I recently got my first kendama from a friend, and after having played for about a month intensively, the beech wood the ken is made of has been pretty well blunted from misses. While I know of the trick to superglue the ken point as a light coating to improve durability, I was wondering if i should perhaps file the ken point back to a less-flat/smushed shape? Is that a decent idea or should I just dip the tip in the superglue without having filed it?
I was in a similar position. In the first few months, I was wreaking havoc on my setup just figuring out how to land the Tama on the spike. Once I got a feel for it, catches got a lot softer and more controlled, and much easier on my Kendamas.
I did try to restore the point on my first Ken before gluing, and for me it wasn’t worth it for a couple reasons:
The tip becomes dull when the wood is compacted, but compacting also makes it more resistant to further damage. Filing away material adds vulnerability to future damage. Even if you add a layer of glue, it is over a compromised structure that will break down more easily. (Even on a fresh Ken, the sharper tip is less impact resistant.) As long as a the Ken is playable in its current state, I’d leave it as-is.
I found that glue wears down pretty quickly, especially if it is getting a lot of heavy impacts.
Another thing about glue is that it is slippery when it dries. I find this noticable with Earth Turns and catching and lifting out of stalls where the tip is in contact with the Tama.
Style is another factor. I got to the point where Ken damage really wasn’t a concern because I was mostly interested in tricks where even misses were low impact. For a juggling heavy style, the extra effort it might be worth it.
Absolutely perfect answer to what I was looking for. Guess I’ll just give it a glue layer or two over time and call it good. It also wasn’t too expensive (my kendama) but I just want to prolong its lifetime to save money, ya know? The tama is a bit nicked but structurally speaking it’s a lot simpler and harder to damage to the point of affecting play i would think.
