My body is made of pine and my arms are maple, which is a very hard dense wood. The biggset problem I have had is with the arms being hard and the body soft is that over time the arm holes or slots have tended to loosen up some. The body and arms are treated with tung oil which was kind of sticky at first but once it dried thouroughly it has a nice finish on it.
John
BTW I think maple and birch are both pretty inert as timber, but they both contain salicylic acid whilst growing so if there is any effect it should have mild pain relieving properties!!! 
(Salicylic acid is the main component of aspirin!)
No photos, but I put mine up on the std post and rail setup. To do that you need the holes for the rails to slot through though. They were the last holes I put through the trunk, so I didn’t have an issue with lining them up just right, but they are (IMHO) the most difficult to get right, primarily because they’re offset off the centre line (mine are 40mm behind the centre line so my dummy’s centre of gravity is forward of the rails it rests on). I certainly wouldn’t want to do them first of all the holes I did (I did the lower arm first, since that’s the easiest).
My whole setup weighs a tonne, probably at least 100kg all up, maybe 120kg, so there’s no issues with it moving around too much, although it will “rock” and bounce on the rails a bit. My sidai has his mounted on brackets fixed to the wall. The way he has the brackets means his is free to move around a bit.
Hello guys, And Kathy Jo. 
this is a great topic.
although Ide like to let everyone know the terms Hard woods and soft woods and a somewhat a misnomer.
not all SOFT woods are soft, Yellow pine is very hard, and balsa wood is a hard wood.
I could go one… but the best woods for a dummy is a dense wood, something that will hold up to the shock and damage it will receive in the normal use of playing with the dummy.
at our school I made the first dummy out of yellow pine 20 years ago, since then the dummy has gone through two sets of arms (first oak ones and now hard maple ones) the yellow pine holds up very nicely, but I agree that Oak, Ash, hard maple, and others dense woods are the best woods for this job.
I was asked to repair a Chinese made mook jong, the wood was support to be teak, (which is a very good wood of choice,) but either is wasn’t teak or they just used a bad piece of teak, the wood had rot and was damaged, the owner didn’t notice until something (be accident) hit and damaged the body.
You need to be careful when buying a dummy, the name and where it came from isn’t always the key factor. There are lots of good people out there who make dummies ranging in price from pennies the thousands of dollars, My advice ,IS to do your homework and ask for references,(people who have bought there produce before) it wont make sure that you will get exactly what you are looking for, but it will help.
As I see it the biggest factor out there is money, Nothing is free, and it cost money to make a good product, but all to many people are in it just for the money, and don’t care about the quality.SO you do need to be careful, when buying anything of quality, that you plan to have around for many years.
That’s just my two cents.
sincerely.
C.A.G.
“O” Sorta a post scriptum.(P.S.) Jeff Bussey Im glad to here you found a good dummy. Although I wish I could find someone like you to buy some of the dummys I make, Most of the people who want to buy a dummy I find, would conplain if I gave mine away for FREE , conplaining that I wouldnt deliver it!
Nothing is Free, and You get what you pay for! Im glad to hear you got what you wanted.
Good post Curtis.
True. but i don’t want to start going into the differences between them in parenchyma, tyloses, exudates etc right now! But for the consumer, you do have a very good point, though I hope that nobody’s trying to pass off a balsa jong as a durable hardwood!!! :o
but the best woods for a dummy is a dense wood
Yep.
I made the first dummy out of yellow pine 20 years ago…
Still don’t really like pine. Sure the exudates have some antiseptic properties but they’re probably not good to ingrain into minor abrasions of your skin over some time
the wood was support to be teak, (which is a very good wood of choice,) but either is wasn’t teak or they just used a bad piece of teak…
There are approximately 170 woods known regionally or internationally as ‘teak’. It’s a very good marketing tool. It doesn’t mean whichever one it is is automatically going to be the best timber. Plus we have to look at rot factors and climate and all that, so basically, if you’re not in the same part of the world as the wood comes from the chances are it will deteriorate quicker, or with more warp even after drying or whatever.
Toby
Have you figured out how you want to mount your dummy?
in not check out http://www.little-raven.com there Unistand Accessories
stand is nice.
you can also check out Great Lion.http://www.woodendummy.net/intro.html
they have a number of stands.
It all depends on what you want and need from your dummy.
Ive made around 15 different kinds of stands over the years. it all depends what you want. each stand has its highlights and its draw backs. Again its your preferance.
Good luck in your chooseing. 
Talk to you latter.
curtis, it was Jeff who was asking, not me ;).
Anyway, it’s a nice day so I went outside and took a snap of mine. Unfortunately, the day was too nice and so there are a bunch of shadows on it. But you can see how mine is mounted Jeff - pretty much the way I see most of them mounted. I’ve also seen the corner ones, which are pretty cool if you have a nice corner somewhere. And ones mounted in a tyre rim and tyre, which I don’t like so much. Also ones with two sideways braces and a back brace directly underneath the dummy (like the tyre idea). The leg supports any forward rocking. The ones (like the last two) with a small “footprint” aren’t stable enough IMHO. I like a nice big base to support any movement.
Hey Toby,
Thanks for the pic!!
I haven’t seen that kind of mount before (I don’t get out much ) It looks pretty cool.
Do you have any problems with it moving around when you do the form?
J
Hey Curtis,
Any chance you took any photos of the stands you built?
I’d love to see some of them if you do.
J
Most of ours are mounted like that - I just copied the ones in the kwoon. I guess the main difference between mine and the conventional one is the diagonal supports. I presume these are there to stop the frame collapsing like a parallelogram. That’s not possible with mine since the crossbeams are very tightly inserted all the way through the 4x4 uprights in a mortise and tenon joint. I.e. I had to hammer them for some time to get the joints together. The diagonal supports also would add some stiffness and strength to the crossbeams, although again I overengineered and they are 75mm x 30mm.
No way. Like I said earlier the whole thing weighs a tonne. I can pick it up with great difficulty (and I regularly deadlift 350lb so I have a scale of reference to compare with). It won’t move backwards because the wall stops the feet. Potplants help stop it going sideways or forwards (but it wouldn’t happen anyway). There is a nice bit of movement in the whole thing (flex-wise) but certainly not as much as some of the lightweight dummies I’ve worked on. You can also rock it a bit but again, it’s so heavy that it’s in no danger of falling over (plus I’ve got a pretty wide base on it - each upright base is 22" x 22" and the leg acts as a forward support too).
Hello Yes I have a few pix. of different dummies and stands.
One big problem, Is how do you post pix. on this forum?
I have one pix. of some portable dummies on stands. I have a two dummy stand. A wall unit at the kwoon that is suspended on cables, it holds three dummies.( the height can be adjusted for a child to a large man.)
As Ive said earlier Ive made around 15 different types of dummy stands. (I dont have pictures of most of them. Im sorry.) but I do still have my notes.
Ive used a plywood base, that your weight holds the dummy on the ground,(Its similar to Ravens stand.)
Ive used 1" steel plate and wielded posts to the plate, and then mounted it.
Ive made corner units, that only use up wasted space.
Ive even made one that hangs down from a I beam.
It all depends on the persons living conductions, Apartment ,house. basement or garage, perment, or mobile base… again it depends on the persons wants and needs.
tell me your e-mail address and I can send you any/ all the pix. I have.
Or better yet tell me how to add an attachment to this forum? and I can post a few here.
Or if you like I have a picture posted at http://www.legacywoodworking.com/
Go the the artest collum, and look up my name. I have three dummys and an artical about the mook jongs. you can see a concreat tire moble base that I like to make, its cheep and easy to make. plus it works rather well, for a moble base.
check it out!
Have a good night.
Hello again
this might be easer to use http://www.legacywoodworking.com/galleryItem.cfm?project=56
It gos directly to the page.
these dummys are my minni mook jongs. thay are the dummys I like to make the best. some people like them, some dont.
the buyer gets whatever thay want to pay for.
The only problem is I dont ship them, so you need to pick up the dummys or be local to my eara.
thats the Detroit. Mi.
Hey Curtis!
Your worksmanship looks great! Just one question though. Your arms don’t look like they are “loose-fitted.” Do they have any movement or “play” in them?
Keith
Good morning!
Yes thay have some play, the dummys in the pictures have round mortices, not square,Thay are easer to make, the tendons on the arms are 1 1/2" and the mortice in 40mm appx. 2/32" differance. another trick with these dummys is, thay are hung by the use of punchpress springs, so the body also has some play as well in it. this give them a real nice feel, somemovement but its firm.
Sifu Phil Redmond has played with them, He has stated how he liked the feel.
Again as the pix. stated on the Legacy web site, these are my dezine, and what I like to make, there are few reasions why. first I like these little guys, and second I can make 4 minni-mook jongs out of the same wood thay I need to use to make one full sized dummy. and to BOOT . I also make a nice leg that can be added to the stand.
Now no one has asked the price Yet but. I normaly sell to just Our students (WCD) but I as open to anyone, (as long as thay pick it up) for $400.00 stand and all, the buyer has a choice of tire stand or plywood, others can be supplied but thats some what extea. Plus one more thing that some buyers like, is I make two dummys at the same time, so If you have a school you can buy two dummys that are exactly the same. (twins!)
I just finished making a verry nice set of walnut dummys, and am now makeing a Mahogany one. the head dressings varry Thats art work, but crown or bead… Just adds a touch of class, makeing a useable tool into a peice of furniture, Mook jongs made for the front room not the basement.
Have a good day.