What do you think of unfinished wooden yoyos?

Do unfinished yoyos put you off of buying them, or do you like them?

I like the look and feel of unfinished yoyos.

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I personally like both but would prefer an unfinished yo-yo

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A good finish on wood can help preserve the wood plus make the grain really stand out. I do a lot of woodworking and a nice finish can make the wood harder and more durable as well.
However, you stated that you like the look and feel of unfinished wood so having something that your happy with is just as important.

I prefer unfinished overall.

It depends on the yoyo for me. I think generally, I like finished (or sometimes painted) wood yoyos. For example, I think the lacquer YYF Legend Wing looks nicer than the unfinished one. I also like the finish on all my old BC laminated throws. I’ve got one in the rotation right now where the finish has this pretty cracking going on that looks really cool. But then I think about yoyos such as all of the TMBR ones and I can’t say those look anything but great.

So maybe I like finished yoyos if the wood is basic and unfinished if the wood is more exotic?

I prefer a wooden yoyo to be finished. Looks better to me and also raw wood tends to pick up dirt and oil from your hands and gets ugly. The finish on TKs and BCs, both clear and painted, has always been attractive to me. When I finish my own as I did with the Jamboo, I like a rubbed oil finish base then top it off with a thin layer of clear poly.

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Finished for me. I often share yoyos and handing someone a dirty, oily, sweaty yoyo is like handing them a dirty, oily, sweaty sock and expecting them to enjoy. :stuck_out_tongue:

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I prefer finished as long as it brings out the wood and does not interfere with play.

I think I’ll keep my yoyos finished then.

Finishing does indeed protect the wood.

Really how, dirty, sweaty, and oily can your yoyos get, and you even clean them, anyway.

Finishes can hinder tricks like tape measure.

There are violins hundreds of years old with unfinished necks. Over time the oils in your hands treat wood.

Instead of considering it ugly, I think the patina can be considered beautiful and unique to your yoyo.

I do agree with the sentiment that it depends on the wood. I think it’s good to have both. Also, maybe a simple oiled finish might be nice sometimes.

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Yes I clean yoyos, and keyboards, and door handles and other things that are touched often. Hygiene is a good thing. :wink:

Skitrz sure is postarific today!

I like both. The one thing I dig a bit more about unfinished wood yoyos is the patina they get. Of course, that “patina,” is mostly sweat and hand gunk, but I like that it changes over time as you play it more. :slight_smile:

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Patina is one thing. gunk from oily, dirty hands is quite another. I don’t consider myself a clean freak but I have been known to wipe down my metal and plastic yoyos from time to time.

I guess a lot depends on personal body chemistry. My hands aren’t very sweaty or oily. I have some friends who play guitar, who have to constantly change their strings, because they quickly rot on them. I’ve been lucky that I don’t do that to strings, especially with the upright bass. Those strings can be $100 or more!

My Thomastik upright strings are going on 9 years!
I prefer raw. Clean machine ftw! :slight_smile:

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When spinning you cannot tell the difference. Otherwise, it all depends how how it feels and performs for the thrower.

I prefer unfinished. Difficult to describe but I like the feel in my hand over a finish.

That’s smart with some of those raw aluminum yoyos. I’ve seen some crazy corroded yoyos out there, and that wears on the string. But with my wood yoyos, I never clean them. Some of them have been dirty long enough that they probably have new species of bacteria living on them. :slight_smile:

I’ve got an archtop acoustic that has Thomastik flat wounds, the strings wont die! They’re at least 5 years old. I keep saying I’m going to change them, just because I feel that I should.

For fixed axles, I prefer unfinished, I like the transformation that they make over time. However, a couple of my favorite fixed axles have a finish on them.

I use the Thomastik Blues Sliders on my Strat. They make great strings! Speaking of finished vs infinished, my upright came with a finished neck. Yuck! Finished necks are fine for Fretted instruments, but I literally got a blister from the upright! A little sand paper fixed it. Someone had taken the finish off of my Strat before I bought it, an I really like it.

I also have some finished wood yoyos that I like, but like how unfinished feels better.