Bachi blade material

Building/Repair
#1

Hello All

Looks like I found the material closest to a “Pro” level bachi properties. It is a Polyetherimide (PEI) polymer. Material comes in different sheet thickness: 0,8mm, 1mm, 2mm, 3mm etc, semi-clear, amber color. I have seen black version as well. I have been playing with two pieces of 1mm PEI glued together as I did not have correct thickness material laying around. I compared it to “classic” bekko or faux bekko bachies for hardness, flexibility, wear, bending force, “springy” feeling and it seems to be a really good match. It is expensive, way more expensive than acrylic (but not as bekko bachi :sunglasses: ) and a bit fragile (close to acrylic, maybe a bit less). I would say it is overpriced a lot due a popularity of this material as a bead material in 3D printers.
I have ordered a 3mm thick piece and going to build a test bachi as soon as I receive the material.
Just curious if anybody tried it as well.

#2

Nice! Since you have the opportunity to compare materials, would celluloid be any good? Thanks! :slight_smile:

#3

I have tried celluloid. It is too soft and would not hold the shape and will deform under the string strike bending force. I the end it would get curved to one side (away from the strings). The real bekko surprisingly hard and quite flexible at the same time.

#4

Ah, that´s a bummer, it has such nice patterns… Thanks for the reply and good luck with testing the new material!

#5

@Alexey, did you ever try out the PEI? If so, how did it work out?

#6

I played around with a small piece I have got and liked it a lot. Have no time yet to do a full sized version.

#7

I’d be curious about guitar pick materials. Some of which may be comparable and even less expensive. I mean they come in various thickness and flex as well grinding on metal strings.

Celluloid is like synthetic tortoiseshell maybe a thicker celluloid?

Delrin comes to mind for it’s denseness and durability. It’s generally much stiffer then celluloid or nylon but in a thin tip may have some flex as well.

Nylon is my favorite for guitar. The variety of thickness leads me to believe there’s some nylon that would be suitable for some people on shamisen.

#8

I have tried celluloid. It is flexible, all right, but it looses the shape (bends agains the strings).
In a while the whole bachi corner gets lifted up and stays like this.
Delrin should be a good one but requires precise and clean machining. It almost impossible to sand and get good surface finish so the taper needed to be formed with very sharp cutter right to the finished surface or molded/casted (not really applicable at home). Same goes for nylon. Also nylon is softer and might have same bending issue as celluloid.
PEI, even expensive, flexible but holds the shape, can be sanded and polished.
Cheaper would be acrylic and lexan.

#9

I’ve never had any issue on guitar with nylon picks getting a bend in them.

I guess they are currently made with acrylic for a reason but it’s not in my experience any easy material to buy as a consumer.

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