05/30/2026
We have an opportunity to learn about the tijikunbo/chizikunbo or "fist bo" later this Summer, so we thought we'd take a shot at making a handful of these loaded-fist weapons. It's surprising how often martial arts training turns into arts & crafts.
We weren't shooting for anything fancy, which is good, because I'm definitely not a carpenter. We started with some inexpensive maple dowels, which we took to the wood shop at work to cut in half and buff down the edges. We drilled a couple holes and used some paracord (left over from re-wrapping sai handles) for the finger loop.
They probably would have worked fine at that point (second photo), but I worried the white maple would just get gross with sweat and dirt, so I decided we should fancy them up with a stain that just happened to match our supervisor's fur coat (pictured).
And done! For now. The loop knots are just held by friction, so they'll be easy to adjust to different finger sizes or replace with different string after we do some testing and get some feedback.
I fully expected to mess up a few, but I think they're good enough for prototyping. I may even test them out in the dojo tomorrow!
