Hey everyone,
Can anyone please recommend a good supplier for escrima sticks, with reasonable prices, quality, etc? Thanks for your help!
Try Franks. Always been accomadating & cheap.
http://www.franksupply.com/rattan_poles.html#rattanwithskin
Yep, franks is good and cheap.
I prefer the ones "with skin", taking the skin off makes them kind of useless I think. Had a pair break in half in no time without the skins.
I remember when I would get a shipment in, I'd pick out a good pair for myself, then I'd get out the baby oil and turn on my stove and burn all of my sticks. The house would smell, but in a good way, when my wife would come home she would yell at me for stinking up the house.
Caution needs to be practiced with Baby Oil & Fire I have found, I damn near burnt the house down once. Try explaining that one to the Fire Dept.
Thanks guys. I will look into Franks. I don't have any experience with oiling and burning them myself, but it'll be fun to learn the craft.
I did some digging for a few other suppliers to see if I could get my hands on some bahi sticks. Can anyone comment on www.kalieskrima.com or www.bloodsport.com? There is another supplier in the UK, www.eskrimakaliarnis.com, anyone have good or bad with them? Just wondering if anyone had good or bad experiences with the above or if there are other sources.
bloodsport.com
buy a bag of his "ugly sticks"
I have a pair of sticks from Kombat Instruments. Good stuff.
Cheap prices, high quality, fast services. Highly recommend.
As said above, I like Kombat Instruments. Go to www.bloodsport.com I've gotten a couple of pairs from there and I've never been disappointed.
i 4th the suggestion of bloodsport.com. you can get different diameters & different lengths. good sticks cool guy.
Francisco
and again, bloodsport.com!
How much do rattan sticks cost in the US? Haven't bought a rattan stick there so I wouldn't know.
My buddies hooked up with some tribes in the provinces who have an abundance of rattan trees in their area. Fire-hardened good ones only cost us P60 per stick. That's like $1.25 per piece. :)
IMHO! Before you spend $$ on sticks, you have to ask yourself what are they to be used for????
You don't just go out and buy a saw? Different tools for different task's. You can get very light demo sticks for speed, that also work as an into to sparring between padded and combat sticks. You can get very solid heavy ones for solo work to develop forarm and wrist strength etc.
You may just want a medium all purpose stick, they won't last as long as the heavy duty ones and they will hurt a lot more then the demo's. But that's the trade of if you are not specific to what you want and why you want them.
The cheapest ones are the ones you make.
my2cents. Good luck bro
little shameless promotion
If you want sticks for just about anything and everything but fighting you can find the most durable sticks on the market @ http://www.Durattan.com =)
Normal MT, how did you oil and burn your sticks? Did you soak them in hot oil? I've always heard about oil treating sticks, but never actually heard how the process works
Skpotamus - Normal MT, how did you oil and burn your sticks? Did you soak them in hot oil? I've always heard about oil treating sticks, but never actually heard how the process works
Salt baths are also a common trick. Submerging them in salt water for a few days then allowing them to dry out makes them heavier. The water evaporates and the salt is left behind, inside of the stick.
ryangruhn -Hey Guys,Skpotamus - Normal MT, how did you oil and burn your sticks? Did you soak them in hot oil? I've always heard about oil treating sticks, but never actually heard how the process works
Salt baths are also a common trick. Submerging them in salt water for a few days then allowing them to dry out makes them heavier. The water evaporates and the salt is left behind, inside of the stick.
Just walked in the door from the gym, sorry I havent responded.
Yeah you get a large bottle of Baby Oil and soak a paper towel, or fold a couple together and soak them real good. Stand the sticks up on end and drip some oil onto the ends and it should soak down into them, then do the other side and rub the stick down with the rag until the whole stick is covered.
You have to use a gas stove and use the front burner up on high. Make sure you have wiped off any excess Baby Oil (i.e. dripping oil on a gas stove isnt pretty) because it may ignite, I know that the oily rag or paper towel sure will, LOL.
Place the stick on the burner and turn the stick slowly and move it forward alittle at a time while your doing it. It the stick flames up take it off of the burner and blow it out and then put it back on and move on.
You should be holding the other end with a cold wet rag because the stick "stovepipes" the heat down to the other end, but the rag will more then take care of that.
When you have burnt the first half of the stick, turn it over and do the other half. Its important that you dont scorch the stick so keep it moving while its on the flame. You can also rub the stick down in between the burning with a wet towel to cool it down so it wont damage the skin.
Keep all "Oily" towels and rags away from the stove, trust me on this, but other then that when you finish and the sticks cool down you can repeat the process and the sticks will get really nice and Tan with your own unique design. The smell from the burning is something akin to hard training smell only X10. sweet.
Dont be tempted to use the little propane torches because that will really scorch and damage the outer skin rather then "burnish" it.