Okay, so I bought a natural bamboo Kendama, I love the look of the natural wood, but I have to say I got really used to the rubber cups on the catchy air, and I wanted some feed back on their idea I feel may solve my problem.
You know that rubber spray paint the sell on TV? it’s for gutters and boats and whatnot. I was wondering if I put a couple thin layers in my ken cups if this would give me a more grippy catch zone. Plus it is clear so I won’t sacrifice my clean wood look.
If someone has advice agaisnt this please tell me now, because I will prob do it tonight. I assume I will just spray the smallest cup to test it.
I would try the tama tack before spraying that on, it would probably be cheaper too.
Well I already have a full can of spray so it wouldn’t be cheaper. But if the tack is made for it maybe more effective. Can you direct me where to buy some? I looked for it on YYE before but couldn’t find any.
Tama tack is here:
http://shop.yoyoexpert.com/product/1224/O.U.T.-Tama-Tack
The tama tack adds a nice tackiness and helps with balance tricks but it definitely won’t have the same feel as the softer rubber rings in the catchy air. The nice thing about it though is that you can always just wipe it off if it doesn’t give you the feel you are looking for.
The rubber is an interesting idea but I’m not sure if it would have a positive or negative effect on play. It’s one of those “just try it and see what happens” situations I think lol.
If you try the rubber spray I would be careful not to apply too thick of a layer/too many layers to the cups. If you add too much thickness to the cups the ball won’t sit in them quite the same.
If you try the rubber post up some pics and let us know how it works!
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Thanks for the info and link Garrett
I am debating on the rubber spray, it is a little runny so if I do try it I figure I will give it two ight coats on my bottom cup to see how it turns out. I might just have to try it so I can post like you said and advise members of advantages or disadvantages. The idea it my head sounds good, but I don’t know how it will turn out in reality. That strongly depends on what comes out of that can I suppose lol.
kinda defeats the point of the kendama, in every way.
I don’t know… if it leads to a quieter kendama my girlfriend will complain less haha
Well you can email every single company that makes a ball with rubberized paint (I.e. Almost every single one) and tell them that. I just like the look of natural wood, but I like the feel of rubberized paint. And in my opinion the rubber being on the cups vs. the ball is pretty much the same thing.
thats actually a valid reason.
so every company uses rubber paint on the tama, and im supposed to email them and tell them that they should paint the cups instead? i dont know if theyll go for it.
Yes exactly, I meant that in the most literal sense lol
Note: I wasn’t saying to tell them to paint the cups instead. I was telling you to realy what you had said here, if they are not aware they are defeating the point of Kendama someone must let them know to quit using rubber paint all together. Might also want to contact catchy and make them aware of this before they formally release the catchy air, since it’s cups are inserted with rubber.
Yes I have already spoken to catchy and they said they are stopping production asap.
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So I went through with this and it yielded very desirable qualities. Since the ken was bamboo it was extremely porous, so instead of applying a thick buildup I simply worked the spray down into the wood, and when it dried it made hits feel much more solid. Also tricks like lighthouse and lunar were very difficult before applying. This gave me just enough grip to make execution possible for me. And the fact that it is clear makes it invisible to the touch only known to feel.
“And yes Garrett, it does make it just the slightest big quieter” lol
Overall I’d say it improved the ken and achieved what I aimed out to do.
2 cups down 1 to go.
Then I am going to work on a spike mod 
Cool, glad it worked!
I think colors might be even better than clear though, would give it a nice look. Kendamaco did something similar with their Shenzhu kendamas:
They did glow in the dark/blacklight activated paint on the tama and cups to make it more playable in the dark.
… And here I thought I was being Orginal, I guess it’s hard to be Orginal with something that’s been around thousands of years tho lol