Pine Mook Jong

[Toby]

Originally posted by Mat
I studied wood chemistry and stuff and believe me, you DO NOT want to repeatedly punch anything that has been soaked in creosote!

Yeah, that didn't sound good to me either. In Oz you can get old phone poles that aren't treated - good hardwood ones. They're probably rare as hens teeth nowadays. My parents used them as verandah posts and roof supports in a house they built. Newer ones are treated (with whatever they use in Oz) and I wouldn't want to be hitting that every day.

[Matrix]

I knew that creosote was carcinogenic. Here's something I just found on the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry site , with respect to this substance.

How likely is creosote to cause cancer?
Long-term exposure, especially direct contact with skin during wood treatment or manufacture of coal tar creosote-treated products, to low levels of creosote has resulted in skin cancer and cancer of the scrotum. Cancer of the scrotum in chimney sweeps has been associated with long-term skin exposure to soot and coal tar creosotes. Animal studies have also shown skin cancer from skin exposure to coal tar products.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has determined that coal tar creosote is probably carcinogenic to humans. The EPA has also determined that coal tar creosote is a probable human carcinogen.

[Airdrawndagger]

woodendummy.com has a very good website for jongs for sale. They custom design them and use Teakwood(a type of hardwood) from Asia. Has anyone heard of this type of wood? Any advice would be appreciated, im in the market for a jong!

[wingchunner]

We have excellent dummies made. You can order them via this website:

http://www.immortalpalm.com

Marty

[Jeff Bussey]

Hey everyone,
Just wanted to continue this on this thread.
Well,

I bought a mook jong!
I took everyone's advice on this thread and while I was mulling it over in my head what to do (about a month and a half ago) a local guy who built our club's mook jong said he'd make 2 more. The one we've got in the club is great, I think it's about 6 or 7 years old, has taken alot of abuse and it looks like brand new.
He makes them out of Maple and Birch. On top of that, he only charged me $950 (Canadian) which IMO and from the other mook jongs that I've seen on the net, he probably could have charged double that.
Anyways, I'm pretty excited because he called me last night to say that it's ready. I'm hoping I can pick it up this weekend.

So anyways, I just wanted to say thanks for all the info.

Now, I've got a mounting question

Do any of you guys have any photos of how you mounted your mook jongs?
I'm trying to decide if I want to put it in a fixed place or use a portable stand.
I'm wondering if a portable stand may move when you are doing your form.

thanks again,

J

[pvwingchun]

My body is made of pine and my arms are maple, which is a very hard dense wood. The biggset problem I have had is with the arms being hard and the body soft is that over time the arm holes or slots have tended to loosen up some. The body and arms are treated with tung oil which was kind of sticky at first but once it dried thouroughly it has a nice finish on it.

John

[Mr Punch]

BTW I think maple and birch are both pretty inert as timber, but they both contain salicylic acid whilst growing so if there is any effect it should have mild pain relieving properties!!! (Salicylic acid is the main component of aspirin!)

[Toby]

Do any of you guys have any photos of how you mounted your mook jongs?
I'm trying to decide if I want to put it in a fixed place or use a portable stand.
I'm wondering if a portable stand may move when you are doing your form.

No photos, but I put mine up on the std post and rail setup. To do that you need the holes for the rails to slot through though. They were the last holes I put through the trunk, so I didn't have an issue with lining them up just right, but they are (IMHO) the most difficult to get right, primarily because they're offset off the centre line (mine are 40mm behind the centre line so my dummy's centre of gravity is forward of the rails it rests on). I certainly wouldn't want to do them first of all the holes I did (I did the lower arm first, since that's the easiest).

My whole setup weighs a tonne, probably at least 100kg all up, maybe 120kg, so there's no issues with it moving around too much, although it will "rock" and bounce on the rails a bit. My sidai has his mounted on brackets fixed to the wall. The way he has the brackets means his is free to move around a bit.

[curtis]

Hello guys, And Kathy Jo. ;-)

this is a great topic.
although Ide like to let everyone know the terms Hard woods and soft woods and a somewhat a misnomer.
not all SOFT woods are soft, Yellow pine is very hard, and balsa wood is a hard wood.
I could go one... but the best woods for a dummy is a dense wood, something that will hold up to the shock and damage it will receive in the normal use of playing with the dummy.
at our school I made the first dummy out of yellow pine 20 years ago, since then the dummy has gone through two sets of arms (first oak ones and now hard maple ones) the yellow pine holds up very nicely, but I agree that Oak, Ash, hard maple, and others dense woods are the best woods for this job.

I was asked to repair a Chinese made mook jong, the wood was support to be teak, (which is a very good wood of choice,) but either is wasn't teak or they just used a bad piece of teak, the wood had rot and was damaged, the owner didn't notice until something (be accident) hit and damaged the body.
You need to be careful when buying a dummy, the name and where it came from isn't always the key factor. There are lots of good people out there who make dummies ranging in price from pennies the thousands of dollars, My advice ,IS to do your homework and ask for references,(people who have bought there produce before) it wont make sure that you will get exactly what you are looking for, but it will help.
As I see it the biggest factor out there is money, Nothing is free, and it cost money to make a good product, but all to many people are in it just for the money, and don't care about the quality.SO you do need to be careful, when buying anything of quality, that you plan to have around for many years.
That's just my two cents.
sincerely.
C.A.G.

[curtis]

"O" Sorta a post scriptum.(P.S.) Jeff Bussey Im glad to here you found a good dummy. Although I wish I could find someone like you to buy some of the dummys I make, Most of the people who want to buy a dummy I find, would conplain if I gave mine away for FREE , conplaining that I wouldnt deliver it! ;-)

Nothing is Free, and You get what you pay for! Im glad to hear you got what you wanted.

[Mr Punch]

although Ide like to let everyone know the terms Hard woods and soft woods and a somewhat a misnomer.
not all SOFT woods are soft, Yellow pine is very hard, and balsa wood is a hard wood.

True. but i don't want to start going into the differences between them in parenchyma, tyloses, exudates etc right now! But for the consumer, you do have a very good point, though I hope that nobody's trying to pass off a balsa jong as a durable hardwood!!!

but the best woods for a dummy is a dense wood

Yep.

I made the first dummy out of yellow pine 20 years ago...

Still don't really like pine. Sure the exudates have some antiseptic properties but they're probably not good to ingrain into minor abrasions of your skin over some time

the wood was support to be teak, (which is a very good wood of choice,) but either is wasn't teak or they just used a bad piece of teak...

There are approximately 170 woods known regionally or internationally as 'teak'. It's a very good marketing tool. It doesn't mean whichever one it is is automatically going to be the best timber. Plus we have to look at rot factors and climate and all that, so basically, if you're not in the same part of the world as the wood comes from the chances are it will deteriorate quicker, or with more warp even after drying or whatever.

[curtis]

Toby
Have you figured out how you want to mount your dummy?

in not check out http://www.little-raven.com there Unistand Accessories
stand is nice.

you can also check out Great Lion.http://www.woodendummy.net/intro.html

they have a number of stands.

It all depends on what you want and need from your dummy.
Ive made around 15 different kinds of stands over the years. it all depends what you want. each stand has its highlights and its draw backs. Again its your preferance.

Good luck in your chooseing. :-)
Talk to you latter.

[Toby]

curtis, it was Jeff who was asking, not me .

Anyway, it's a nice day so I went outside and took a snap of mine. Unfortunately, the day was too nice and so there are a bunch of shadows on it. But you can see how mine is mounted Jeff - pretty much the way I see most of them mounted. I've also seen the corner ones, which are pretty cool if you have a nice corner somewhere. And ones mounted in a tyre rim and tyre, which I don't like so much. Also ones with two sideways braces and a back brace directly underneath the dummy (like the tyre idea). The leg supports any forward rocking. The ones (like the last two) with a small "footprint" aren't stable enough IMHO. I like a nice big base to support any movement.

[Jeff Bussey]

Hey Toby,
Thanks for the pic!!
I haven't seen that kind of mount before (I don't get out much ) It looks pretty cool.
Do you have any problems with it moving around when you do the form?

J

[Jeff Bussey]

Hey Curtis,
Any chance you took any photos of the stands you built?
I'd love to see some of them if you do.
J