So I was thinking “What if there was a square Ken and Tama, where everything was a flat surface?”
Imagine this: The tama is just like a building block with a hole
In it , and the Ken is basically two rectangles connected with a spike at the top.
Do you think that’d be cool?
Yes.
But what do I know?
the kengarden (or I guess it is sourmash actually) has already done half of this idea. they have a cube tama called the stove. but I think they still intend to play it with a normal ken.
Oh haha never heard of it 
i believe i just won something like that from https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kendama-WA/525530504165265
I’m not sure if that would be cool or not, but it would be worth investigating.
I’d say don’t make the intended held portion square or that will be uncomfortable on the hand. However, round spike and all “cups” being flat and square…just asking for bouncing off, but that would mean you really gotta get right under the block and soften the landing. No room for off-angles! The challenge would be incredible!
I’d also say “no sharp edges/corners”. Round them off for comfort, safety and longer product life.
I think for the cross-bar, you’d want it instead of being a rectangle, have it flare slightly from one end to the other, because the two cups are not the same size, then neither should these two surfaces/catch spots. It would still look block-like though, but I think stylistically, this would be appropriate.
Yeah, if someone were to actually design it it would have to not be just flat all around, but imagine the spike being a square and just being able to fit into the hole in the tama that is also square, thatd be super hard to land.
if mr bist can make a square yoyo that works, someone can make a square kendama that works. 
I’ll see if I can make some kind of prototype.
If y’all start makin da monies, ima want a fwee square kendama
well, this is the basic unstrung cardboard and duct tape prototype.
I realized after I had already made ozara and kozara, that leaving them open like I did chuzara would have worked a lot better. That way you can either land it flat, or with any corner pointing downward.
I don’t see myself producing more of these unless there’s a huge interest for them, but if I do, you’ll get one for sure, nemyo.
I actually do want to try to make one of these bad boys out of wood though. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Such as what type of wood should I use (I know standard kendama material is beech wood, but this isn’t your standard kendama) or how I would actually go about carving out the shape. Perhaps making a 2nd proto out of a really easy to carve wood would be a good idea? Perhaps balsa?
How I want to do the three cups is like a square pyramid cut out, similar to the underside of this rivet. I also think the spike should be longer
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NzAyWDc4MA==/$T2eC16FHJHYE9nzpcDT9BQQ,K)UlzQ~~60_35.JPG
Ah dynikus that’s so cool!
Shut up and take my money!
Imwas thinking it would work kind of like legos. Each “cup” would have a small protruding spike/bump and each side of the “ball” would have a small hole in the center.this would make it so the "ball actually stays on the cup when landed. Also the all would have a bigger hole on the bottom for the normal spike
I was picturing cups like the inverted rivets described. Or like these Japanese-style plates:
any idea how I would go about cutting the pyramid shape out of a wood block? I’m thinking perhaps just carving it out, but that would be rather time consuming I imagine.
People who contour guitar tops sometimes use an angle grinder with sanding attachments (instead of grinding attachments)… but… I don’t know what kind of accuracy you would get with something like that.
To make one or two? Man… probably going to have to carve. :-/
Copy carver would work for someone who wanted to make many of them… you’d only have to carve or cast one to use as the pattern… or get a Japanese-style square plate. Copy carvers are a project in and of themselves, though.
I have one for sale right now on my bst. Its pretty fun, you can do all sorts of balance tricks
