Hi All, This is my first post to the forum, so apologies if this has been covered in the past... I am relatively new to Wing Chun, and fully understand that I will not be ready to train on the wooden dummy for a while yet. However I am looking to buy a 'raw' hardwood log to season/mature myself over the next few months/years, in order to make my own. This is not something I am taking lightly and is nothing to do with affordability. I am willing to invest time (and money) in making this, I just want it to be a more personal item than just buying one online. I have a friend who works in bespoke wood design/furniture who will be assisting, so the job will be done right. All I am really looking for is a supplier of quality hardwood, who will be willing to sell me 1 log/tree (whatever you'd like to call it). I haven't decided exactly which material I would like to use yet so a supplier with a range would be great. I will obviously going over size/specifications with my Sifu before starting work on completing it. Thanks in advance, Lou
I certainly did - all it comes up with is generic fire-wood suppliers though. And to save filtering through the 6,948,392,323,109 Google results, thought it may be a better place to start here, with people who would have specific knowledge/experience of exactly what I need the wood for, or who may have a decent recommendation... As oppose to a supplier who wouldn't give an Adalia bipunctata if he was sell me any old crap.
You can certainly filter Google with more advanced search options. It would also help if you had a specific type of wood to look for. Oak for instance. Just a reminder that swearing - masked or otherwise - is against the rules which you agreed to when you signed up. Welcome to A MAP btw
Hi Louied11, welcome to MAP, please be aware that swearing (masked or otherwise) is against the rules on MAP.
Not 100% sure on the wood type as yet as mentioned above, so was looking for some opinions on this also. Ideal would be Teak, but also considering Oak and Elm (but any other suggestions are more than welcome). I understand your point that I could spend time searching Google and probably quite easily find a supplier, but I would rather be recommended a supplier instead of just going in blind. Apologies for the swearing, just my general language, no offence intended and I'll remember for next time. Thanks for the welcome too, glad to be here.
Most people use used electrical poles which can be acquired inexpensively on eBay. What you're after is something out of the ordinary, so you may need to email your local hardwood supplier and ask them what they can arrange.
Thanks for your responses. A great idea with the electrical poles, I'll definitely keep that in mind! I have been in contact with a local tree surgeon (as wood suppliers didn't want to know with such a 'small order'), and they have been great in their advice... They said that choosing a hardwood native to my geographical area (UK) would be best to reduce the risk of the wood cracking/softening etc. Soooo I think I'm going to settle for Elm or Oak after a chat with my Sifu of course.
I believe my seniors built our Choy Lee Fut dummy years and years ago. Obviously "CLF dummies" are laid out a bit differently to the traditional "Wing Chun" ones but I can see if if any of them remember where they sourced the wood from...
English oak and elm is very expensive , although it may be cheaper sourced from a tree surgeon. In that case it'll likely be green and need seasoning , plus your woodworking mate is going to need access to a large lathe just to turn it to the required size.Also the setting out and morticing is crucial to give the correct angle of the arms/leg. (The Tenon's on the arms are offset.) Many mooks are constructed from a number of glue laminated pieces which is cheaper . Honestly , unless your materials and labour are free you'll struggle to make your own for much less than you can buy one.
Thanks again for all your responses! Price isn't really an issue for me as if rather pay more for quality and for such a long term investment I think it's definitely worth it! I'm also looking to season it myself (I like the thought of having just a raw log sat in my garage as something to aim for) I have access to a woodwork studio (inc. my friends labour) for free as he runs his own business! He owes me a favour and is into martial arts himself (albeit BJJ), but he's really looking forward to helping me out! However saying that, if it does start getting a bit silly with pricin or we face hurdles when getting the arms/legs spot on then I will probably just bit the bullet and buy one direct! Thanks again, Lou
*by the way I wouldn't even contemplate this if I didn't have full trust in my mates ability to get it right and desire to help!
Poles? NO! ;' ) Just out of interest Ben, do you remember if the people you know do anything to remove the preservatives e.g. creosote or similar? I know we made sure our dummies had nothing on them. Mine was made by laminating square posts then cutting them to an octoganal shape and finally smoothing them out some on a lathe. The arms are beech that have been turned on a lathe, the leg itself we cut off of a tree that had exactly the right shape and size. If you practise where you hit the dummy itself with your hand/arm you don't want any sort of preservative being absorbed back into your body. At most you might have found jiao made it's way into the wood since we used it before and after training. Just sayin' LFD
Don't know, you'd probably have to plane them down quite hard anyway, and I doubt it penetrates more than half an inch.
I don't know what your poles are made of in the UK or what they're sized but here they tend to be softer woods like pine and only about 8" in diameter. That's not the best material for a dummy and 8" is what you want the wood to end up at after planing. You needs something with appropriate mass for good timing for recoil and with appropriate size. Mine is made from teak salvaged from the pillars of a torn down Buddhist temple, but most hardwoods will do fine. Also just as a caution when cutting out the two holes for the arms you must make sure the angle is correct. Most manufacturers make the arms stick too far apart. Also while cutting those holes there is the risk of the wood between the openings on either side coming apart. You either need wood so cheap that you can afford to try again or be very sure that your friend can do this right on the first try.
Re. telegraph poles and preservative ; I used a pole salvaged from an old barn I was rebuilding - the farmer had used it as a bodge repair for a rotten post. It's so weatherworn it's smooth and has no trace of creosote so the older the better . In any case I padded the head/body with a couple of layers of 2mm foam underlay ( as used under laminate flooring ) fixed with black gaffer tape so no chance of deadly contamination ! The arms I made from sapele , very hard and durable .
I was thinking half a re-cycled railway sleeper. but they soak up a load of engine oil so on further thought maybe not.
According to a master woodworker who was a roommate of mine some 30+ years ago, this is the best way to make a dummy. I had a Koo Sang teakwood dummy and the trunk had some deep cracks in it. My roommate took a look at it and explained that such a large mass as the trunk would have been far less likely to crack had it been made out of planks smoothed in a joiner and then stacked and glued together to make a laminated body. He also explained that such large trunks were typically cut into an octagon then hand-plained into an approximation of being round, as few woodworkers in the old days had a lathe capable of turning something of that size. Upon close examination, you could in fact see the faint signs that it had originally been faceted octagonally and then rounded out. This actually worked quite well in training as the slight faceting of the trunk fit your hands as you struck the dummy from the various angles of our form. In the decades since, I have filled the cracks, re-sanded and re-finished the surface many times using teak-oil, and the signs of the original faceting are almost imperceptible. And by a peculiar quirk of fate, the original hand fitted leg made from a bent branch was lost during moving houses during a period when I'd given up practicing WC. Years later, when contemplating returning to train Wing Chun I happened to run into my old kung fu brother who had originally sold me the dummy back in the early 80s. He'd come across an odd shaped dummy leg he'd found stored in his garage for decades. It didn't fit his dummy and was useless to him...but it was a perfect fit for my dummy. It turned out to be the actual leg originally made to fit my dummy! Apparently the one I'd had previously had been paired with my dummy by mistake. Clearly the fates had intended for me to resume training! And I've been at it now for another 9 years.
