Breaking Material

[Archtkd]

I recently refereed at a small tournament where I saw lots of fancy breaking, but I was disappointed by the quality of wood being used in competion, even by adults. The wood felt like balsa. Some of it was less than 1/2 inch, but many competitors where breaking piles of the suspect material and then cheering themselves as if they they'd performed miracles.

At my dojang adults break 1"thick 10"x12" (which we all know is never really 1") pine that I buy at Lowes or Home Depot. Sometimes the wood is white pine and other times it's the harder yellow pine.

What do you you folks use? Where do get your wood? Is breaking parrt of your regular classes or you only reserve it for tests and demos?

 

[Miles]

We have a regular breaking class, which incidentally was last night.

We use rebreakable boards of varying difficulty. One of my black belts is kind enough to buy one for my birthday or Christmas. I think we have the entire set from white to black.

There are several things I like about the rebreakables, the first of which is relative low cost. When I was buying lumber and cutting it myself 15 yrs ago, it worked out to be a $1 a board. I haven't priced it out lately but if you do any amount of breaking, that can get expensive quickly.

Another thing I like about the rebreakables is that for much of their useful life, it requires a consistent amount of power to break. I've broken wood which was green, wet, dry, etc. and you never know what you've got.

The rebreakables are also good for progressive teaching-once someone gets used to the idea of hitting something hard, gets a little confidence in their technique, they can move up to the next harder board.

Finally, there is no splintering! Maybe this should be first!

 

[Bill Mattocks]

We use concrete pavers.

http://www.stockerconcrete.com/Misc/2solid2.JPG

 

[terryl965]

We use concrete pavers.

http://www.stockerconcrete.com/Misc/2solid2.JPG

I do as well, the boards we use are from Century and they are pretty easily broken if the wind blows in thier direction.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

I do as well, the boards we use are from Century and they are pretty easily broken if the wind blows in thier direction.

Yeah, ours come straight from the local hardware store. Nothing fancy, we're just going to smash them up. Well, I haven't succeed so far, but I will.

 

[bluekey88]

Sounds like they were using special "demo" wood for breaking. It's easy to break and splinters like crazy (looks great)...but absolutely no challenge. i iether use the rebreakables for practice....and 3/4" pine boards 9the stuff you find at the big box store) or concrete pavers for breaking at tests and the like.

No point in doing any less. It's SUPPOSED to be about technique development...not showing off.

Peace,
Erik

 

[IcemanSK]

I get mine from this place: http://www.plymouthpine.com/breakingboards.html

I priced it out & even with shipping it came out to be less than Lowe's or Home Depot in my town. It comes out to roughly $2.00 a board. It may cost less to ship it to you. The "upside" & the "downside" revolve around the same issue. The boards are all the same & are perfect for breaking. As Miles pointed out sometimes boards are wet, have sap running through them, etc. With these boards, students don't get to experience a "difficult" board. They are all equally easy or hard.

For concrete breaks, I use 16" x 8" x 2" fence cap from Lowe's or Home Depot.

 

[jda]

We have a designated night for breaking, four times a year. Every one breaks 1x12 or 1x10 cut at different lengths. For concrete breaks we use patio pavers bought at Home Depot or where ever. Any one ever try to break a 2x12? I was thinking of trying it. It can't be any worse than a concrete paver.
Jim

 

[Stac3y]

This is why USBA/WBA sanctioned events require that all power breakers purchase the boards from them at the event (and also 'cos it makes them money, natch.)

For practice right before and for demos, I use 1" thick, 12" wide white pine for the kids, cut into 6" or 8" sections (depending on how patient the Lowe's cutter guy is) because I can't afford to do 12" sections. We also use rebreakables for practice.

I really enjoy breaking, and the kids love it, but the waste of the wood bums me out. Anyone have creative ideas for using leftovers?

I also want to try breaking pavers, but I'm a bit apprehensive about it....

 

[granfire]

I really enjoy breaking, and the kids love it, but the waste of the wood bums me out. Anyone have creative ideas for using leftovers?

Aside from a weeny roast?

I was planning on using the pieces to mount pictures: Just use a photo, print it out (I was thinking B/W or sepia) and glue it to the board with rubber cement.

 

[Archtkd]

We use concrete pavers.

http://www.stockerconcrete.com/Misc/2solid2.JPG

That sounds good. How can you tell if the pavers don't have fibreglass, which some companies are now using to make the stuff more durable?

 

[Archtkd]

Sounds like they were using special "demo" wood for breaking. It's easy to break and splinters like crazy (looks great)...but absolutely no challenge. i iether use the rebreakables for practice....and 3/4" pine boards 9the stuff you find at the big box store) or concrete pavers for breaking at tests and the like.

No point in doing any less. It's SUPPOSED to be about technique development...not showing off.

Peace,
Erik

Coincidentally I received a catalog from Sang Moo Sa, which shows the company is selling "TNT Breakable Board with Sound Effect." The boards are apparently loaded with a small firecracker.

 

[Dirty Dog]

For splintering, I buy 1x12 boards from Loews and toss them on my table saw to get 10" cuts. I get 4 12x10 and 1 12x8 from each one. The little ones get the 8" boards.

For my own practice, I have a set of boards from umab.com that are wonderful. I have one each 1", 1.25", 1.75" and three 2.25" boards. That lets me stack for whatever level of resistance I want, depending on the technique. I've not yet broken the entire 11.75" stack...

Concrete pavers I buy at Loews, or any other place that has a good price on lawn supplies. Just be careful. I know one person who thought he was buying concrete pavers, but got cement. Ouch.

 

[granfire]

coincidentally i received a catalog from sang moo sa, which shows the company is selling "tnt breakable board with sound effect." the boards are apparently loaded with a small firecracker.

lol!!!!

 

[jks9199]

We have a designated night for breaking, four times a year. Every one breaks 1x12 or 1x10 cut at different lengths. For concrete breaks we use patio pavers bought at Home Depot or where ever. Any one ever try to break a 2x12? I was thinking of trying it. It can't be any worse than a concrete paver.
Jim

When I do breaking (rarely; wood ain't cheap, even if it does grow on trees!), I use 2x12s or 2x10s. I was taught on 2x... I'll use 1x12s for younger students, for breaking as confidence builder in self defense classes... and for free -- completely unsupported -- breaking. Though I've done that once or twice with 2x12s.

 

[ralphmcpherson]

We break on about 4 or 5 nights a term (3 months) and we use proper thick pine breaking timber. The club pays about $1 a board and its incorporated into a students training fees ($50 a month). Quite often if we are having a big breaking night in class (where every student gets heaps of goes at breaking) the instructor will get each student to attempt kicks that are quite difficult for their level , so only about 10% of the boards actually get broken , on other nights we get to break using our grading requirements and we go through a lot of timber on those nights. Some instructors glue the broken boards back together and use them for the children of lower belt levels when they first start learning to break.

 

[Stac3y]

Concrete pavers I buy at Loews, or any other place that has a good price on lawn supplies. Just be careful. I know one person who thought he was buying concrete pavers, but got cement. Ouch.

Yep. I know a guy who was showing off in someone's back yard and thought the pavers he was going to break were concrete--broke his hand. Ouch.

 

[Manny]

I just use normal 1" thick pine boards, trying to use the denser pine board I can get.

Manny

 

[Miles]

We use concrete pavers.

http://www.stockerconcrete.com/Misc/2solid2.JPG

Those are fun, but talk about a mess! You'll find little pieces of concrete in all areas of your dojang. But they are great for outside demos!

Bill, your link was for an out-of-State company. If you are on the W side of the Metro area, there is a cement company near I-275 and Ford Rd which makes those. I bought a bunch for a special breaking class but don't recall how much they cost, only that my car was weighed down to the axle.