This topic will be very interesing ones for everyone here in this forum.
I'm not sure how much agreeable for you this analysis will be,because it's not about mechanic calcuation only.
In some ways, this part should be considering each player's different style.
For examples, how the swing goes, what angle is comfortable for back hand & fore hand stroke and loopings, how long the ball stays on the blade when he makes spinny shot, what's the impact of the swing movement when he make powerful top spin, how he rubs the ball when he wants to make a pimple out rubbers' effect to the maximum.......and so on.
So, this article will be general one, and I hope you don't expect me to be a fortune teller for table tennis blades.
Ok, let's start with the "staying moment".
This term "staying moment" is what I made to explain what I think about surface material.
When you make a top spin shot, you can see some people keep the ball on the blade for certain moment, enough to see how he makes big spin on the ball. Normally, this movement goes little bit round way, but linear or straight.
The blade draws big circle around.
But when you become faster and more powerful, then you easily moves into quicker movement.
Some players use their wrist when they make top spin shot, from back to forward, not only from down to up.
If this movement happens in a very short impact moment, then you can feel the looping becomes a lot more powerful.
If you have a chance to play against top players, then you will know that their ball is more powerful than you see and guess.
You need to keep your blade tight, and be stable when you block, because the flying ball seems to push away your blade back.
And you will be thinking why my top spin is not that fast?
How I can make my top spin that fast?
And some of you might have tried to make faster swing movement.
But only to find that faster movement is not the practical answer.
As I told you, some times it's about writst movement, or arm folding....or....
But I can say one sure thing. It's about impact.
When you hit the ball with your blade, the blade was at the highest speed, and the ball needs to be smashed both ways, from down to up, and also from back to forth.
It't too simple answer, so you will think it's not that special.
But then again, please, think about what will happen to the ball and rubbers when you make that powerful shot.
In that moment, the ball goes into the rubber, from top sheet into sponge, and finally into wooden surface.
For powerful loopers, this impact happens all the time.
They know how to make the ball touches deep even into wood.
So, when you make this powerful shot, even though you are doing looping, still you can hear the big sound of the ball's impact on the wooden surface of the blade.
If you don't hear the sound which normally happens when you smash without spinny movement when you do looping, then it menas that you are not doing those top player's shot.
Any way, it's not all the important factor in table tennis.
As far as I know, there are some good players who can not make this "bang" sound when they loop, but still they are really powerful.
By the way, whenever I make a blade, I discriminate the "staying moment" for general swing movement from this "bang" looping movement.
Some blades can be good for general swing, but not good for "bang impact".
I don't want to degrade Chinese blades, but lots of chinese blades are not good for this "bang impact" shot.
They tend to focus on the feeling and power onto the table movement, which should be about small but quick swing.
So, they don't think whey a blade has to be powerful with that "bang impact" shot.
If you have "bang impact" shot, and if you use that shot onto the table, then your opponent can not even see the ball. The ball just disapears.
The impact generated by this "bang impact" shot distorts the top sheet of the rubber, and also distorts the sponge upon to the blade surface, making big "bang" sound.
Ok, now let's get to the point.
So, now you know there are two different loopings, from my category.
Now I will show the general differaces of three materials.
1. General hardness
Hinoki is normally very soft. It becomes damaged easily, so you need to be careful about it.
Limba is still soft, but harder than Hinoki.
Koto is hard. This one is very hard and solid.
2. Feeling
I don't know how to express this part. But I will try it.
Hinoki feels sticky. When you loop, the ball seems to follow the movement of Hinoki.
Limba feels embracing the ball into it. But this depends on how thick limba you use. Generally, most blade uses thin limba less than 0.7mm, and you will feel they are holding the ball into the center.
Koto is hard, and normally we use thin ply for the surface. Koto is hard and also heavy, so we don't use it into the middle ply.
Generally, designers believed that hard surface will not be good for making big spin. But recently, they are using Koto in many blades, because with Koto, they can make use of full effect of rubber.
If you use Koto on the surface, it should be very thin, if not, too solid. But if this is thin, then Koto works like a metal plate, with which you can have good effect of rubber.
Any way, if you ask what will be the moderate thickness for them, I think for Hinoki, it will be from 0.8mm to 1.4mm, and for Limba, it will be from 0.3mm~0.7mm, and for Koto, it will be 0.3~0.5mm.
But that's only what I concluded.
Ok, let's move on further.
When I design my hinoki surface blades, I used high quality Japanese Hinoki.
Hinoki has many grades.
If you look into the surface of Hinoki, you will see there are lines.
One line means one season change, I mean one year.
So, if you want to use Hinoki for a blade, then it has to be older than 200 years.
If not, the width is not enough to cover one blade.
And generally, people don't like the blade with several hinoki fragments.
Any way, if the line is wide, there could be two possibilities.
That wood is not good. If the mather tree was young, then the lines would be wider, because they are new.
And the feeling is soft and speed is not very fast.
Another possibility is that the material has come from the core part of a big old tree.
In that case, it's also soft and speed is not very fast.
But the price of those two material is widely different.
If the material is from the core part of several hundred years old tree, it's exteremly expensive.
Any way, I use soft Hinoki for all the blades.
And I prefer to use thick ones.
Geneally, many hinoki blades' surface is 0.5mm thick. But I use normally thicker than that.
When you use hard hinoki, then maybe 0.5mm will be ok, but if you prefer to use soft hinoki, then it has to be thicker.
If not, the ball will be affected by second ply much, not by hinoki only, therefore you can not get the full effect from Hinoki surface.
Let me give a practical example.
Here are two blades, one is Dexter and the other one is Hannibal.
For Dexter, my purpose was quite simple.
I wanted to make a 5-ply blade, which is faster than normal carbon blade.
So, I had to make the center ply thick, and use fast sprus on the second.
But if I make the blade too fast, then I was worried it could be too much bouncy.
So, I had to find some material which makes the ball spinny, even though the "staying moment" of a ball is very short.
In that case, Hinoki will be the best answer.
This blade is like an anouncement for me.
Nexy is different. It's very bold brand.
And I wanted to prove it by showing the fastest 5-ply blade, Dexter.
But for Hannibal, my purpose was quite the other way.
So far, carbon seems to be quite attractive material.
But the problem of it is, it feels too much aritificial.
So, some european makers tried to use it in the third position, or to use very thin carbon.
Some brands even did not use it, while they say they use it.
They mixed the carbon powder into the glue, and the said it's light carbon blade.
But in that case, that carbon glue ply becomes little by little shaken, and eventually changes the chracter of the blade.
So, some makers tried to use only one line carbon, which means they don't use carbon as one ply.
And some makers started to mix carbon layer with other artificial materials.
Any way, I thought carbon layer is very attractive material, with all that problems.
As for me, the biggest problem is not about feeling only. I was a lot more interested in how I can make it effective for "bang impact" swing.
As you might have experienced, lots of carbon blades are good when you practice basic skills, but in a match, they don't have good spin and feeling, and they are not that much powerful, even though they are fast.
So, I started to think, how I can prolong "staying moment" for a fast "bang impact" swing.
And I found out the solution.
I used very light and reslient wood for the center ply.
And I chose very soft hinoki, but thicker than most other blades.
So, it's around 1.3mm thick.
With these two new factors, now I could get very good "staying moment" needed for "bang impact" shot for Hannibal.
Some one asked me what blade can be good for short pimple out players, and I think this Hannibal can be good for that style.
This blade has very powerful smash, but also it has enough"staying moment" needed for a person who wants to make use of pimple out effect in it's full coverage.
Regarding Koto, I have one Koto blade, Ikarus.
And I'm going to release another Koto blade, Labyrinthos.
The reason I use Koto for those blades is I want to make the pimple out's effect bigger.
Actually, there could be several different styls regarding pimple out players.
And if I use soft material, then the "staying moment" can be longer than koto.
But in that case, pimple out's effect is affected by that softness also.
Most push blockers prefer OX, because they have bigger effect, then you can understand why I use hard and solid Koto on the srface.
If I use soft surface, it will be like I add thin sponge onto OX rubber.
Regarding MUSIRO and MILARGE, I used Limba, because I wanted to add more control than other normal blades, by which you can become more stable, even though you use long pimple out rubber.
On the contrary, I use Koto for Ikarus and Labyrinthos, because I want to maximise the pimple out's effect onto it.
Ok, it was not a short story, but I think most people would have got something from this passage.
Some of my expanation will not be exact with the blade you have, because it's not that simple.
If you use the same material, but still the effect can vary depending on weight of each material and also on composition together.
So, I don't expect you to take my writing into a certain decisive conclusion, but rather as a way to understand your blade better.
Thank you for reading this long article through
I'm not sure how much agreeable for you this analysis will be,because it's not about mechanic calcuation only.
In some ways, this part should be considering each player's different style.
For examples, how the swing goes, what angle is comfortable for back hand & fore hand stroke and loopings, how long the ball stays on the blade when he makes spinny shot, what's the impact of the swing movement when he make powerful top spin, how he rubs the ball when he wants to make a pimple out rubbers' effect to the maximum.......and so on.
So, this article will be general one, and I hope you don't expect me to be a fortune teller for table tennis blades.
Ok, let's start with the "staying moment".
This term "staying moment" is what I made to explain what I think about surface material.
When you make a top spin shot, you can see some people keep the ball on the blade for certain moment, enough to see how he makes big spin on the ball. Normally, this movement goes little bit round way, but linear or straight.
The blade draws big circle around.
But when you become faster and more powerful, then you easily moves into quicker movement.
Some players use their wrist when they make top spin shot, from back to forward, not only from down to up.
If this movement happens in a very short impact moment, then you can feel the looping becomes a lot more powerful.
If you have a chance to play against top players, then you will know that their ball is more powerful than you see and guess.
You need to keep your blade tight, and be stable when you block, because the flying ball seems to push away your blade back.
And you will be thinking why my top spin is not that fast?
How I can make my top spin that fast?
And some of you might have tried to make faster swing movement.
But only to find that faster movement is not the practical answer.
As I told you, some times it's about writst movement, or arm folding....or....
But I can say one sure thing. It's about impact.
When you hit the ball with your blade, the blade was at the highest speed, and the ball needs to be smashed both ways, from down to up, and also from back to forth.
It't too simple answer, so you will think it's not that special.
But then again, please, think about what will happen to the ball and rubbers when you make that powerful shot.
In that moment, the ball goes into the rubber, from top sheet into sponge, and finally into wooden surface.
For powerful loopers, this impact happens all the time.
They know how to make the ball touches deep even into wood.
So, when you make this powerful shot, even though you are doing looping, still you can hear the big sound of the ball's impact on the wooden surface of the blade.
If you don't hear the sound which normally happens when you smash without spinny movement when you do looping, then it menas that you are not doing those top player's shot.
Any way, it's not all the important factor in table tennis.
As far as I know, there are some good players who can not make this "bang" sound when they loop, but still they are really powerful.
By the way, whenever I make a blade, I discriminate the "staying moment" for general swing movement from this "bang" looping movement.
Some blades can be good for general swing, but not good for "bang impact".
I don't want to degrade Chinese blades, but lots of chinese blades are not good for this "bang impact" shot.
They tend to focus on the feeling and power onto the table movement, which should be about small but quick swing.
So, they don't think whey a blade has to be powerful with that "bang impact" shot.
If you have "bang impact" shot, and if you use that shot onto the table, then your opponent can not even see the ball. The ball just disapears.
The impact generated by this "bang impact" shot distorts the top sheet of the rubber, and also distorts the sponge upon to the blade surface, making big "bang" sound.
Ok, now let's get to the point.
So, now you know there are two different loopings, from my category.
Now I will show the general differaces of three materials.
1. General hardness
Hinoki is normally very soft. It becomes damaged easily, so you need to be careful about it.
Limba is still soft, but harder than Hinoki.
Koto is hard. This one is very hard and solid.
2. Feeling
I don't know how to express this part. But I will try it.
Hinoki feels sticky. When you loop, the ball seems to follow the movement of Hinoki.
Limba feels embracing the ball into it. But this depends on how thick limba you use. Generally, most blade uses thin limba less than 0.7mm, and you will feel they are holding the ball into the center.
Koto is hard, and normally we use thin ply for the surface. Koto is hard and also heavy, so we don't use it into the middle ply.
Generally, designers believed that hard surface will not be good for making big spin. But recently, they are using Koto in many blades, because with Koto, they can make use of full effect of rubber.
If you use Koto on the surface, it should be very thin, if not, too solid. But if this is thin, then Koto works like a metal plate, with which you can have good effect of rubber.
Any way, if you ask what will be the moderate thickness for them, I think for Hinoki, it will be from 0.8mm to 1.4mm, and for Limba, it will be from 0.3mm~0.7mm, and for Koto, it will be 0.3~0.5mm.
But that's only what I concluded.
Ok, let's move on further.
When I design my hinoki surface blades, I used high quality Japanese Hinoki.
Hinoki has many grades.
If you look into the surface of Hinoki, you will see there are lines.
One line means one season change, I mean one year.
So, if you want to use Hinoki for a blade, then it has to be older than 200 years.
If not, the width is not enough to cover one blade.
And generally, people don't like the blade with several hinoki fragments.
Any way, if the line is wide, there could be two possibilities.
That wood is not good. If the mather tree was young, then the lines would be wider, because they are new.
And the feeling is soft and speed is not very fast.
Another possibility is that the material has come from the core part of a big old tree.
In that case, it's also soft and speed is not very fast.
But the price of those two material is widely different.
If the material is from the core part of several hundred years old tree, it's exteremly expensive.
Any way, I use soft Hinoki for all the blades.
And I prefer to use thick ones.
Geneally, many hinoki blades' surface is 0.5mm thick. But I use normally thicker than that.
When you use hard hinoki, then maybe 0.5mm will be ok, but if you prefer to use soft hinoki, then it has to be thicker.
If not, the ball will be affected by second ply much, not by hinoki only, therefore you can not get the full effect from Hinoki surface.
Let me give a practical example.
Here are two blades, one is Dexter and the other one is Hannibal.
For Dexter, my purpose was quite simple.
I wanted to make a 5-ply blade, which is faster than normal carbon blade.
So, I had to make the center ply thick, and use fast sprus on the second.
But if I make the blade too fast, then I was worried it could be too much bouncy.
So, I had to find some material which makes the ball spinny, even though the "staying moment" of a ball is very short.
In that case, Hinoki will be the best answer.
This blade is like an anouncement for me.
Nexy is different. It's very bold brand.
And I wanted to prove it by showing the fastest 5-ply blade, Dexter.
But for Hannibal, my purpose was quite the other way.
So far, carbon seems to be quite attractive material.
But the problem of it is, it feels too much aritificial.
So, some european makers tried to use it in the third position, or to use very thin carbon.
Some brands even did not use it, while they say they use it.
They mixed the carbon powder into the glue, and the said it's light carbon blade.
But in that case, that carbon glue ply becomes little by little shaken, and eventually changes the chracter of the blade.
So, some makers tried to use only one line carbon, which means they don't use carbon as one ply.
And some makers started to mix carbon layer with other artificial materials.
Any way, I thought carbon layer is very attractive material, with all that problems.
As for me, the biggest problem is not about feeling only. I was a lot more interested in how I can make it effective for "bang impact" swing.
As you might have experienced, lots of carbon blades are good when you practice basic skills, but in a match, they don't have good spin and feeling, and they are not that much powerful, even though they are fast.
So, I started to think, how I can prolong "staying moment" for a fast "bang impact" swing.
And I found out the solution.
I used very light and reslient wood for the center ply.
And I chose very soft hinoki, but thicker than most other blades.
So, it's around 1.3mm thick.
With these two new factors, now I could get very good "staying moment" needed for "bang impact" shot for Hannibal.
Some one asked me what blade can be good for short pimple out players, and I think this Hannibal can be good for that style.
This blade has very powerful smash, but also it has enough"staying moment" needed for a person who wants to make use of pimple out effect in it's full coverage.
Regarding Koto, I have one Koto blade, Ikarus.
And I'm going to release another Koto blade, Labyrinthos.
The reason I use Koto for those blades is I want to make the pimple out's effect bigger.
Actually, there could be several different styls regarding pimple out players.
And if I use soft material, then the "staying moment" can be longer than koto.
But in that case, pimple out's effect is affected by that softness also.
Most push blockers prefer OX, because they have bigger effect, then you can understand why I use hard and solid Koto on the srface.
If I use soft surface, it will be like I add thin sponge onto OX rubber.
Regarding MUSIRO and MILARGE, I used Limba, because I wanted to add more control than other normal blades, by which you can become more stable, even though you use long pimple out rubber.
On the contrary, I use Koto for Ikarus and Labyrinthos, because I want to maximise the pimple out's effect onto it.
Ok, it was not a short story, but I think most people would have got something from this passage.
Some of my expanation will not be exact with the blade you have, because it's not that simple.
If you use the same material, but still the effect can vary depending on weight of each material and also on composition together.
So, I don't expect you to take my writing into a certain decisive conclusion, but rather as a way to understand your blade better.
Thank you for reading this long article through
