I know the Tom Kuhn No Jives have a cool replaceable wooden axle sleeve, but that doesn’t cover the inner response area which would also theoretically wear down over time. So I’m curious… how long does it take to “wear out” a wooden yo-yo? Is that even possible? What happens when you do wear it out? What does that look like?
I’d like to see! Post pics of your most “well loved” wooden yo-yos, and spin us a yarn! Tell us how long have you had them and how often did you throw them? Share some pics of the good wood!
(Will there be interesting wooden yoyo prizes for the best posts in this topic? I don’t know… mayyybe? )
In anticipation for the @edhaponik EH 2018 release I had been playing my TMBR Oak Sullivan a lot and I accidentally sat on it. Luckily Colin and TMBR has extra replacement axles.
Pretty durable. In my experience, a well-made wooden yo-yo will take as much abuse as a lot of plastics and retain playability. And they’re easy to sand (and in some cases BEND) back into shape when/if they get super banged up. I’ve never seen a wood yo-yo “wear out” (besides the axle) from regular play. All of these yo-yo’s are still a delight to play, can hit whatever I want to throw at em, and if they feel too jagged need a few minutes with some 320 grit.
Here’s a few of mine.
My 1st No Jive. My main yo-yo for about 4 years.
1st Clean Machine (unfinished, although used so much it looks glossy), complete with scars from when Tyler Severance snapped a string with it and banked it off his house at ECC 08.
My 1st production run eH. No shortage of dogs walked or creepers creeped on concrete, gravel, or wherever.
My original eH from SPYY. Was an extension of my hand for a year solid.
Oh riiiiiiiiight I was looking at that picture the wrong way. Interestingly, the No Jive engraving ends up being a bit of a “response groove” when you reverse a 3-in-1, I hadn’t considered that
Semantics perhaps, but this kind of No Jive is stamped, as opposed to engraved (like the mandalas are). The stamp offers virtually no additional response. Flipping a mandala butterfly is a different story (and not a particularly pleasant one).
2015 Baldwin! I’m pretty fearless with this thing, though I haven’t walked the dog on concrete. Took many catches to get this beautiful shiny brown finish.
Bought it in January 2016 at the Virginia State Yo-Yo Contest. It’s my standard to compare all wood yo-yos against.
Durability? Overtightened the axle once and replaced it. The maple body will last a lifetime. I’ve long since smoothed out the edges of the wood tapping process around the response area as you can see. Can’t imagine it ever wearing out. Just the axle is possible (but doubtful).
I bought this guy when I was 10 years old after seeing Tom Smothers do his thing. Played it for about 2 years straight and definitely walked the dog on cement. Over 30 years later it still plays pretty good for an antique.
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