Sagane has arrived.
If you didn't read the first posts going over the design, please feel free to read that first.
Initially when designing Sagane, I wanted to make a counter-part to Asora. A heavier more performant yoyo, almost the opposite of what Asora is - but still retain that same "fun" feeling of play that Asora has. Something that's addictive, unique, and unlike anything else that might be in your lineup.
At first, I was just going to run some protos for myself because I've once again ran into uncharted waters and designed a Steel SE monometal that was slated for 72g. Something no one's done before, so I didn't have much reference to go off of in knowing how well this design would perform or feel in play.
There's limited options when it comes to full size steel designs at the moment so I felt like letting people join in on the prototyping process. I think people enjoyed seeing the difference between 01, 02 and 03 based on those who got theirs at worlds.
Now that I received Sagane and I've gotten time to play test it I wanted to give my opinions on it.
I would like to proudly announce that this yo-yo in fact, does not feel 71.5g when you play it. At first, I thought it could've just been me. I knew I intentionally designed it to feel lighter than it's listed weight, but I wasn't sure if I was being "tricked" into thinking that it played lighter by my own brain because I designed it.
Everyone who got a chance to try it out said very similar things about it, all independent from each other through out the day at DXL. Basically all in agreement that it felt way lighter than the listed, and that it's a great overall design. I don't think they were blowing smoke either, because they kept coming back to play it through out the day.
I'm happy that everyone who got a chance to try it seemed to really enjoy it. Truly a confidence booster, and thankful there's so many great players at DXL to get feedback from. Hearing their feedback also match up with my own assessment of the yo-yo also gives me a lot more confidence in my ability to properly judge yo-yos without adhering any bias to the design even though it's my own. I don't want to be jaded into thinking my designs are great if they truly aren't.
I am extremely happy with this design and actually wish I would've bought more. I think that when designing Asora I was so afraid to design a lack luster yoyo and have it sit on people's shelves collecting dust that I was a bit hesitant about this design due to it's rather obscure nature. Mono SS, SE, Heavier, just somewhat uncharted territories. Creating a sluggish or "too heavy" of a yo-yo seemed like a possibility, along with being unsure about how it would feel with the added center weight from side-effects and steel's natural density.
Now after receiving both Asora 03 and Sagane I feel like, I'm getting to the point where I can basically imagine the yoyo and how it will feel in play without playing it. Honestly, I wasn't surprised that Sagane plays the way it does. I designed it to be like this. It's just surreal to see that all of my "guessing" is actually being proven right each time I design a yoyo. I think this is what scares me the most about yo-yo design. That each time you send in a new design, you really have no idea how it's gonna play until you get it in your hands.
Sagane is honestly, almost perfection to me. I think the only thing I could do to improve it is to add just a little bit more weight to the rims to bump that power up a bit for the goal in my vision. I think other's would argue the weight is fine as it is. The tricky part to Steel for me is the balancing act of weight within the design. The smallest of changes can change the weight a lot just due to the dense nature of steel as a material. So I have to be careful if I do decide to change the rim weight.
I think this finally proved that I should start designing without caring about weight, I should just follow my instincts and then taper the weight after - rather than having a weight I have to constrain myself to from the beginning.
Sagane plays like a 67-68g yoyo and feels really good on the string. I think there's room for improvement but overall the design is extremely solid and well performing.
The highlight of Sagane to me is the shape and feel of the design. I wanted to design each yoyo release based on the historical evolution of yoyo shapes over time but modernize them a bit.
Asora represents the beginning of 1A, Freehands, the Free Rider, Anti-Yo, 888, Hatricks, Torrents, etc.. Sagane's shape represents that next evolution in flaring out the yoyo like the Overdrive from YYR, or things like later YYJ's that started to change into more of a W or V shape. However, my own twist on that is to flare out the rims and hide an almost organic shape inside a W or V sort of shape. I took my time to measure a lot of yoyo designs to merge quite a few of their aspects together to really nail the correct catch zone width and overall feel of the design.
I did 3D print the design beforehand, but I also made very minor changes to the design after the 3D print based on how it felt. I widened the catch zone ever so slightly in order for your finger to rest in the perfect spot, and also increased the width from 43 to 44.
You can see in the picture, my "average" sized hand and finger slots right in the catch zone and comfortably sits between both of the singular cuts on each side of the yoyo. The cuts are ever so slightly chamfered to make sure it wasn't sharp, but small enough to retain a hard edge so that your string is touching minimal surface area on that specific cut of the yoyo profile. From there the wings flare out like an organic. I wanted to push as much weight to that rim but also thin out and extend that weight as far as possible horizontally as well. All of this was intentional in order to distribute the weight evenly across the rim to make sure it didn't feel too rim weighted or sluggish in play.
I've said it before, but I really enjoy well "balanced" yo-yo designs. Balancing the center weight, wall weight, and rim weight together with the shape are important to me. It's that balance I'm looking for everytime I design a yo-yo, which in turn forces me to proto-type to find that right balance to the yo-yo.
Thankfully, I'm learning from Asora and applied it to Sagane. All of these changes made it perfect to me. I'm overly excited with the way this design turned out.
All of the yo-yos came out raw, and I think I would prefer blasted for playing, but think they look great as is.
Sagane also has engravings inside of the response well to identify it. Something we're going to continue to do with each release.
The response is 19mm, and will come with flowable silicone. You can remove the flowable and replace it with Flow Groove pads from One Drop, but it's definitely designed just like Asora, with Flowable Silicone in mind.
As for the packaging, it's the same exact treatment as Asora 03. I designed a card for it, printed out some labels for them, and got them packaged.
Again, the theme for this character is supposed to be the intellect of the group. Someone that throws dense formations, more technical, slower, methodical, and modern tricks. It's hard to explain, but I merge multiple players into one in my mind and design a yo-yo for that person. In general, this is what helps me design and keep a goal in mind of what kind of design I'm trying to make. In the end, I feel like I nailed it. I'm not sure on what I could do to "improve" this design so I'm really gonna take my time to analyze it as much as possible.
One last thing I did to the design was add a small cut in the hub that I threw in as a sort of easter egg. I wasn't sure if it would work, so that's why I hid it.
Yes, Sagane can hold Duncan caps. Who do you think designed this thing? Of course it's gonna hold caps.
Cap fitment feels great even though there's no actual ledge for the cap to sit on and it's being held in by friction alone. It is a bit more tricky to apply the caps than Asora is, so just make sure it's as flat as possible, and push down until it's completely flat.
If you have a set of caps that are loose, just run a bit of super glue on the edges and then take a piece of paper or cardboard around it to smooth it out. That small amount of super glue added to the diameter will help the caps stay in.
I think everyone will enjoy their Sagane even more knowing how many different setups they can achieve. If you really like heavy yoyos, you're really in for a treat.
I'm not sure if Sagane will be ran again so please don't ask about it. There's a lot of things to consider with this design that's different than any other design on the market. First of all, getting a Steel Mono made is expensive, you can get it cheaper, but those shops will not make an SE yoyo for me. As a result, the only option is to go with FPM, who's prices are way higher than the rest which would in turn, cause the product to be more expensive for the consumer in the end.
I could make Sagane without Side Effects but then I would remove the cap feature. This would lower the price and make it more accessible, but lose a lot of the overall uniqueness Sagane offers as it sits right now. I'm even considering a Ti version, honestly, it's hard to say where Sagane will go from here, but for now I'm just really happy that it exists.
Thank you again to everyone that ordered one. All of them have been shipped out to their new homes and I really hope you all enjoy it as much as I am.
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