Home made Indian Clubs

A few days ago, I sent Paul Taras Wolkowinski an email, telling him about my home made Indian Clubs. He invited me to do a feature on his web site. I am a show and tell kind of guy. I like to illustrate everything with lots of visual aids. So here are some picture and video.

My name is Andrew Vogelsang. I live in Durban, South Africa. Durban enjoys a sub-tropical climate. January is the hottest time of the year. That is why you will see me running around like a half-naked savage in some of the videos and pictures.

In September of last year, I read a blog written by Thierry Sanchez, describing the benefits of swinging Indian clubs. So I decided to make myself some clubs using plastic bottles, ping pong balls and dowel rods.

I am an industrial chemist, and work for a company that makes urea formaldehyde resins. So I filled the bottles with UF resin. But cement paste would work equally well.

I sliced the ping pong ball (like slicing a hard boiled egg) and filled it with an epoxy paste adhesive. I then pushed this on top of the dowel rod, and removed the epoxy that was squeezed out.

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My first attempts to swing clubs were very awkward and clumsy.  My wife (bless her) recorded these attempts for posterity.

Whenever I watch them, I think of the Portsmouth Sinfonia! (Google Portsmouth Sinfonia, and listen to some of their music. You will see what I mean!)

I found Paul’s video tutorials on how to do basic swings and transitions. These are the best instructions I have seen. I studied them diligently. I can now do many of the movements that he does. He is an excellent teacher! You can see me doing basic swings and transitions using the small clubs in the video, starts at 1.13.

The green clubs weigh about 1.5 kg. Soon after I made them, I recorded some video which starts at 4.40, the vision demonstrates how effective club swinging is for working the deltoids and trapezius muscles.

Coconut Wood Indian Clubs

Last week I had to cut down a 30 year old coconut palm in my garden. This is what the palm looked like in September 2013.

Coconut palm in January 2014

Coconut Palm is gone

I have always admired the coco wood flooring I have seen in hotels on tropical islands, and wondered whether I could use my palm to make Indian clubs.

Coconut Palm difficult grain

The wood from palms is very different compared to that from trees. Palms do not have annual growth rings. They grow from the inside out. The core is soft, like carrots or potatoes. When it dries, it has a very low density. The outer part is hard and tough, like marine plywood. When it dries, it has a very high density. A tree on the other hand, grows from just beneath the bark. The inner wood (the heartwood) is essentially dead, i.e. it does not grow at all. The heartwood normally has a higher density than the sapwood.

Most of the fibres in a palm are aligned parallel to the trunk (to resist bending forces). But there are layers of fibres that run at 45º to the trunk. These fibres resist the twisting movement the palm is subjected to when the wind blows unevenly on the canopy. These fibres cause trouble when carving palm wood.

Coconut Palm billets cut with a bow saw

Coconut Palm shaping the clubs with a knife

Here you can see my coco clubs after rough shaping. I have to wait for the clubs to attain equilibrium moisture content, before doing the final shaping, sanding and varnishing.

The clubs on the far right are actually bits of broom handle. I use them for practicing moves before committing to heavier clubs. But they are too long to practice fancy moves, because I sometimes hit myself in the head. I needed a pair of short, light clubs for that. So I focused my attention on the small clubs, (the pair next to the broom handles) and weighed them every day until they stopped losing weight.

I did the final shaping and sanding. I used an old triple beam balance to ensure that both clubs had approximately the same weight after shaping and sanding.

One club weighed 322 grams, the other weighed 325 grams. They are about 400 mm in length.

This is what they look like after a coat of varnish. The clubs look like they are made out of two different woods.

The left hand picture shows the side that was closest to the core. It has a very dramatic and handsome grain pattern. The large fibres have a silvery blond appearance in sunlight. As you tilt the club, the appearance changes, like tiger’s eye. The transition is from silvery blond to a light grey. This optical effect is called chatoyance.

I turned the clubs through 180º on their axes and took the right hand picture. Here you can see the side that faced the outside of the trunk. It has a finer grain that runs parallel to the direction of the club. It does not show the tiger’s eye effect of the other side.

Coconut Clubs fibres with grey appearance

Coconut Clubs fibres with silver appearance

 

The two pictures on the above show the tiger’s eye effect as the club is tilted to catch light. The change is from a pale grey (or grey brown) to a silvery blond.

When the high density side is tilted to catch the light, some fibres that have penetrated the surface become reflective. The effect is like the eyes on a peacock’s tail!

The remaining 2 pairs of clubs have a primitive savage kind of feel to them. Maybe I will leave them as they are. They are quite comfortable to swing, even the ones with the octagonal shape. I will use them on those days I pretend to be a cave man. Rawrr!

Footnote: A few months ago, when I knew I was hooked, I asked Mike Simpson to make me a pair of Izzy Barish Replica clubs – the IB2 and IB3 in his catalogue. I asked him to send the clubs to my daughter in London, which he did. She will be returning to South Africa at the end of this month, and will bring the clubs back in a container with her other possessions. So I should have some real clubs to play around with soon!