I have one craft (red elm shift Cush) and absolutely love it, and the specs have been catching my eye, is it worth it to buy one and the cost of another tama for it?
Being “worth it” is hard to say because it’s pretty subjective, especially with the higher price. To start all Spectraply (Craft, GT, etc) are high quality dyed birch veneer laminates made by cwp. Personally I love spectraply specifically as well as solid birch and have a pretty extensive spec collection. They’ll play the same as the solid wood version but definitely have potential to break easier if you drop damas a lot or even one good one on a hard surface. That said, I’ve never babied mine and they hold up if you don’t abuse them but I could see the worry and stress of breaking it being a downside, especially considering the cost. I find spectraply to feel more fragile at first but over time as it soaks up some life and the birch breaks in, it seems to harden up in a way that’s hard to describe. A few big positives of spectraply kendamas (in my opinion) 1: the way they look of course. 2: very consistent weights within each color way, so you end up with a balanced ken and almost no chance of a sword heavy Ken or vice versa. 3: I’ve always loved the softness of birch and how it breaks in over time as I kinda said before. Hopefully some of that lengthy reply is helpful.
I got my first craft and it’s the rebel. I put the twofive tama by analog on top and burned some details to match the black layers. long term we’ll see how it holds up but it’s been dropped I don’t baby it beyond just trying to play it above soft ground. The drops have been on hard wood tho lol, my luck and it’s still not dented so take that with a grain of pepper. Before I continue let me add that I heated my ken up and did add beeswax mixed with food grade mineral oil. This added some weight to match my tama(it was heavy) and it immediately had more integrity in its structure imho. I think the price is justified by the quality craftsmanship and I would buy another one in the future aesthetic: 11/10 my best looking dama hands down. Playability: 10/10 I’m still a green bean in my opinion but I do juggle a lot and I enjoy hucking a ken flip 4-6 times to start off my juggles when practicing. I also earth turn practice a lot when sitting with people watching tv. That said I do “hone” my damas quickly and the craft has been holding up without a dent or chip yet!
Wow thank you for all of these very well thought out responses!! Y’all should start driving things now than ken cult kinda dropped off the face of the earth! Thanks again!!
Haha if I wasn’t such a green bean(started Halloween on a target prime) I would be down as a clown on the town during the day of 100 birthdays.