Walnut Sunrises

[AlexSmith]

[Mod Edit: This topic was Split from the "New Sunrises" topic: http://www.kendama.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,610.0.html ]

I had a chance to play with a Walnut Sunrise a couple months ago, they look & feel great. Terra has made Black Walnut kens before, its a wood that plays quite nicely. I've owned one of the corkscrew Sunrise kens for a couple months now as well, and they're really solid kens. Good looking stuff all around!

[Kernow Kendama]

I've just received a Walnut Sunrise with 3 pink stripes on white background Tama. Picked mine up from Kendama.cz. It is a bit strange tho that a European company has released more in the U.S than Europe!?
Cheers n Gone

[Bad Wolf]

For those that have played with them- In comparison to beech, how are the kens during and after the breaking-in process?

[Kernow Kendama]

Right then..... So just had a chance to have a real good session with the Walnut Sunrise. Still in the breaking in process. First off it looks the bomb, the wood is deep brown in colour and the tama is white with 3 bright pink stripes. It's a much harder wood and gives off quite a harsh, high pitched click. It's slightly shorter than my orange sunrise but is a similar weight. Heaver than my OG Oozora. At the minute the Tama is still wearing in so very slick for balance tricks. The heavier weight makes for a really nice feel for spacewalk lines. All in all a very good Ken, and for the price amazing. Looking forward to wearing the Bewtie in. Ken Booty
Cheers n Gone

[theobau]

Is it just me, or do the Walnut Sunrise's have a plastic sound?

The Walnut Sunrise with 5 stripes in different colors on a white tama sounds like plastic when you play with it..  -it feels cheap and have a very clacky sound.

Anyone else think this? -but anyway the overall kendama looks pretty dope!

[The Void]

It certainly has a different sound to the beech kens, but I wouldn't call it plastic-sounding. A higher pitch click, possibly due to the wood being denser (?). I've only played with one very briefly a couple of times, but it felt nice to me.

Other opinions? Sam?

[Elmoney]

I have one of the wallnut ken and it seems that this wood is less sticky compare to a normal beech wood !
I don't know how to explain exactly but I've try lighthouse with a new beech sunrise and a new wallnut ken and it was more difficult to balance with the wallnut !
I haven't play so much with to tell you about when it get older sorry ...

[SamB]

I really like my walnut sunrise. I think the wood is harder and the cup edges sharper than any regular beech ken, this means when the ken lands on the ball it's more likely to "bounce" rather than land softly and there is less cup edge in contact with the ball, so less friction, all adding up to lighthouses and lunars being quite challenging[1]. Weirdly I think this exact thing may make it easier to do cup tricks because it is great for that, and birds, stilts and slip grip specials work just like any other kendama.

I absolutely adore the sound they make; it's high, sharp, crisp and satisfying. Maybe it sounds like plastic, I wouldn't say it sounds cheap because it doesn't feel cheap, but that's subjective. Either way I could earth turn and jumping stick all day with that baby!

The paint is wearing in nicely on mine. It got a chip when a big cup juggle went awry (threw too high and too hard, string went tense and cup edge and ball met at very high speed) but otherwise the paint is wearing in like on any other dama and I imagine that might help with the stickyness over time.

The hard wood is excellent and I've noticed virtually no wear on the ken nor the spike and very little change in the wood colour so far. I think this is comparable to my Shin Fuji which I suspect is keyaki[2] wood although I've never known for sure. It's surprisingly light in the hand and the ball seems heavier so I think altogether it's an average weight but unevenly distributed[3], this means that it spacewalks slightly differently to other kendamas but that's something surprisingly easy to get used to and doesn't bother me much.

I don't know about anyone else but when I open a fresh kendama I immediately smell it (cups, paint, ball hole (that last one sounds gross, maybe I shouldn't be admitting this...)) and this smells great.
The ball has the usual sunrise ball smell[4] but my first thought on smelling the ken was "Grandma's house", don't know why but that is a very comforting smell and I love it.

All in all I love the walnut sunrise, I wouldn't recommend it to beginners for the slippery factor, nor anyone who just wants to lunar all day, but if you want to go around Tunbridge Wells too[5]  I couldn't recommend this highly enough.

1.	but you play kendama so you like a challenge right??
2.	sometimes called zelkova wood
3.	I may weigh it later to get some numbers for the stats fans
4.	BTW shout out to Sweets for having easily the best smelling balls in the biz!
5.	I'll shut up about this now

[BKA]

[bump post]

Walnut ken/walnut ball Sunrises are now BKA Approved.