I spent the last few weekends and several weekday evenings refinishing my Wing Chun dummy. When I bought this dummy, it came with a nice wood finish but it was designed for indoor use and storage.
What is a Wing Chun Dummy?
A Wing Chun Dummy (also called a Mook Yan Jong) is a wooden training aid for martial arts, more specifically primarily used in Wing Chun Kung Fu style. The legs and arms are intended to simulate the opponents body, and this is used to practice blocking and striking, along with balance and positioning exercises.
Check out one of my favorite movies "IP Man" to see it's use in action.
When we downsized the house and moved to Florida, there's just no space left inside, so it was placed outdoors in the back patio/pool area. This is great for usage and being able to just jump in the pool after a nice workout, but the finish was taking a beating being out in the Florida sun and thunderstorms.
It had also developed this ugly long crack down the whole length of the main post. I decided to sand it down, and refinish it with some nice Water seal product. This way, it will handle the weather much better being outdoors.
Here's the leg and one of the arms sanded down and ready to refinish.
The crack was something else. I first used some cargo straps to pull it together. Those couldn't quite get the job done as they are designed for holding cargo down, not super strong compression.
I then had to buy these 3500 lb. straps and not only tighten by hand, but beat them tighter with a hammer. I started with two of these heavy duty straps, but later had to add two more in order to pull the split wood back together and glue.
These heavier duty straps were awesome and really allowed me to crank it down, then glue and wait 3 days for the glue to dry.
Once glued, it was back to sanding. Here the stand has already had 1 coat of the new waterproof finish and the main post is sanded and ready to finish.
That brings us back to the finished version.
And a short video glimpse.
I didn't know it's name but indeed it reminded me the training stuff from some movies! IP man, couldn't remember it was it
Nice DIY there tough
It definitely turned into much more than a single weekend project as I first estimated.
Is the split at the back or did those band clamp do a super job? Can't see the split anywhere.
Is the leg in the centre front suppose to mimic the opponent's leg? I'm aware of a wing chun dummy but not being a martial arts fan, I've never paid any attention to them
The clamps did a good job, but couldn't close it back up quite all the way. I think still enough glue inside to keep it from splitting again any further though. It's just hidden in the back, lol. Doesn't affect the use, and I'm the only one that knows it's still there. At least until now :)
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