Lately, I've been experimenting with just H3N OS @ 40 degrees and I feel like dayumn.
So if anyone has been reading my rants knows that I am not a huge fan of the orange sponge H3N, but I am real sucker for the blue sponge. Well, that might just be changing...
Before I had a 40 deg "dead" H3N laying around and I boosted it with the Winion "Seamoon" booster and it became fast as hell and felt pretty good. So good I was kinda shocked.
I've been to HK and I took there my Zhou Qihao SALC blade only. My girlfriend got me some cheapo Mantra Pro's Mantra Pro M and XH and I used them for a while like that. Both are great but I felt the XH is not exactly a LAC or a D09c or a H3N. Mantra M if anything it's reminding me of a boosted G-1 and the XH would be like a boosted G-1 Hard... if it was available.
Anyway, I'm more conditioned to friction rubbers on my FH side, so I went to a shop in Wan Chai and bought a plain-as-hell commercial 40deg 2.15mm H3N orange sponge. Glued it on and it was fine. Do I wish it was faster? YES. I wished it was a lot faster, but I learned how to use to opponents' speed and spin and it was awesome.
I'm back home sadly, and I was just using my W968 with G05 and G09c and it's very good but I have been kinda struggling against pips and players who do nothing. Where I couldn't use their speed or spin. This setup is slow and wasteful. All my big efforts are for not much output. I still won my matches but I was struggling when I should've won easily against weaker opponents. Against stronger ones I was fine.
So I had my "HK" racket assembled pretty much with the commercial H3N OS and Mantra Pro M. I didn't touch the Mantra Pro M, that is fine as it is I will only touch it when it's "wasted". However, I boosted the H3 like I did before the previously mentioned dead H3N and now this one is great too.
Some observations. Is it super fast? Well yes and no. It's still not very bouncy on very light hits, and it's not very bouncy on very hard hits. But it's super bouncy on medium hits. It's like a bell curve if anything...
This bounciness is an interesting thing. To me there are several different "bouncinesses" I feel like I should make a new thread about these just because it's so controversial so I won't spoil my thoughts here
I feel like beating around the bush so much sometimes but without all my thoughts and experiences it's hard to convey fully what I experience.
H3N OS boosted is magic. It is stable, and lifts the ball as required. It grips and stretches depending on the power you put in it, and it does nothing if you hit the ball like you wanna "knuckle it". Sure you can do it with blue sponge too but like BS is not that elastic in my view. BS is more stable and linear and that predictability makes it more attractive on a higher level. I also think BS can be boosted easier, but it bubbles easier too.
On a fast blade like a Viscaria or even faster like Super Viscaria I think the OS makes more sense since it makes more arc and more spin than BS. Or it might be just related to the harder koto top ply rather than the whole composition.
I'll be damned if I figure this out... But more repelling fast blade and rubber with higher arc makes some sense.
Just some side thoughts, I tried a few Chinese rubbers, most of them tried to imitate BS H3 but fairly few managed to hit the mark. In fact, most failed pretty miserably.
Double Fish Volant Phoenix blue sponge for me is too soft unboosted, if I would boost it I assume it will be super soft and unusable on FH.
Tuttle G20 blue sponge... horrible rubber. No spin at all. Avoid it.
Big Dipper blue sponge is okay as it has an OK sponge and factory boost etc, but the topsheet lacks so much.
Battle 2 BS... no speed no arc... Maybe for pen players? I don't like it.
Jupiter 3, no arc, good speed, topsheet lacks spin and engagement
Loki Arthur China, good topsheet, good sponge, durability is horrible. If you can buy it for 3USD every week then it's great.
Young Shine Dingtian, hmmm, I'm on the fence on this one. I got a great sheet first from Prott in 2021 which was excellent, but after I bought more in 2023 from TTNPP those were not so hot. The topsheet feels so much different and after boosting the sponge became soft as hell. For now I would avoid however I did like my first sheet.
I get
@Tony's Table Tennis stance on why H3 is the golden standard and quality and everyone else is just trying to copy them. H3 topsheet reacts great to seamoon, and both OS and BS sponge doesn't get softer but they get bouncier. And they do this while still being light and durable too.
