(Except for the arms)
I never thought of making the body myself, and using wooden arms made from a professional wood crafter.
How do you make the holes square enough though? How do you EVER go about finding the right size wood, without having to cut down a 50 foot tree for 5 feet of wood? :p.
Did you use a SOLID piece of wood?
Thanks for the replies everyone :), but I was hoping there’d be more people who had bought there wooden dummies from someone, and has an opinion about their quality.
Hello
there are many ways to skin a cat (so to speak.) if you choose to make your own mook Jong.
Do you wish to make it out of PVC, or wood?
PVC is easier to make. First off go to a plumbing supply house. You need a 8 or 9 inch piece of PVC schedule 80 piping. (that’s if you choose to make a “traditional” PVC dummy)
(what an oxymoron!)
Draw your lines on the piping where you wish the arms&leg to be. (You can get the prints off the Internet.)drill your holes inside the square marks you made for the dummy arms. Take a jigsaw or saber saw and cut along the lines. (Stay inside the lines, you can always clean up later using a file.)
It takes time and patients But it is not hard to do.
Wood. can be made up or found depending on what you choose. You can glue up store bought wood and rounded corners off to make it round,by using a Sander or hand plain,OR ,You can go to a landscaping business or tree servers and see if they have any large limbs from trees, OR you can go to a phone pole yard, (Ameritech sells to the public used telephone poles , a few days every month, they normally sell them at 1 dollar for every six feet.)
How to make the square holes? That’s not hard either (but it takes a LOT of time.)
I personally prefer round holes over square.
Either which way, you will need to drill a hole through the body at the appropriate angles,if you choose to make holes square you can either file them, or chisel them. (In either which way you’re talking approximately 1 to 2 hours per whole.) For most mook Jong that is six hole’s. (3 arms, one leg, and to supporting stand holes.)
Another way to get a mook Jong, is to serve to want ads, eBay or other is Web searches.
In truth most people do not stick with anything for any length of time, this is true in Wingchun as well. Try to buy the use dummy.
I would bet that you can find it rather cheap, most people do not want a 3 armed tree stand (or coat rack) in their basement years after they stop training.
Anyhow it all depends on your WANTS,NEEDS, and MONEY supplying, as well as the time you are willing to spend to make your own dummy.
Good luck .
Sincerely. C.A.G.
I prefer the wooden look… and from what I read it is generally superior over the PVC because of weight, sound, etc.
I don’t think I possess the skill to build my own WOOD dummy though… Even if I do finish it I’m sure I will make some mistake that will be irreversible…
I think I’m going to get a dummy from www.woodendummy.net. I’ve seen posts about this company, and most have been pleased with the finished product. They’re also very reasonably priced, and use solid pieces of wood that seem in line with ‘tradition’.
I checked through every single wooden dummy related post and haven’t found one thread that has posters reccomending certain sites or whatever… except for one or two random posts that reccomend a certain website… but all of those are for other countries, so I assume it would cost too much to make it worthwhile to import a dummy to the USA.
Aynway, thanks for the replies everyone :). I think I’m just going to get a dummy from www.woodendummy.net unless I hear a substantial ammount of negative views about the quality of their jongs.
If anyone has an URL to a website with solid wood, traditionally created dummies for less than a 1000 dollars that they themselves have bought and approved the quality please drop a link.
Thanks again.
Let us know what you think of it when you get it 
curtis
if you have round arms…
-
how to you stop the arms from constantly rotating in their sockets?
-
how do they stay in the body properly even if you have blockers in the back?
or do you mean square arms with round holes?
in that case if it’s not oval will the arms still rotate? doesn’t it “feel” funny when hitting the arms?
I have gone round and round with people who suggest round holes- so I pass— I am a square guy on this one.
Curtis is right on one thing— lots of folks dont stick with wing chun and one can look for good used ones.
But if you are in the art for the long haul- best to get a good dummy that will last a long time, wont crack and is designed well.
If someome just wants to beat up on something- it wont matter-
I AM in it for the long haul… injuries permitting :p. I think most people would’ve quit by now, with the distance I need to go to get to my class… So I’m 99% sure I’ll be doing wing chun long enough to merit a dummy.
I would get one used, but I’m not sure if I can really trust the quality…
used is fine it’s not made of glass nor a collector’s item!
just make sure the wood has no cracks (you can use filler for them regardless) and no clumpy pits. make sure the finish is not dry but feels silky else it will dry and crack/peel later
as long as the wood is solid without cracks it will be ok. main thing is that body damage don’t matter much…make sure the arms are in good condition.
I got my wood from a fallen tree. It was already pretty round in XS and just needed some minor trimming with a drawknife. The holes took time. I didn’t have any fancy tools such as a drill press but just marked and cut everything carefully.
To get the holes square (i.e. right-angled), I marked where they had to enter front and back. Then put a small temporary nail in the centre of each hole mark, ran a chalk line between them right over the end of the dummy and nailed a batten onto the chalk mark on the dummy end. That way, when I was drilling the holes, I used the batten as a guide for squareness.
I didn’t even have saw horses or a workbench, so just rested the log between an old chair and an old bench while working on it, with a couple of chocks of scrap wood under each side to hold it in place. Simple, cheap and effective.
For drilling holes, I used spade bits and a cheap electic drill that cost $30. Drilled from one side and then the other, and they generally met close to each other in the middle. Then used chisels and wood rasp to get them square in cross section. The major expense was a set of wood chisels - $50. I couldn’t afford a mallet so used a section of a hardwood branch that I cut out bush and which worked well.
I couldn’t get square or rectangular XS timber of the right dimensions for the slats, so in the end just used round steel pipe (25mm ID, ~ 4mm wall thickness). I was grateful that I didn’t have to chisel 4 more square holes, too!
Bought the arms off a fellow student who’s a great woodturner. Made the leg out of a branch. Cut a square XS end on it using a tenon saw, chisels and rasp.
Making the PVC dummy was simple. I did it similar to how Curtis did, but didn’t even use a jigsaw - just used a manual keyhole saw that cost about $5, that you insert into a drilled hole to start the cut.
Made the frame out of secondhand hardwood that I got for free. Joins were half lap joints that I cut with a hand saw. Bolted it together with 3/8" galvanised bolts.
For me, making the wooden dummy was a lot of fun, and satisfying. I didn’t rush it and just enjoyed doing it when the weather was nice and I felt like spending some time under the large kurrajong tree in the back yard making some woodchips.
Cheers
Brithlor-
Check out Dave Lidell’s site. Click on “wooden dummies”.
He knows his woods. He is a good craftsman. He has the tools.
He is an engineer to boot and cares about precision on angles and fits. And he knows about dummies being durable- on the long run.
I have no financial investment in his work. I have several dummies including one made by Koo Sang who does not make dummies any more. But the best dummy I have was made by Dave.
He makes them individually and does not crank them out.
Az Wing Enterprises
<www.azwing.com>
Wooden Dummies
Thanks for the link I’ll make sure to look into those wooden dummies next time I have a chance…
Hello all
Empty cup
the tendons of the arms are easer MADE round, unles you want an exact Koo Sang dummy (the differance is the ARMS are offset, to bring the arms closer to same center.)
AnyHow if you make a flat on the back side of the dummy and then pin the arms the angle conbined with the flat will stop the arms from spining/rotateing. as I stated its all in how much work you want to put into it.
yuanfen thats a realy nice site .(azwing.com) thank you.
Brithlor good luck,and stick with it!
sincererly. C.A.G.
looks like that website is down.
What do you guys think of this wooden dummy:
http://www.knoxwingchun.com/dummy/
http://www.knoxwingchun.com/dummy/octaline.htm
Seems pretty cool… I like the idea of selling them cheaper in “kit form”.
I just checked–
<www.azwing.com>
is not down!
Brithlor have you checked out Wing Lam? there prices are in the middle of the road (so to speak) for Mook Jongs.
Ive never bought a dummy from them, But what I have bought from them is, nothing but the very best quality.
check out there web site at www.wle.com and look at the training eara.
C.A.G.
I WAS looking at this dummy:
http://www.wle.com//products/w102.html
But I see the EXACT SAME picture on other sites aswell, which kind of concerns me since obviously they are NOT the same kind of dummy :-/.
That dummy looks nice though.
Originally posted by yuanfen
[B]I just checked–
<www.azwing.com>
is not down! [/B]
Yeah its working again this morning.. last night it wouldn’t load for me. First site i’ve seen selling customised dummies… about same price as others sell standard ones for too, seems like a pretty good deal.
I think I’m just going to get the dummy from www.woodendummy.net
If anyone has negative or positive experiances with them now would be the time for input :).