I wonder if it’d be better if the interior side of the wooden yoyo, the side that will touch the string, is left unfinished, while the exterior is finished?
I do agree that a finished yoyo is more pleasant in the hand, and will last longer, but it seems to me the response is gonna be weaker on really smooth glossy interiors? Wouldn’t response be grippier and more reliable on unfinished, slightly rougher wood versus the super shiny glossy finish?
No real single answer there. The Curriers are finished/glossy and they work fine because of the response being not only the axle, but also the holes drilled into the sides.
Wood yo-yos are cool, and all, but the more I delve into them the more I think there’s good reasons humans invented the things they did in the progression of yo-yo history 
Yeah, like holes drilled into the inner walls of wooden yo-yos to generate a reliable response. That’s what you meant, right??? I mean, I know that’s what you meant. Because you love fixed axle yo-yos
Is it reliable? Because it’ll never, ever, ever wear down under typical use? 
(This is not a serious response, for the record, but it is the nature of wood…)
Liken it to response pads, in that way. And since I started with the Currier as an example, I’ll continue. The holes in the walls, I can’t imagine will ever “wear out” for lack of a better phrase. The axle might, like all wooden axles eventually might, although it takes a good amount of time for that to happen unless you’re trying to set a fixed axle sleep time record. But the axle is replaceable. Just like a response pad.
Don’t get me wrong, no matter what, it won’t be for everyone and I get that. But it’s pretty hard to dispute the fact that progress has been made in the realm of fixed axle yo-yos
Totally! And I want to point out that the painted No Jives / Sleep Machines / Roller Woodies are SUPER glossy both inside and out and seem to respond reasonably well. Plus the SB-1 has no response pads (never shipped with Turbo Discs oddly enough) and that’s smooth aluminum (!!) and it responds… well usually it does, anyway…
That being said, my personal preference would be finished exterior for hand feel + durability, combined with unfinished interior for better response.
In regard to unfinished response area, it depends on the type of wood and how finely sanded it is. It’s possible to sand the interior finely enough that it glosses up just like a finish. Some woods also have courser grain (like just about any wood from Australia) so they naturally create more response. I find that drilling response recesses and very finely tuning the gap the way to get reliable response no matter what wood is used.
That’s because despite our best efforts to explain to you that fixed axle wooden yoyos are something very different in both design execution and trick style, you just can’t seem to see that they are different; just worst in your eyes.
They are objectively worse, in the way that a horse or a boat is a much worse way to travel versus a car or airplane.
But there are other reasons to like boats and horses, for sure, and speed and efficiency isn’t the only metric that matters.
Drive your car in 5 feet or deeper water. I’ll watch.
I just typed a long response to this.
Then I deleted it and wrote this instead because there isn’t any point in arguing about it anymore.
Those statements are contradictory. “Objectively worse” implies an objective position and the existence of a metric which could, indeed define good and bad. Is there a common “objective” to yo-yoing at all? A standard? One to which unresponsive metal yo-yo’s cater more effectively than fixed axle woodies? Or is your position entirely subjective, and you’re assuming that your perspective, experience, and motivation fit for all of us? Your travel analogy is inadequate. Compare it to music or painting or… baking if you want to. The point of travel is to get from A to B… but that’s not uniformly true of yo-yoing. We aren’t all trying to “get somewhere” - in fact some of us just want to get LOST. 
Let me ask you this:
Is a gun better for archery than a bow and arrow?
I think you’re right, there’s no point in us engaging on this as we have different irreconcilable opinions.
To me, the spin is the thing, and bearings spin way faster and more satisfying. I’m not anti-wood as a material, either – in the case of a wood body ala the Sleep Machine and Roller Woody – but it’s hard to get that density to make the spin just… totally rock 
I want my hand to hurt when the yo-yo comes back. Like… a lot. Real pain!
I like wood, it is good, I appreciate wood… but it’s also clear why we’ve generally progressed beyond wood as a species
