Walnut is the standard for wood yo-yos like TMBR and OUT (No Jive doesn’t look like walnut). I would think oak would work well because of its open grain, but I’ve never knowingly used a yo-yo with oak. TMBR has made oak axles for non-woodthread models.
Just some babbling from someone who has never made a wood yo-yo but is very interested in what you come up with! ;D
I have used teak with little success because the weight is not even and vibes a lot. Mahogany in the other hand is great, cuts more smoothly, even weight.
It was a one piece though, haven’t had any experience otherwise.
I think oak is too rough for an axle. My personal choice would be one of those hardwood dowels from the hardware store. I think they are maple. I’ve used one in the past to repair a broken one.
Since you have the options I would just make a few from some different woods and see which you prefer, can’t hurt.
Here’s the description from the TMBR Replacement Axle page if that helps any:
[i]WALNUT is tough, slightly open grain wood. It is typically very smooth and long spinning, with very little tendency to burn out. Walnut is the stock axle material (for the most part).
OAK is very tough, with an open grain texture. It is long spinning, and the open grain gives a level of feedback on the string.
CHERRY is medium hardness, with a fine close grain. It spins smooth with a bit more response.
BIRCH is medium soft with a very close grain. It tends to be the most responsive species. It spins super smooth, but is subject to burn out over time. [/i]
I’ve turned a few In my day. Maple makes a good fixed like the No Jive. It’s a fairly light wood. Cocobolo is probably my favorite wood. It will get you a weight more like a metal yoyo. Osage Orange will also make a good weighing yoyo.
Funny thing is, TK-16 kendama used birch as the ken and cherry tama. The birch ken is stronger than the cherry tama. I also own an Ozora keyaki which uses the same wood for the ken and tama, and it was the ken that got beat mostly.
With these evidence I’ve always thought that birch is stronger than cherry, though I could be wrong, or it could be that either the birch or cherry is vastly different each other.
Birch is hard to explain. It’s “internally” hard, like the tip barely bluntened at all, but kinda soft when touched. I agree that it might be more responsive and easy to burn. Cherry seems hard when touched, but after being used for a while as the tama, it got beaten by the birch ken.
I much prefer walnut to maple for axles. For woodthread TMBR, with maple I didn’t get near as much response as I wanted; I had to wax the string. When I swapped in walnut, it was perfect as-is. Could be a fluke, but that was my experience. Depends on what you’re after of course.
I had bad luck with the hardware store dowels on the one yoyo I attempted.
Careful drilling the hole, mine chipped out a little, ate strings.
I’d also recommend not gluing the axle in real well at first, like a drop of superglue. That way you can somewhat easily get it back apart of you need to (like when it’s eating strings).