I need to find some straight, not tapered, staves in the 7-8 foot range.
anyone got any sources?
I’ve heard trees are very good.
I just couldn’t help myself.
are you in a hurry? If not Reggie is sort of right, go out and hit the woods in your area. It takes a while but you get used to looking. When I apprenticed out to that bowyer, I had to do this all the time. Usually you have to let the stuff dry out a little first so it may not be exactly what you’re looking for.
made of what?
rattan? oak? waxwood?
many of these are 6 feet in length and there is a selection of untapered staffs.
He needs bigger than 6 feet. 7 to 8 feet, like those crazy-long Southern poles.
ooh, good point. When I saw “staves” I thought of the rough uncut version, thinking he wanted to make his own or something.
The waxwoods are 84" which is 7 feet.
I’ve got a really tall 15 year old…like 6’4" but his arms are looooong.
‘back in the day’ 
when I trained hung gar in a yard, we would go cut our own staves. also, my teacher had a stand of bamboo and we would cut those and fight with them and the match would be over when someone no longer really had a staff anymore. splinters and small cuts were a *****!
the 7’ staves are tapered.
just talked to a specialty woodworker who can make me some octagonal staves of ash any length I need…no price yet.
“‘back in the day’ when I trained hung gar in a yard, we would go cut our own staves. also, my teacher had a stand of bamboo and we would cut those and fight with them and the match would be over when someone no longer really had a staff anymore. splinters and small cuts were a *****!”
Isn’t that more a testament to the strength of the bamboo and not the skill of the fighter:confused: ?
Try going to Home Depot, Lowes, or a lumber yard and look for 7 or 8 ft white pine rods (typically used for curatin rods).
no, I suck at kung fu and especially staff fighting, it was pretty much just a silly anecdote.
bamboo is not resistant to crushing blows perpendicular to the grain though. They would splinter up pretty quickly
rattan is springy and won’t break.
any dowel you get made of hardwood will snap like a twig when you use some force. The grain is where it will break with any significant contact. I’ve gone through many a dowel in this way.
So, really heavy oak or ash will last long. Rattan will last real long. Waxwood is springy too.
If the guy is just learning, then a dowel from the woodstore will do in teh meantime I think and for sure this is the cheapest and quickest alternative to getting the thing in hand.
yeah
what jotaro said…
Originally posted by Jotaro Joestar
Try going to Home Depot, Lowes, or a lumber yard and look for 7 or 8 ft white pine rods (typically used for curatin rods).
they would be fine for just form work and are cheap too. but, I’m trying to get something that will look better at demo’s and not immeidately break in staff sparring.
that will be where we go in the meantime while I source something nice.
ultimately I’d love to find a source for some turned waxwood longer than 6’.
now there was some crossposting 
I have an octagonal staff given to me as a gift by some students when I left my last school. I think it’s ash but I’m not sure. It’s nice and if it hadn’t ridden around in the back of my truck for several years, it’d still be straight too.
rattan: I don’t like sparring w/ rattan…too whippy. Hard to do chin na with it.
and, I dunno about staves, but I just bought 40 of Century’s nicest (most expensive) rattan arnis stick and have broken a dozen of them in training…snapped. I don’t remember this being the case years ago when I could keep a set of stick for quite a while before replacing them. so, I’m skeptical about what may be happening to the rattan market.
arnis sticks are much thinner and they tend to break easy.
If you can get the graphite rods for this you will notice a longer lasting arnis stick and a general higher quality in the composite.
Longer thicker rattan is better than that used in kali or arnis. Too thin. I know a few guys who tape them up until they have to get new ones.
screw this kung fu crap…I’m gonna just get me some of this action and [SIZE=4]POW[/SIZE] you guy’s will all be crispy critters
By The Sword has an 8 foot long hickory staff for $41, but its hickory.
great link, thanks.
that at least provides a base price for me when I go talk to this custom woodworker.
been poking around google but all the biggies have the same items WLE, Century, AWMA, MAMART.
looked for some hung gar specific stuff as we used to use a 9’ long pole.
uh, oso, I know they say thopse are magic wands, but I think that’s a front for home whittled sex toys really.