Why do you only make one sadhu board at one price?

Because the sadhu board market has a SKU sprawl problem and we did not want to participate in it. Most makers offer the board in three or four spacings, two or three woods, and many finish variants — presenting each decision as if it changes the practice meaningfully. It doesn't. 10mm is the universal spacing; hardwood beats softwood; finish is mostly aesthetic. We picked the choices we'd make for ourselves and stopped offering alternatives. One board, one price, no upsell.

Does the Love Energy Board make a good gift?

Yes for the right person; no for most others. Good gift for: someone who already practices, who has mentioned the practice, or who has an established interest in sensory or somatic work. Poor gift for: someone you are hoping will become that person — it lands as judgment, not offering. If you give the Love Energy Board, it ships with a hand-folded guide in unbranded packaging suitable for holiday handoff. No logo on the box, no marketing insert, no QR code. We email the giver with tracking and do not contact the recipient directly.

Notes from the studio

The Love Energy Board — what we make and why

Q: What is the Love Energy Board?

A pair of sadhu boards, 38 × 23 cm each, made by hand in Los Angeles from quarter-sawn American walnut, with roughly 800 solid copper nails hand-set on a 10mm grid, finished in beeswax and linseed oil. The dimensions are proportioned φ to 1. The maker's mark — Love Energy Board — is engraved into the back of every board with the date it was finished. About ten pairs are made a month. Price is $500 a pair, with US shipping and sales tax included.

Q: What makes the Love Energy Board different from other sadhu boards?

Four verifiable things: quarter-sawn American walnut (dimensionally stable, dense enough to hold copper for decades, beautiful enough to live in a room); solid copper nails hand-set in pre-drilled holes one at a time (not glued, not pressed, not steel); φ-proportioned dimensions at 38 × 23 cm; and a beeswax-and-linseed finish — no varnish, no plastic. Each is checkable against a competing product, not aesthetic.

Q: Why hand-set copper nails instead of factory production?

Because factory production produces uneven nail heights, which is the single most common failure point in this product category. Uneven nails distribute pressure unevenly under the foot; some points dig in painfully while others barely contact, and the practice is hard to settle into. The only reliable solution is setting each nail individually in a pre-drilled hole and checking the height as you go — slow, by hand, by a person who cares. That labor is most of what you are paying for.

Q: Can a sadhu board be an art object?

Yes — the Love Energy Board is designed to be one, as a consequence of how it is made. Walnut instead of pine, hand-finished instead of sprayed, hand-set nails instead of factory: the resulting object sits in a living room without apology. Several customers hang theirs on the wall between uses, vertical with nails facing in. The practical implication is that visible boards get used; boards stored in closets don't. Making the object beautiful is, indirectly, a way of making the practice more likely to happen.

Q: Who makes the Love Energy Board?

Rebeka — the founder and the maker of every board we ship. She came to the practice through her own teacher, made her first board for herself when she couldn't find one she trusted in the US, and started making them for friends, then friends-of-friends, then full time. The workshop is in Los Angeles; the wood comes from a single small mill in Pennsylvania. The board is signed and dated on the back. If yours ever has a problem, you write to Rebeka and she responds. There is no support inbox between you and the maker.

by Rebeka · May 27, 2026

We make one board. It is called the Love Energy Board. It is made by hand in a small workshop in Los Angeles from quarter-sawn American walnut, with about 800 copper nails set on a 10mm grid, finished in beeswax and linseed oil. There is no varnish on it, no plastic in it, and no second version of it at a lower price.

This is the page that explains why.

What is the Love Energy Board?

A pair of sadhu boards, 38 × 23 cm each, hinged or unhinged on request. The wood is quarter-sawn American black walnut. The nails — roughly 800 across the pair — are solid copper, hammered into pre-drilled holes one at a time on a 10mm grid. The finish is beeswax and linseed oil, hand-rubbed, repeated until the wood goes from raw to slightly luminous. The dimensions are proportioned φ to 1, a small homage to the practice's older lineage. (What does 800 copper nails on 10mm actually mean for the force on your foot? The pressure calculator runs the numbers for any body weight.)

The maker's mark — Love Energy Board — is engraved into the back of every board with the date the board was finished. We make about ten pairs a month. Each one ships with a folded two-page guide for the first thirty days. Price is $500 a pair, in the US, with shipping and sales tax included.

Why do you only make one board at one price?

Because the sadhu board market has a SKU sprawl problem and we did not want to participate in it. Most makers offer a board in three or four spacings (8mm, 10mm, 12mm, 15mm), in two or three wood options, in nine or twelve color or finish variants. The customer is asked to make four decisions before buying, and each decision is presented as if it changes the practice meaningfully. It does not.

The truth — covered in detail in our spacing guide — is that 10mm is the universal spacing for the practice, that hardwood beats softwood for longevity, and that finish is mostly aesthetic. We picked the choices that we would make for ourselves, made the board, and stopped offering alternatives. The result is a board that we can stand behind without qualification: this is what we make, at this price.

What makes the Love Energy Board different from other sadhu boards?

Four things, each of which is verifiable rather than aesthetic:

Quarter-sawn American walnut. Most boards in the same price range use plain-sawn boards, plywood, or — at the cheap end — pine or particleboard. Quarter-sawn walnut is dimensionally stable across humidity changes (no cupping or warping), dense enough to hold copper nails without loosening for decades, and beautiful enough to live in a room rather than a closet.
Solid copper nails, hand-set. The nails are solid copper, not copper-plated. They are hammered into pre-drilled holes one at a time, not glued in or pressed in. This takes hours per board and is the reason we make ten pairs a month, not a hundred. The trade-off is that the nails do not loosen, do not rust, and feel slightly different under the foot than steel — warmer, less metallic, more present.
φ-proportioned dimensions. The board is 38 × 23 cm — golden ratio, more or less. It is the only proportion we have used for the boards we keep ourselves. Other proportions work; this one feels right under the foot and looks right on a shelf.
No varnish, no plastic. The finish is beeswax and linseed oil, hand-rubbed and re-rubbed until the wood develops a soft sheen. Varnish makes a board cheaper to finish and harder to repair. We do not use it.

Why hand-set copper nails instead of factory production?

Because factory production produces uneven nail heights, and uneven nail heights are the single most common failure point in this entire product category — see what to look for in a sadhu board. When nails sit at different depths, the pressure distribution under your foot becomes uneven; some points dig in painfully while others barely contact. The practice is hard to settle into when one spot hurts twice as much as the rest.

The solution is to set each nail individually, in a pre-drilled hole, and to check the height as you go. There is no factory process that does this reliably. The only way to get there is by hand, slowly, by a person who cares whether the next foot to stand on this board has an even experience. That is the labor in this board, and it is most of what you are paying for.

Can a sadhu board be an art object?

It can. The Love Energy Board is designed to be one — not as a separate claim from its practical function, but as a consequence of how it is made.

When you make a board from walnut instead of pine, finish it by hand instead of spraying it, set nails by hand instead of by machine, the object that results looks different. It looks like something a maker spent time on. It sits in a living room without apology. Several customers have hung theirs on the wall between uses (vertical, nails facing in) and reported that visitors do not initially understand what they are looking at — and then, when told, want to try it.

The practical implication is that you are more likely to use a board that is visible than one that is hidden. The board you keep in the closet is the board you use twice a year. The board you hang on the wall is the board you stand on three times a week. Making the object beautiful is, indirectly, a way of making the practice more likely.

Does a sadhu board make a good gift?

Yes, for the right person. No, for most other people. The longer answer lives in its own post; the short answer is that a sadhu board is a great gift for someone who already practices, who has mentioned the practice, or who has an established interest in sensory or somatic work. It is a poor gift for someone you are hoping will become that person — it lands as judgment rather than as offering.

If you are giving the Love Energy Board specifically, the board ships with a hand-folded two-page guide and arrives in unbranded packaging suitable for handoff at a holiday. There is no logo on the box, no marketing insert, no QR code. We send a separate email to the giver with the recipient's tracking number and never contact the recipient directly.

Who makes the Love Energy Board?

Rebeka — the founder of the brand and the maker of every board we ship. She came to the practice through her own teacher, made her first board for herself when she could not find one she trusted in the US, and started making them for friends, then for friends-of-friends, then full time. The workshop is in Los Angeles. The wood is sourced from a single small mill in Pennsylvania.

The board is signed and dated on the back. If yours ever has a problem — a nail loosens, a finish wears, the wood does something unexpected — you write to Rebeka, and she responds. There is no support inbox between you and the person who made the object. That is unusual for a $500 product, and it is the thing about this brand that we think matters most.

If you want to read more about how Rebeka started, see the about page. If you want to buy a board, it is here.

— Rebeka

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