid players and tons of fun… but when it comes to good all-wood yo-yo’s, you don’t have a lot of options left.
2 Likes
yeah like ed said dont expect anything new
from what I’ve herd on here, i recomend you buy up as many as you can before they are extinct, and if someone else starts making them then you just have another option to go for