Err...
These were the worst to train with.. I had trained with them on the first day I recieved them.. THEY BROKE!!!

there ok
i have to agree with the last review, i prefer the non colerd ones to, i have been useing the same bokin for about 2 years now and have got into alot of fights with it ( with my freand that is 24 years old). it finally cracked after awile but i still use it

A brief comment
These black wooden bokens are okay but I prefer the ones with the natural wood grain still visible and with a light colored stain. Also, the "purple oak" ones that seem to be common from Brazil these days don't seem to be as sturdy as the Japanese white oak, although they're okay too. I say "purple" because they look like they're stained as a gimmick, but it's hard to tell unless you're a good woodworker (which I'm not).

In some ways I prefer the suede-covered Kashima Shinryu style straight, suede-covered shinai for this sort of training than the boken, as you can still break a bone with a boken, but a shinai is much safer, and the Kashima Shinryu ones are even covered with suede. But they're straight and not curved, which is different from what most people are used to, but what the hell. Just goes to show you how involved just getting a good training sword or boken is these days.