Hello everyone. Recently one of our own, Ray Baker, sent me a few exotic
wood hanbo to try out.
Well I have to say that they are really, really nice. Beautifully
crafted, smooth and weighted. I love the
look and feel of the exotic woods he used. Ray lives near Pittsburgh and
trains in our group there. He
has started selling these handcrafted weapons on ebay at:
http://stores.ebay.com/koryu-customs. Check
them out, they look really cool.

Here is what Ray has to say about his work..........



The thing I have tried to do to set myself apart is the finish. I sand
all the way up to automotive finish sandpaper, then give them a couple
coats of teak oil, so the finish can never chip or wear off....if they
get beat up, just sand the spot and rub on a little teak oil, and voila!
Right now I have a store on e-bay and the url is
http://stores.ebay.com/koryu-customs I mostly do hanbos, jos and have
just started doing some rokushakubo. I have one in curly ipe (which
rocks) and am working on one right now in the red bullet-but i need to
test it out to see if it will be an appropriate wood for such a big
staff-its a very hard and dense wood- whereas its very unlikely to ever
break, it may be liable to crack if used for heavy contact...so that
ones still in R & D, but im taking it to class tomorrow to give it a
good working over to see how it does..

So you see he tests out his weapons before selling them. They are
practical and beautiful !  Get some !


R/Phil

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