# how do you dry boards for breaking?



## kkickin diva

1. heat the oven to 120
2. stick boad in for 3 hours
3. take board out
4. board is ready to break


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## Kreth

5. Wear T-Shirt at demo with "Cheap Parlor Trick" on front.


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## elder999

_How do you dry boards for breaking?_

I don't. 

In fact, when we've done public demonstrations (which has been a while...) I've made a point of _having materials for tameshiwari delivered on the spot, so everyone knows that they haven't been tampered with....
....at least, not by *me*._


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## clfsean

kkickin diva said:


> 1. heat the oven to 120
> 2. stick boad in for 3 hours
> 3. take board out
> 4. board is ready to break



1 - Go to Lowe's or Home Depot
2 - Buy lumber appropriate for demo
3 - Go to demo site & cut to appropriate dimensions in public
4 - Make sure your technique is up to snuff before Step 3 is agreed on & Steps 1 & 2 are completed.
5 - Break boards without hesitation.
6 - BE HONEST ABOUT IT!!!!!!!!!!!


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## clfsean

Kreth said:


> 5. Wear T-Shirt at demo with "Cheap Parlor Trick" on front.



Although I did learn from Bud an old trick for "cutting banana's in pieces without cutting the peel".


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## Kreth

clfsean said:


> Although I did learn from Bud an old trick for "cutting banana's in pieces without cutting the peel".


That's a good one to show people who ask stupid "dim mak" questions. :lol:


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## clfsean

Kreth said:


> That's a good one to show people who ask stupid "dim mak" questions. :lol:



Yep. Or more appropriately... "Can a ninja really kill somebody with a sword & not leave a mark?"... 

Sure we can bub... come right over here & look what happens to this innocent banana when I answer silly questions like yours... 

PT Barnum knew something...


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## tellner

clfsean said:


> Although I did learn from Bud an old trick for "cutting banana's in pieces without cutting the peel".


 
Hmm, serious potential for a Women's Self Defense Demo %-}


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## Tames D

Dry the boards? I soak them in water for 24 hours prior to breaking.


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## Flying Crane

I reinforce boards and bricks with industrial grade epoxy, rebar, rusty nails, and bits of broken glass.


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## Tames D

Flying Crane said:


> I reinforce boards and bricks with industrial grade epoxy, rebar, rusty nails, and bits of broken glass.


Well yeah... me too. Then I soak them in water for 24 hours prior to breaking.


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## Flying Crane

QUI-GON said:


> Well yeah... me too. Then I soak them in water for 24 hours prior to breaking.


 
ah, that much was a given.  My mistake!


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## exile

We don't break boards. Our yellow belts start with I-beams and have to stay at that rank till they get tough enough to break them. 

We like to go to construction sites where the macho guys in hard hats are sunning themselves and making snarky comments to passing coeds, and smash all the beams they're supposed to be putting up into tangled ferric spaghetti. Then we line up and look menacingly at them. It works every time...

Sorry, the orderly says I have to get off the ward computer now....


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## crushing

We don't break boards or I-beams, but we do take the boards and I-beams that others break and fuse them back together with high intensity chi balls.  Then, of course, we return the boards and I-beams to be broken again.  This recycling helps to save the rain forests and rain ore mines.


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## jks9199

Please...

Boards. eh...

Bricks. Barely an improvement.

Steel I-beams. Barely so-so.

Last time my students did any breaking, they ended up leaving a ditch behind.


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## Bob Hubbard

I use OSB flake board, minimum 3/4", straight from Lowes to my demo area. 

It's a bit better with some laminate on top.

Prep is the same as WCW used to do for the table matches........


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## Brandon Fisher

I don't dry boards or tamper with them at all.  My preference for breaking materials is multiple (3 or more) 2in thick patio blocks or Lousville Slugger baseball bats.  Don't cheat on this stuff it just makes the public think that martial artists are just a bunch of fakes.


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## tellner

Brandon Fisher said:


> I don't dry boards or tamper with them at all.  My preference for breaking materials is multiple (3 or more) 2in thick patio blocks or Lousville Slugger baseball bats.  Don't cheat on this stuff it just makes the public think that martial artists are just a bunch of fakes.



Next question Flying Circus of Physics time:

Do you put spacers between the bricks?


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## Brandon Fisher

tellner said:


> Next question Flying Circus of Physics time:
> 
> Do you put spacers between the bricks?


Just had to ask that one didn't ya LOL . Yes I do use spacers but very thin ones the twist to it is that I also use a metro phone book on top of them which absorbs a lot of the power before it hits the brick puts alot of shock back into my shoulder though.


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## terryl965

*Boards don't hit back*, sorry could'nt resist


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## bluekey88

Boards don't hit people...guys holding boards hit people.


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## CDKJudoka

bluekey88 said:


> Boards don't hit people...guys holding boards hit people.




Yes, they use the boards to feint, and then hit them with chi balls from their feet.


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## elder999

bluekey88 said:


> Boards don't hit people...guys holding boards hit people.


 

Boards don't kill-caved in skulls and severed spines kill....:lfao:


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## JadeDragon3

clfsean said:


> 1 - Go to Lowe's or Home Depot
> 2 - Buy lumber appropriate for demo
> 3 - Go to demo site & cut to appropriate dimensions in public
> 4 - Make sure your technique is up to snuff before Step 3 is agreed on & Steps 1 & 2 are completed.
> 5 - Break boards without hesitation.
> 6 - *BE HONEST ABOUT IT!!!!!!!!*


 
I agree with this.....*be honest about it.* 
I mean come on, most board breaking demos are done with half inch pine boards.  Why do you need to dry them? If ya can't break half inch pine boards then there's a problem.....LOL.  Even drying out patio tiles for breaking seems ridiculous to me.  I will admitt though that bricks and patio tiles that are wet are a ***** to break.


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## cdunn

JadeDragon3 said:


> I agree with this.....*be honest about it.*
> I mean come on, most board breaking demos are done with half inch pine boards. Why do you need to dry them? If ya can't break half inch pine boards then there's a problem.....LOL. Even drying out patio tiles for breaking seems ridiculous to me. I will admitt though that bricks and patio tiles that are wet are a ***** to break.


 
We bought a bunch of "1 inch" boards (aka real 3/4") from whatever lumber yard once to stock for a tournament, and everyone had to use them. They were green enough that when you held them, your hands got sticky from the sap. They were very unforgiving - There was a board floating around somewhere that had some teen girl's fistprint embedded in it. It was a good day, we kept the leftovers for testing.


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## tellner

One of the most impressive breaking demos I ever saw was courtesy of Bill de Thoaurs. Many years back my first Silat teacher took me to see him when he did a seminar in Central Oregon. After the lunch break he asked me to go get a rock from the parking lot. Central Oregon is well-supplied with rocks. I got a round hard stone a little small than my two fists. 

He put it in his left palm and gave it a whipping, loose-wristed smack with his right hand. The rock shattered. 

That's infinitely more impressive than any number of pine boards, cinder blocks or ceramic tile.


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## IcemanSK

I've never heard of anyone admitting to drying out boards for breaking.


Never done it. Never needed to.


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## Brandon Fisher

tellner said:


> One of the most impressive breaking demos I ever saw was courtesy of Bill de Thoaurs. Many years back my first Silat teacher took me to see him when he did a seminar in Central Oregon. After the lunch break he asked me to go get a rock from the parking lot. Central Oregon is well-supplied with rocks. I got a round hard stone a little small than my two fists.
> 
> He put it in his left palm and gave it a whipping, loose-wristed smack with his right hand. The rock shattered.
> 
> That's infinitely more impressive than any number of pine boards, cinder blocks or ceramic tile.


WOW!!  I saw C.S. Kim do something similar but not limp handed.  I agree someone that can do that is very impressive.


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## exile

Brandon Fisher said:


> WOW!!  I saw C.S. Kim do something similar but not limp handed.  I agree someone that can do that is very impressive.



I agree. I cannot imagine anything more difficult in the 'breaking' category than cracking a compact, irregularly shaped stone. 

The thing to remember, though, is that breaking may be impressive, but its ultimate benefit isn't to impress, but to quantify your skill at delivering striking impact accurately. It's a way to measure your progress in a particular direction. A board you break is a unit of impact-delivery skill, that's all. You can chart your progress in this area, just as in other areas, by increasing your numbers. Increasing your bench press from 275 to 300 reflects a significant increase in your upper body strength.  Increasing the height of the bar on the poles you're trying to vault over reflects an increase in your explosive leg-strength, balance and flexibility skills. Increasing the angle of your side kick reflects an increase in strength and flexibility in your hip flexor/quadruceps muscle system. It's all a measure of increase in some skill and/or physical capability. That's really all board-breaking measures, and my hunch is, it really does reflect an improvement in the specific things required to break a board: accuracy, focus, power.


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## Brandon Fisher

I agree I used to be able to break the bottom board of the stack 4 boards high no spacers but haven't been able to do that for a long time and even then it was inconsistent at best.  I remember when I couldn't break 1 board now to what I can though I have never tried more then 5 at a time so I really don't know how much I could do if I really trained with tameshiwari.


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## geezer

tellner said:


> Next question Flying Circus of Physics time:
> 
> Do you put spacers between the bricks?


 
I tried it both ways. The best thing I ever came up with was stacking three or four bricks or pavers and then breaking only one of the ones in the middle. I'd let a volunteer pick the one to break to show that it wasn't a trick...which _of course_ it was, and _no_ I'm not revealing how I did it. But it sure wasn't skill!  Anyway I only performed it a few times for friends. That's because bricks cost money, and if I really had to break a bunch of 'em, I'd buy a hammer!!!


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## Laurentkd

geezer said:


> I tried it both ways. The best thing I ever came up with was stacking three or four bricks or pavers and then breaking only one of the ones in the middle. I'd let a volunteer pick the one to break to show that it wasn't a trick...which _of course_ it was, and _no_ I'm not revealing how I did it. But it sure wasn't skill!  Anyway I only performed it a few times for friends. That's because bricks cost money, and if I really had to break a bunch of 'em, I'd buy a hammer!!!



awww come on!


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## tellner

Laurentkd said:


> awww come on!


A good magician never tells the secrets.


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## exile

tellner said:


> A good magician never tells the secrets.



You betcha they don't. That trick that Geezer mentioned is one that I've seen people refer to in other threads where breaking came up. Yes, there's definitely a method to it, and no, they're not going to reveal it. 

But once again (if it's any consolation, Lauren), by the time we get to this kind of parlor trick use of breaking, we're way far away from any practical use of breaking as both a measure of, and a training tool for, effective impact delivery. Think of it as parallel to the difference between swordsmanship and sword-swallowing...


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## geezer

exile said:


> You betcha they don't. That trick that Geezer mentioned is one that I've seen people refer to in other threads where breaking came up. Yes, there's definitely a method to it, and no, they're not going to reveal it.
> 
> But once again (if it's any consolation, Lauren), by the time we get to this kind of parlor trick use of breaking, we're way far away from any practical use of breaking as both a measure of, and a training tool for, effective impact delivery. Think of it as parallel to the difference between swordsmanship and sword-swallowing...



You are absolutely right. But it was really fun figuring out how to do it. This was back in the '80s when I was still in grad-school studying art. Along with a couple of friends I worked up a whole Martial Arts Magic routine. I felt like the "Amazing Randi" of the martial arts! Then a fellow grad student (who never practiced martial arts in his life) came into the sculpture studio and burst my bubble by laying down on a bed of nails we had just made... and made it look like a comfy cot. Oh well, artists are like that.


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## foggymorning162

If your competing in a tournament and win with dried out or sliced boards against someone with legit boards..... did you really win?


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## Kacey

JadeDragon3 said:


> I agree with this.....*be honest about it.*
> I mean come on, most board breaking demos are done with half inch pine boards.  Why do you need to dry them? If ya can't break half inch pine boards then there's a problem.....LOL.  Even drying out patio tiles for breaking seems ridiculous to me.  I will admitt though that bricks and patio tiles that are wet are a ***** to break.



I agree.  Fixing boards is dishonest... although we use 1" boards, not 1/2" boards, so it's a little harder.  I admit to picking planks that will be cut into boards carefully - avoiding large knots and really sappy wood - but there's no prep work done other than slicing them into 12" sections.  The same thing goes for tiles; they go straight from the building supply company to the supply stack.

But since you mention 1/2" boards and how easy they are to break.... I saw a demonstration once where they were using what must have been balsa wood - nothing else would fly 30' (that's feet, not inches) into the air - and the people demonstrating missed at least 3/4 of the breaks they attempted.  One of my coworkers was in that class... she managed to break her foot a few weeks later attempting to break one of those same boards; I've never figured out how, except that the technique I saw was incredibly bad. 



foggymorning162 said:


> If your competing in a tournament and win with dried out or sliced boards against someone with legit boards..... did you really win?



Not in my book, no.  If you can't win legitimately, then the win is meaningless.


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## exile

geezer said:


> You are absolutely right. But it was really fun figuring out how to do it. This was back in the '80s when I was still in grad-school studying art. Along with a couple of friends I worked up a whole Martial Arts Magic routine. I felt like the "Amazing Randi" of the martial arts! Then a fellow grad student (who never practiced martial arts in his life) came into the sculpture studio and burst my bubble by laying down on a bed of nails we had just made... and made it look like a comfy cot. Oh well, artists are like that.



I can think of _one_ way to do it... but out of respect for your diligence in ferreting out the method you use, I won't say anything further here ...


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