Well, carbon shinai have always been polarizing.
90% of the people either like it or hate it.
There aren´t that many people who are "meh" about it, or say there is no big difference compared to bamboo shinai.
My point of view?
Is it better then bamboo? -No.-
Is it a horrible thing nobody needs? -No.-
Do I need on? -Uhhhm, maybe?-
Should I buy one? -At least one, yes (a used one is absolutely OK!)-
Lets start at the very beginning.
Why are there Carbon shinai?
Endurance and money.
Of course, a carbon shinai will fetch your wallet about 300€.
That´s 5-10 times the price of a new bamboo shinai.
But, it will last about 30 times the life of its bamboo sibling (or longer).
My first one is about 10 years old now, and still in a very, very good condition.
Another point is safety.
A carbon shinai won´t split into these deadly splinters when it breaks.
Yes, bamboo will do ;)
Although I´ve (luckily) never seen anyone getting harmed by bamboo shinai splinter.
But,
I do have seen bamboo shinai crack into really "scary" splits:
The 2 carbon shinais I´ve seen split, haven´t been looking that dangerous....
(actually it was quite hard to tell that they have been broken.)
For a better understanding: How are carbon shinais build?
Lots of people tend to think, they are made 100% out of plastic/carbon.
Nope. They aren´t. Sorry...
The staves are basically nothing more then a wooden core with carbon graphite wrapping, everything is then encased in so called "high tech polymer" (or plastic).
If you´d cut a slice out of a stave, it would look something like this:
Nothing too fancy....
OK,
Besides the safety and money points, what are the downsides?
No.1 to me? The tsuka.
Even with a thick tsukagawa, the grip is almost slightly to small for my hands at it´s bottom.
Weirdly, the tsuka on the dobari version seems to be even a bit smaller then the normal one...
The grip is stated to be around 25mm in diameter, btw.
I don´t know why, but hasegawa decided not to sell other diameters then 25mm.
Although there are koban (oval) and hybrid (oval bottom, round top) tsukas available.
The second "downside" is the feeling of the shinai.
This is the point where you either like it or dislike it.
To me there is a distinctive difference in flexibility between bamboo and carbon.
And according to my impression, the carbon shinai have a much greater one then bamboo shinai.
Some people go as far as saying, they feel like a rubber or springy stick.
I don´t think it is that "bad". I think it is just a noticeable difference (it seems that I belong to the 10% who are neither "meh" nor "yay" about carbon shinai, I just use them).
Luckily, when I got filmed a few days ago and re-watched the video, I noticed a funny moment:
(Please excuse the bad quality though....)
 |
| This is what a carbon shinai looks when executing a basic kihon sho-men-uchi (parried by suriage...) |
One thing to mention!
I highly advice beginners against the use carbon shinai!
There are 2 good reasons for this:
No. one: Due to being not prone to breaking, carbon shinai tend to let us hit way to hard.
Hitting with good tenouchi and snap is the one thing, hitting too hard is the other.
Bamboo shinai usually prevent us from hitting to hard (they will just break or split apart...).
In my early days of kendo, after using a carbon shinai for a longer period and switching back again to bamboo shinai, I had a tremendous expenditure on new shinai.
They usually broke apart after (way to hard) do uchi.
It took me some time to realize where the problem was, but with time you´ll get the "right" feeling and I barely apply to much force anymore (because good bamboo shinai are expensive these days....).
No. two: Elbows. If your arm muscles aren´t properly trained for the force a shinai can apply to them while hitting, the "springy" nature of the carbon shinai will cause pain and even damage to your elbows. I could tell of numerous people who stopped using their carbon shinai due to this.
There should be at least a decent amount of keiko to build up the right skills and muscles before using these high tech surrogates.
Summary:
carbon > bamboo ?
Nope, in terms of use, they never have been nor will be.
In term of reliability? Yes, better then bamboo.
Unnecessary invention ?
Surely not, they have a place and right to exist in the world of kendo.
Also, the haven´t been approved from ZNKR for no reason.
Is there a need for one to own one ?
Nobody really needs a carbon shinai, but it should be at least considered for the regular keiko or as a back up shinai.
Should I buy one ?
Yes. If you have the money left over (Haha, we all have, right?) buy one.
Or if you have the opportunity to buy a cheap used one, go for it. They usually pay themselves of over time.
Closing word:
By no means pass on using bamboo shinai.
Bamboo is and will remain the real thing!
Ji-Geiko, shiai, shinza and keiko with higher sensei shall be done with bamboo shinai solely.
The only excuse for using carbon shinai here would be that all your bamboo shinai cracked up badly during the last 10 min (and it would be a hell of a bad excuse).
PS.: Feel free to comment or ask any questions :D
Your post has convinced me to try one. I dont know wheather to buy the normal or the dobari. What are the diferences between them in terms of handling and reliability? Any advice?
ReplyDeleteThank you
Hi Alex,
Deletethx for the message!
for choosing the right one, it´s the same as with normal shinai.
Use what you like, there´s no better shinai, each has it´s advantages of the other, but that doesn´t mean its better.
So if you are using dobari on a regular basis and are happy with that, then get the Dobari version and vis versa.
In case you really can´t choose, I´d say take the dobari, there´s nothing wrong with it.
To some people it may feel "faster" due to the slim tip, but in my mind it doesn´t matter very much.
Hope it helped, if any questions left, hit me up!
cheers.