The Ultimate Guide to Kendama Paints and Clear Coats

Coatings are used to add friction between the Ken and Tama, to help us perform balance tricks. This increases the speed at which we learn tricks and the frequency at which we land those tricks and allows us to progress faster. Balance tricks are tricks such as Lighthouse and Lunar, that require you to balance the Ken while holding the Tama.

Having this many different products on the market can be quite overwhelming. This Ultimate Guide is aimed at showing you what’s important about a clear coat and why, which coatings exist and which ones may be right for you.

First let’s start with the key terms that will be used in this article that are fundamental to being able to understanding the content in this article:

• Ken - The handle / hammer of the Kendama
• Tama - The ball of the Kendama
• Clearcoat - The coating / finishing layer of the ball determines the durability / friction of the Tama
• Paint - Refers to both the paint underneath the Coating and the coating itself.
• Fresh - Refers to a Kendama that it is very new 
• Bevel - The edge of the hole in the Tama

⚠️Caution:

This article is written based on personal experience and by polling the experiences of experienced Kendama players around me. Even though I try to be as “factual” as possible, it is still quite hard to be fully factual, as no real science exists behind this information.

This information serves as guidelines to help you find what you may like and to discover what’s out there.

If there is information that you disagree with or find missing: Please comment on this post or contact me through the Chat or Email.

With your feedback I will keep this post up to date and as representitive of the collective Kendama opinion as it can be.

Here I list all of the things that can be considered to affect the playability of a Tama (in no particular order):

• Tama Size
• Bevel
• Size
• Shape
• Weight
• Wood
• Type
• Quality
• Tracking
• Coating
• Durability
• Grip / Slip ratio
• Consistency grip / slip wise
• Consistency durability wise

In this Ultimate Guide to Kendama Paints and Clearcoats, we are going to limit ourselves to discussing Tracking and Coatings.

The design of the Kendama consists of 2 important components: First is the paint, which is the design and is responsible for the tracking. Then it’s finished with a coating that determines the durability and the grip to slip ratio.

One of the most fundamental tricks of Kendama is spiking the Tama. In order to successfully land the spike, you need to know where the hole of the Tama is located.

If there are no marks on the Tama, it’s very difficult to know where the hole is located when the Tama is rotating in the air. This is where tracking comes into play.

As you can see in the picture above, contrasting colours and designs are used that make it easy to locate the hole when the Tama is moving during play.

Luckily, all of the Tamas we provide feature good tracking. Nowadays, good tracking on modern Tamas is very common. However, one may still be slightly better than another the following properties are guidelines for good tracking:

• Contrasting colours
• Clear patterns
• Light colours around the bevel (hole)
• A tracking dot, on the opposite side of the bevel

Onto the part that we’re here for: the coating. The perfect coating is what all players look to find and play, and all innovators in Kendama look to develop.

Note that the perfect coating is something subjective, as players have personal preferences.

The perfect coating lies where the amount of grip the coating offers is just right for the player AND when the coating is very durable.

To help you find what may be important for you, I will list all the properties that different coatings can have.

In terms of look and feel, there are the following types of coatings:

• No coating aka Natty. Just plain wood.
• Rubber coatings. They make the paint underneath seem more matte. Rubber coatings have the same kind of friction and soft feeling as you know from rubbery materials. Examples of such coatings are the Cushion Clear and Revo Clear.
• Glossy coatings. They make the paint underneath more shiny. The feel very hard and smooth on the surface. Mostly used in the past on old-school Kendamas
• Silk coatings. These coatings are sometimes falsely promoted as Rubber, presumably because it sells better that way. They also make the paint underneath seem more matte, however these paints are more smooth and don’t provide as much grip and friction, nor does it feel really like a rubbery surface, but more often silk-like to the touch.
• Sticky coatings, which make the paint underneath shine more, just like glossy, however the surface feels very frictionate (sticky) to the touch
• “Invisible” coatings, such as Rhino Clear and Friction Clear, where the paint and the coating seem one.

🏆 Pro tip:

If you’re looking for a good coating, go for Sticky Clear if you want a budget option. Go for Rubber type coatings or Invisible type coatings if you want premium quality.

To be able to talk about the properties and quality of the coatings, I created a few properties upon we can judge each coating:

• Friction: Slip vs Grip ratio
  The goal of a good slip to grip ratio is to allow you to more easily catch and hold balance tricks, while still being able to adjust the Ken into the correct position after landing.
  ⚠️ Caution about the rating: One a scale of 1 to 10: 1 means it offers no friction and 10 means absolute friction. That means the ratings between 4~7 are the best.
• Friction: Consistency over lifespan
  While some coatings hold the same friction for the entirety of it’s lifespan, other coatings go through certain phases where the amount of friction changes.
  On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 means the rating given for friction changes all the time over it's lifespan. 10 means that the rating given for friction doesn't change at all.
• Friction: Consistency between batches
  While some with some coatings, the friction stays the same between every production batch, for others, the friction can change.
  On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 means that the friction comes out differently every batch. 10 means that the friction is exactly the same every batch.
• Durability of the paint and coating
  Depending on how hard you sesh, your Tama may last long or short. Each coating has a different durability. With this rating, an indication is given of what you can expect.
  On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 means it’s not at all durable, while 10 means that the paint and coating hold for the entirety its lifespan.
• Durability: Consistency between batches
  While with some coatings, the durability stays the same between every production batch, for others, the durability can change.
  On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 means that the durability comes out differently every batch. 10 means that the durability is exactly the same every batch.

🧐 Did you know:

The process of applying and curing a coating is very, very delicate. Slight changes in factors like temperature and humidity can totally change the result of the coating.

This makes it even harder for companies to find and produce a good and reliable coating!

Each brand either uses standard coatings from the factory or makes their own. We will list the coatings that we have experience with here. Standard coatings are Sticky and Silk clear and we will talk about those first.

In the table below you find all the coatings on each page in an overview and you will find the scores for each of the properties. Click on the coating name to jump directly to the section of the page with more info about the coating.

• General description: Sticky Clear is the most common clearcoat on the market. It first came out as the LOL Clear from KROM Kendama back in 2016, after which it started to rapidly appear (with a variety of names) and become normalized for different brands who all run production in the same factory. This is the goto budget Clearcoat that provides a decent slip to grip ratio.
• Also known as: LOL Clear, etc
• Friction: 3/10
  Sticky Clear often comes very Sticky and Grippy out of the box, after which the coating somewhat maintains its stickiness to varying degrees. We assigned 3/10 to this coating due to its average friction. The score of 3 means it offers some grip and always allows for readjustments.
• Friction consistency over time: 3/10
  Whether the coating stays sticky or not depends on several factors. It’s very susceptible to fatty hands. Also your skin and sweat affect its stickiness, differently for each person. Letting it sit for a while and catch some dust makes it regain its grip. The coating is also affected by its environment due to temperature and humidity. It’s recommended to form your own opinion on how this coating works for you, over time, as this is a basic coating that you will likely encounter often.
• Friction consistency per batch: 8/10
• Durability: 5/10
  Sticky clear usually holds up somewhat well, but often does start to break off after a good amount of play.
• Durability consistency between batches: 5/10
  Sticky clear varies between batches. Some batches are more durable than others.

The durability of sticky coating is average, considering it’s the industry standard and mostly lasts a good while. Overall, due to the low price of this coating, it’s overall a very beginner friendly option that still allows you to quite easily learn balance tricks.

• General description: Silk is a coating that has been in the industry for a long time. Even before Sticky Clear appeared. Usually there are better options available than Silk Clear, however some players may like it.
• Also known as: Rubber clear, which is in my opinion a misleading name, as with Rubber one imagines friction and with Silk one imagines Softness and Smoothness which align more with the properties this coating provides.
• Friction: 2/10
  Silk coating provides more friction than a fresh natty or than a glossy Kendama but less friction than most other coatings. It has quite some grip out of the box but generally this fades away pretty quickly.
• Friction consistency over time: 8/10
  Silk clear is generally consistently slippery, however a few exceptions arise when they appear surprisingly more grippy. It’s also consistent in the way it feels grippy out of the box but loses this quality quickly and then proceeds to stay slippery.
• Friction consistency per batch: 9/10
• Durability: 6/10
• Durability consistency: 8/10

Overall, Silk is not very recommended to play, unless you are an exeption that really likes it. There are better coatings available, even for the same price.

• General description: Kendamas without coating, just plain wood, mostly without any design, sometimes with engravings. 
• Also known as: Natty
• Friction: 2/10
  A natty Tama is a plain wooden ball with no coating. A natty tama usually provides little to no friction when fresh. When broken in properly, it can have very good amounts of grip. In some cases it can achieve near-perfect friction according tos ome players. Breaking in a Natty tama usually requires humidity and sweat. For more information I suggest Googling "How to break in a Natty Kendama".
• Friction consistency over time: 3/10
  Natty Kendamas come out of the box very slippery. However when you play them right, getting your sweat into the Tama, it can get very grippy. This can make the Tama either very slippery or very grippy and so the consistency over time has a low score.
• Friction consistency per batch: -
  The consistency with the friction per batch will have a lot to do with the quality of the wood and the wood type used. 
• Durability: 10/10
• Durability consistency: 10/10

• General description: Cushion Clear was developed by Sweets Kendamas back in 2016, being one of the pioneers innovating new paints. The clearcoat is a Matte/Rubbery type coating. It’s been an all-time favorite of many Kendama players. Sweets had some problems maintaining consistent durability in 2021.
• Friction: 6/10
  Cushion Clear is a rubbery / matte clearcoat and adds a lot of friction compared to no paint at all. The mark 6 out of 10 means that Cushion Clear adds a very good amount of friction while still being able to adjust those balance tricks most of the time. 
• Friction consistency over lifespan: 6/10
  Over its lifespan, a Cushion Tama can also vary in terms of friction, becoming more or less grippy at certain stages. Usually Cushion becomes better as it wears more.
• Friction consistency between batches: 4/10
  Cushion clear varies from Tama to Tama. While one Tama may have a 4/10 friction score, another may have an 8/10.
• Durability: 6/10
  Usually Cushion Clear wears in pretty well, in some cases becoming better as the Tama starts to look more and more like a golf-ball.
• Durability consistency: 3/10
  Cushion Clear is not very consistent from batch to batch in terms of durability: some Tamas last very long, while with others, the coating starts to come off quite rapidly.

• General description: Rhino Clear is made by Aviram from Kendama ISR in Tel Aviv, Israel. Kendama Israel is known for its unique designs and paint that comes to a near perfect slip to grip ratio.
• Friction: 5/10
  The slip to grip ratio is near the middle between total slippiness and absolute grippiness. 
• Friction consistency over lifespan: 7/10
  Rhino Clear holds up its friction well between the beginning and the period thereafter. Only after a good amount of playing and impacts, usually the area around the bevel starts to fade away and becomes more slippery there.
• Friction consistency between batches: 7/10
  Over the years, Kendama ISR has made the Rhino clear more and more consistent between batches. It does occasionally still happen that a Tama turns out more slippery than expected
• Durability: 8/10
  Rhino Clear rarely comes off prematurely. The coating seems to be quite thin over the wood and thus it doesn’t add much of a protective layer to the Tama. This means that as the wood of the Tama starts to wear down, so does the coating itself.
• Durability consistency: 9/10
  Rhino Clear comes out very consistent between batches in terms of durability.

(Back to overview)

• General description: Revolution Clear is a Matte / Rubber type coating made by OKendama in Latvia. The coating is very grippy and is especially well used by newer players learning balance tricks.
• Also known as: Revo Clear
• Friction: 8/10
  The friction this coating offers is very high. This means that it’s easy to learn balance tricks. More experienced players can face problems adjusting balance tricks as the coating is often too grippy to adjust balance tricks for them. It also depends on the Ken-shape used: A bigger sized Basecup has less issues with the coating being too grippy, for example.
• Friction consistency over time: 8/10
  With the lifetime of one Tama, the friction stays consistent
• Friction consistency per batch: 9/10
  Between batches, the friction comes out consistent
• Durability: 8/10
  The durability of a Tama is high. The coating forms a protective layer for the Tama and the Tama lasts long.
• Durability consistency: 9/10
  Between batches, the consistency is very similar in terms of durability.