Ok, so I've never managed to even get very close to landing an axe.
Here is Jeff, making child's play of it at 1:54;
DutchKendama Edit 28. Pink! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R5eNSAkTwg#ws)
Any tips? I gather you need the hole facing you, or almost vertical but that's easier said than done.
It's a tough cookie, this one. Any help appreciated.
Ta muchly,
John.
And by vertical, I of course mean horizontal. It's been a long day. :)
Have the hole pointing at you eyes so you are looking down into it. Use the "hoop around the big cup string hanging thing. And lift vertically the more Stable the ken is in the air the easier it is. It's a very hard trick to get solid.
I had a little session of attempted Axing today. I'd found that any rotation of the ken at all along its long axis would cause the axe to fall (twist) off, if you'd got close to landing it. So today I made sure that there was no twist in my string at any point, and also I experimented with the angle of swing - for me, swinging out slightly to my left (I'm right handed) seemed to help. I also set the string hook to be really close to the central axis of the ken (usually I'm slightly out to the right, for Moon landings, etc). Thinking about these things, and using Dave's tip, I managed to land a few Axes today.
Also, inspired by someone who told me he'd got Axe>Moon>Axe the other day[nb]but is obviously far too humble to boast of his achievement here[/nb], I got Axe>Moon.