Hi there everyone,

I am a student of wing chun kung fu. The art uses a wooden dummy called the Mook Yan Jong, the body of which is a cylindrical pole of wood 9 inches in diameter and about 5 feet long. Some people make their own using telegraph poles, but I have an idea to make one out of papier mache. In my favour is time and patience - I do not need one for about a year, and have a great basement where I can slowly build it. My idea is to start with a cardboard tube of the right length as the centre, and over a period of a year, instead of using pulp, to gradually add sheets of paper/newspaper soaked in a papier mache based paste - there's loads on here and elsewhere I could use. For the last ten layers or so I would apply various resins between each sheet of superfine paper, and then, again over a fairly long period, would apply repeated coats of some kind of wood varnish/glue.

The end result would need to be very tough - about as tough as hardwood. Could this be acheieved with time and patience, or would I be better buying an old telegraph pole?

Any advice very much appreciated

Peter
UK