I sometimes help out Butterfingers at festivals and conventions, I sometimes get the chance to play with some equipment before it makes it onto the market. I haven't been over to Butterfingers since last year but today I received a package of handsticks in the post and a request to test them and report back. I thought I might as well tell the forum about them as well.
Steph kindly sent me 2 sets of sticks, 1 set of aluminiums (Alu ST 50) and a set of carbons. Here are my initial thoughts.
I'm an ally man at heart so I'll start with these. They are very similar to the Henrys Aluminiums (that I have used for 5+ years) with a few tweaks.
Alu STThey come in the usual Babache packaging of a plastic sleeve with an instruction sheet and 1 length of Babache coloured string.
They seem to be improving the instructions these days, they have some handy little hints on what knots to use, how to deal with the excess string and a hint about what to do about knicks. All fairly obvious stuff really but still not a bad idea if you realise that it's not allways hardcore diaboloists buying these products. I might slightly disagree with the lengths of string advised for different numbers of diabolos but it's nice to point out that diaboloists do use different lengths of strings (no more 4' high kids with 6' long strings
)
When I first saw a picture of these sticks I was a bit worried by the look of the handles, they looked pretty chunky but now I've tried them they're not that huge. The handles feel a touch chunkier than the Henrys allys but feel better and smoother than the Babache 'classic' foam grips. (IMHO)
The grips sat in my hands well, I hold sticks pretty lightly and these contoured grips lock into my palm and the skinny bit feels like it will stop slippages and prove useful when catching an inverted stick (suicides etc). The ends of the grips extend further than the internal metal bit so know more 'donk' when the end hits the ground
The Mr B line on the grips is 'Ergonomic handle for little and big hands' - I'm looking at them more as a grown up and someone who looks at props in detail but the 10/11 year old beginners who used these sticks at todays workshops seemed to find them comfortable enough.
The method of string adjustment is similar to the Henrys method. Where as Henrys have an angled hole to insert the string the Babache ones have the hole drilled in at 90 deg with a secondary slot at an angle. It's a small change in the design but a useful one. I like to have my string rotating if possible. It usually takes some messing about with a lighter or a worry about a slim knot pulling through but I got spinning string first go with these (with chubby Mr B string). The slot also makes getting the string out again nice and handy.
For those that care about these kind of things, the balance and grip size etc. feel pretty nice for flipping and twiddling
I didn't have any Henrys allys with me to compare in general use today at work but to me they felt pretty similar. I haven't done a side by side check for size/weight etc but here are the stats from the packaging.
Length 32cm
dia 7mm
weight 30 grms/pce
(online non Henrys stats for Henrys Allys = 33cm long 86g/set)
Colours, silver with white or black handles
anodised to be released later(?)
Pretty cool sticks, Think I'll be using these a lot.
[smg id=435]
CarbonI first tried these at the EJC. They seemed nice enough to me then although I'm only an occasional user on plastic sticks.
I think Mr B has done a long run of testing with these so hopefully they come to market with the kinks worked out.
I dont own any Henrys Carbons so I'm comparing these with Henrys Fibres and Sundia Carbons.
The grips are the same as you find on their Alu ST so no real problems there,
they are a touch shorter than Henrys shorts and the tubing is to my eyes a touch thinner.
The 2 main ways in which these sticks differ from other carbons is the use of a screw end cap to attach the string and the the use of a solid carbon rod thru the length of the stick within a protective sleeve. I'm hoping the use of a solid carbon rod reduces the chance of snapping. The sleeve appears to be a touch harder than the sleeve on my fibres.
Attaching the string was a doddle, I got nice rotating string and the end caps appear to be an improvement on the energy/xtreme versions.
I thought I might get some string hangups but so far I haven't really. I'll report back on this with further use.
On a flex front, they are less flexy than the fibres but not as stiff as the Sundias. I'm guessing they might be between Henrys Carbon and fibres for stiffness but I cant check that out just now.
They play nice enough. Sit well in my hand and behave like other plastic sticks of a similar size. The cheap part of me likes the fact that I won't be wasting (sorry Ceri Anne) the extra string other sticks have running thru the middle. Also I won't be worrying about having the knot pulling thru into the tubing.
Time will tell about how they last lonterm but I havent felt like I should be nursing them. I'l see about finding somebody at the juggling club who might have some thoughts about how they measure up to the old school sticks and report back.
They gring really nice and smoothly for those who like that kind of thing.
They come with a length of Mr Babache string and decent instructions with tips for which knots to use, use of teflon tape if you get loose ends with protacted use, advice on stringlength etc.
From the packaging
Length 34cm
Dia (shaft) 7mm, tip 9.5mm
Weight 30 grms/pce
(online non Henrys stats for Henrys carbon short = 35cm long 62g/set)
Colours
Classic: all black, all white.
Contrast: white and black, black and white.
Color Classic: orange or yellow shaft, black or white handles
(white, yellow and orange shafts UV reactant)
[smg id=432]
view of ends
[smg id=431]
Comparision with Henrys Fibre short and Sundia carbons.
Steph says that the sticks are available now on the Butterfingers site. The Black and Purple G4's are also in stock now. The New finesse hub kits soon and the titanium sticks due anytime.
Other shops should have these in stock as soon as they order them.
Show Posts
