Kendama Body (Ken)

A kendama body (without ball) because I enjoy kendama.

• Wood Lathe
• Wood Glue
• Wood Finish
• Drill
• Lathe Tools (Live end, cylindrical end chisel tool, wood chuck)
• Pine and Maple wood (dimensions vary based on what you have due to gluing)
• Miter Saw
• Band Saw
• Sand Paper

• I used 2x4 pine scrap pieces of wood.
• Cut your wood into three 7.5 inch long pieces using a miter saw.

• Glue the three pieces together keeping them as straight as possible.
• I used a vice for this step.

• Mark the center of the wood block after gluing..
• Do this by using a ruler and a pencil and tracing along the corners.
• Use a bandsaw to take the corners off each side to make the block turn better on the lathe.

• Using the wood chuck, begin to turn the base cup.
• It does not need to be to deep, I went about have an inch in diameter.

• After turning out the base cup, move the block into a live end so you can turn the wood.
• Turn the wood into a cone shape that is thinnest, and farthest from the base cup.
• Make sure not to go to thin and break the block.
• Add interesting ribs and lines.
• Once the shape you want is acquired, take the block off the chuck and use a chisel to press off the excess wood on the end of the thin end.
• Sand the thin end to remove harsh edge.

• I used maple 2x4s scrap wood for this step.
• Cut the wood to roughly 3.5 inches.
• Keep the wood straight and glue them together with a vice or clamp.

• Mark the center of the wood and the diameter of the big and little cups.
• The big cup should be about 1.3 inches (measured with caliper) in diameter and the little cup would be about 1 inch in diameter.
• Take the block to the band saw and take of the corners until the block is more cylindrical.

• Put the wood block in the chuck and turn out the smaller cup.
• Put the wood block on the other side of the chuck and turn out the big cup.
• Turn the wood down in the middle to a parabular shape.

On the second piece there needs to be a tapered hole so it can slide onto the cone shaped first piece.

To do this,

• You can Use a drill to create a hole then a cylindrical wood file to taper the hold at the bottom.
• Or, use a taper drill bit, but I did not have access to a tapered drill bit.

• Sand the wood. I used 150 grit to maintain some of the grit of the wood so it could catch the ball better.
• Finish with wood stain.

• Glue the pieces together if desired.
• This step is preference based.