Nunchaku or Nunchucks are a whole lot of fun. But they can be dangerous. You can bruise yourself with them! So, it is a great idea to make and use foam ones while you are getting better at it.

But, if the chucks were made only out of foam they wouldn't be very good because they are too light to swing quickly. We solve this by wrapping foam around a wooden core. Voila, they have weight and are still very safe.

In this tutorial I show you how to make them easily. And I also have a video tutorial showing you the whole process.

Here is a look at them. Pretty easy setup. Two pieces of round wood, two pieces of pipe insulating foam and a piece of string. Thats everything. Well, we use glue too.

Before we start making the chucks let me just explain a little bit about the size you should make them. Good nunchaku are sized to the individual so they work the best. Make the sticks the size of your arm from your elbow to your wrist as shown in the first picture.

And when you are stringing up the chucks make the distance between them about the width of your hand.

The Parts

The important thing about this setup is that you have a wood core wrapped by a foam tube. The wood gives you some weight and rigidity while the foam core gives you safety!

The Wood Core - You have a lot of options when scrounging up the wood. You can buy 1" dowels from any home improvement store like Lowes or Home Depot. Or you can use a broom stick or even a rake handle. Before you glue the whole thing together you should try to fit it into your tubes.

The Foam Tubes - Home improvement stores sell tubes of foam that are used to insulate water pipes. They are the grey wraps on the copper pipes. Don't go and take any from your house! Go to a home improvement store and get a bag of them. They are very very cheap.

Here is a look at the foam pipe insulation. It is perfect for nunchaku!

Drill a hole in the end of each wooden rod. About one half inch from the end and a 1/4 inch hole is great. There is a lot of leeway in this.

Now thread your string through the holes and make several passes. We want it to be nice and strong.

And tie it and knot it really strong. We don't want anything to go flying off when you are swinging it around. Put liberal dabs of glue on the knots too. This will prevent them from unraveling. Be sure you inspect the string frequently when you are using it. Eventually the motion will fray the string and it will need to be replaced.

Now apply a liberal amount of glue to the wooden dowels and slide the foam over them. Do one at a time or you will make a gluey mess.

You can trim the foam ahead of time or wait until it is glued on to trim it down to size.

That's it. Your nunchaku are done. Be safe and always inspect the foam and the strings to be sure nothing comes loose. We don't want a handle to go flying off.

Pipe Insulation Foam - 1" X 3 feet - Four Pack

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