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How many Kendama brands are out there?

Started by shalafi, 09 December, 2014, 16:50:28

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HansNickmans

Some brands I missed in the list:

Pak Fuk Kendamas (Hong Kong)
Bear Paw Kendamas (USA)
Kendama Co (USA - Zen, Shenzhu etc,...)
Sol Kendamas (USA)
Shukar Kendama (Romania)
Tortoise (Japan)

Nice idea to try and make a list! There have been popping up brands here and there. However, I suspect that some brands come from the same factory manufacturer, only changing in logo or paint job. However recovering this information could prove to be rather difficult. Maybe a distinction in hand-turned and factory made?



Kendama Belgium!

kaskaderos.com

Do you have link to Tiger Kendama? I only find a Store Brand named Tiger, but no Kendama Brand
What you do with your right, must be profed by left hand...

kaskaderos.com

What you do with your right, must be profed by left hand...

kaskaderos.com

Maybe a distinction in hand-turned and factory made?

What is hand-turned and what is Facktory made?
Made in a house named Facktory, or if they make more than 10 Kendamas per day, than its facktory made?
All kendama are made on a turning lathe (Drechselbank), its always a maschin, where a person cut with his hands.
may be they can use a mask, espacially for dama made, but its still hand-turned.
Only cnc-maschin will be not hand turned.
What you do with your right, must be profed by left hand...

Zuichicky

We have Zerohouse Kendama from Vietnam :D

Buttkraken

There is also a brand called Eagle kendama :D
And a small danish brand called ultra kendama.
ultrakendama.dk

Been playing theese a lot, really sticky paint and good balance.


KenSan

3rd place @ BKO 2016 Adv. Division. :-)

AlexSmith

Quote from: kaskaderos.com on 08 January, 2015, 12:57:27
Maybe a distinction in hand-turned and factory made?

What is hand-turned and what is Facktory made?
Made in a house named Facktory, or if they make more than 10 Kendamas per day, than its facktory made?
All kendama are made on a turning lathe (Drechselbank), its always a maschin, where a person cut with his hands.
may be they can use a mask, espacially for dama made, but its still hand-turned.
Only cnc-maschin will be not hand turned.


Probably every company on the list above will say 'handmade' to describe their product, which isn't really a lie, since there are a lot of hands-on tasks associated with kendama-making. There are a few different ways to actually turn the pieces though:

- Free-hand: holding a chisel of some sort, carving out the ken
- Tracer: A jig is mounted on the lathe, which acts as a perfect guide for a tool to cut out the shape
- Knife-mould: a wide knife blade that is milled to be the shape of a kendama is used to cut the piece
- CNC lathe: a computer-controlled cutter-head cuts out the shape.

From what I know, there are very very few companies that actually turn kens free-hand. Terra is the longest running, others include: some Croix kendamas, Zoot (I think), some Trojka kendamas, Kendama custom kreations (KCK), Uptown Joe (affiliated with Sweets), PAW. Apologies to anyone I've missed. Most of the names on this list are hobbyists that run a small company on the side, rather than being their main gig.

There are also some people who turn tamas (like Aaron from HI), but I'm pretty sure they all just use circle-cutting jigs. (which isn't bad, if you use it right you can get great results. I prefer to do it by hand though).