I don’t have many throws, and I’ve been carrying my Laevateinn daily for almost a year now. It’s undoubtedly well-loved, with dings and scratches all over it. Thankfully, it’s still smooth enough to play.
I’m kind of curious to know if anyone else has gotten dings on their yoyo but still remains smooth?
I’ve noticed the wider the yoyo is the more it’s likely to develop string vibe upon the slightest damage. Applies to 7075 aluminium as well! Narrower yoyos would take a beat and I wouldn’t notice a difference in smoothness at all.
Another thing that I’d like to understand is whether having a longer axle would mean it could withstand more damage before inducing vibe?
Or perhaps I’m being delusional? I mean at the end of the day it’s a toy that’s meant to be enjoyed, to be used and abused, not to stay mint but to be dinged!
I don’t think anybody can give you a 100% certain answer. Just a lot of anecdotes and personal theories. William Chow made a video talking about his design theories and explains his choices based on how force will be dispersed throughout the yoyo on impacts, which led to him adding more material past the axle of the yoyo.
Overall width/wall thickness/weight distribution and lots of other factors probably matter for how prone a yoyo is to developing a vibe from dings. Emphasis on probably, different designers seem to have different ideas (or just don’t care at all).
I’ve got several heavily dinged throws and they vary in smoothness. My dinged up Avalanche is Fool’s Gold for vibe and wasn’t smooth to begin with so it’s hard to tell on that. However my Yuuksta is pretty beat up and still quite smooth relatively to when I got it.
Not the best pic since i was aiming for the CW. But, it’e my mint chip slappa. No really story behind it other than i was tired of dropping my Dunks or whatever else i playing (at work, i’m talkin’ here) the concrete we have at work is brutal. You can’t even roll a skateboard on it so it absolutely tears yoyos apart. So i figured, the slappa is kinda made to be a sorta EDC so i made that choice one day. Mainly to save all my other throws from that crazy ground at work. Outside of work, fair game for anything. Slappa is the literal “work horse” for me.
Oh, and it’s still smooth. Not glass smooth but more than smooth enough for me. 7068 Jake B throws are the toughest out there in my experience.
SPYY Pro 
