Discussing blade composition ideas

[SlowPower]

Hello everybody,

I dont know if there is any topic like this.

Just thought it would be cool to discuss some ideas for new blades.
Maybe other blade crafters want to join and we could exchange tips or knowledge about problems one could run into.

So I am gonna start with my 1st idea.

I came across some ancient Kauri veneer and I am just thrilled by the idea to use this 50.000y old wood in a blade.
Only using coniferous wood is a thing I wanted to try earlier, so this could be a good possibility.
I want a blade with 85-90g not head heavy, so I will use a handle with aprox 20g of weight.

Thickest coniferous veneer I have is spruce in 1mm so it has to become a 7 ply construction.
Core from 3x spruce (1 parallel, 2 in 90°) and then 4x Kauri parallel.
This should come out in about 5,8mm and 70g without handle, using 4g glue per layer.
Outer layers will be glued with epoxy to avoid curving wood.

This should be an ALL blade with soft touch and decent catapult. Very thin for a 7 ply blade but I have done this before and I find nothing bad about that.

What do you think?

 

[Lazer]

Hello everybody,

I dont know if there is any topic like this.

Just thought it would be cool to discuss some ideas for new blades.
Maybe other blade crafters want to join and we could exchange tips or knowledge about problems one could run into.

So I am gonna start with my 1st idea.

I came across some ancient Kauri veneer and I am just thrilled by the idea to use this 50.000y old wood in a blade.
Only using coniferous wood is a thing I wanted to try earlier, so this could be a good possibility.
I want a blade with 85-90g not head heavy, so I will use a handle with aprox 20g of weight.

Thickest coniferous veneer I have is spruce in 1mm so it has to become a 7 ply construction.
Core from 3x spruce (1 parallel, 2 in 90°) and then 4x Kauri parallel.
This should come out in about 5,8mm and 70g without handle, using 4g glue per layer.
Outer layers will be glued with epoxy to avoid curving wood.

This should be an ALL blade with soft touch and decent catapult. Very thin for a 7 ply blade but I have done this before and I find nothing bad about that.

What do you think?

"This should be an ALL blade with soft touch and decent catapult. Very thin for a 7 ply blade but I have done this before and I find nothing bad about that."

This will forfeit the beauty of an ancient wood. Its probably so hard and fragile it can not be in top layer so You must hide it within. I think it sounds like a bad idea. It may fit as an intermediate hard layer below spruce or hinoki, but there are other woods that work for this purpose as well. I would use it in a context where it is fully visible.
For instance, iron oak (I don't know what the desert slow growing wood is called in English) is used i.e. as exclusive knife handles.

Cheers
L-zr

 

[SlowPower]

Thanks for your input!

Why do you think the Kauri ist too hard and fragile?
The techical data I found about it say its rather light and soft.

If I am wrong- I also made some blades with oak, padouk ans amaranth outer layer (one sided) and there are even blades with ebony outer (Stiga).

Hiding this wood is no option as you said, id rather use it for my loudspeakers then!

 

[Lazer]

Thanks for your input!

Why do you think the Kauri ist too hard and fragile?
The techical data I found about it say its rather light and soft.

If I am wrong- I also made some blades with oak, padouk ans amaranth outer layer (one sided) and there are even blades with ebony outer (Stiga).

Hiding this wood is no option as you said, id rather use it for my loudspeakers then!

It will be fossilized after so long, this means really really fragile. Those blades I don't care for, but if you move that hard layer to underneath its a different story...

Cheers
L-zr

 

[SlowPower]

Hello again,

I bought some sheets of ancient Kauri "in the neighbourhood" (only an hour away) and I have to say I really like it at first glance.
It's weight is comparable to the weight of koto, though it seems to be a little softer (easier to cut). Some sheets are heavier, some less heavy (I got sheets of 3 different badges).

I made the first blade with it, but totally different from what I first thought, using the heaviest sheets (around 19g at 17x27cm and 0,6mm).
Medium dense 5mm Balsa core, 155g/m2 Hemp fiber, Okume, Kauri.

It plays nice, very nice indeed. I used it the last 2 sessions and was able to beat 3 players with 50 to 120 ttr points more than I have.
It has a soft touch, good blocking ability and yet enough spin potential using C1 on BH and K3 on FH.

It doesn't splinter more than other woods but you are right that it is a little fragile as it easily separates along the grain if you don't handle it with care.
Right now I am making two viscaria like alc blades with Kauri instead of koto with the lighter sheets of the Kauri veneer and it got cracked along the grain while pressing it.
I thing I have to moisten it a little before pressing next time...

 

[Wakkibatty]

Honestly never researched swamp kauri much... How does it compare mechanically to regular kauri? (apart from being prone to splitting that is?)

... Really nice sheen on it by the way 🙂🙂 Nice job.

 

[SlowPower]

Thank you- I will make some better pics this evening. The handle doesnt look that booring in reality.

The German Wikipedia says that strength values of swamp kauri are a little behind compared to today's kauri wood.
Here I found some data to kauri but its not specified which kauri it is.

https://raanz.org.nz/techproject/wood.html

Wood-database.com states the same properties for both, ancient and recent kauri wood.

 

[SlowPower]

It will be fossilized after so long, this means really really fragile. Those blades I don't care for, but if you move that hard layer to underneath its a different story...

Cheers
L-zr

The swamp kauri is not fossilized- its used for guitars, furniture, pens, and other wood art.
You can read about it a lot.

If the ALC blade behaves good with kauri outer ply I will buy some more sheets as I ve just read that excavating swamp kauri has been stopped.

 

[SlowPower]

Here is another pic of the handle- there is a nice variation of brown and purple in it...

 

[SlowPower]

I was wrong about the ALC- thats the overnext one already prepared on my desk.

But here is my 2nd Kauri blade (3rd one is exactly the same).
Kauri-175g glascarbon-okume-kiri-glascarbon-okume-kauri.
95g but with 25g handle. 5,8mm and 1290hz.

I am very curious and will play it next Tuesday in a training session.

As glas is heavier than aramid the 175g fibre is a little less rigid compared to alc also since alc comes in at 200g/m2.
I like glas-carbon and it is less expensive than alc.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

wow, beauty
so cool
make your own and you don't like it, you can customize the next one

 

[Wakkibatty]

The swamp kauri is not fossilized- its used for guitars, furniture, pens, and other wood art.
You can read about it a lot.

If the ALC blade behaves good with kauri outer ply I will buy some more sheets as I ve just read that excavating swamp kauri has been stopped.

Yeah that's right -- apparently because of its naturally high oil content, you can bury the stuff in a swamp for 1,000 years and it's still useable.

The stuff doesn't rot, as water can't penetrate into the wood. Huon Pine from Australia is exactly the same 🙂

 

[SlowPower]

I played the bat yesterday as written before. G1 1,8 on BH and MK 2,0 on FH.

Blocking and backhand was a dream, it felt very stable and familiar. FH was nothing special and felt a little weaker than with my current setup (same rubbers +blade but alc and koto instead of carbon-glas and kauri). But the MK is a little older on the kauri setup so maybe its just this.
What I like more about the alc is the cracking sound which the carbonglas in the kauri blade doesnt have.

It was not my best day and I had fever from an inflammation in the jaw the day before but I managed to beat the best opponent so far. A player from our 1st team (I am in the 4th) and with 225 points more.

So I will definitely give it another try next weak (cant train a 2nd time this week 🙄).

If anybody is interested- Id send a kauri blade to anyone for testing purpose within the EU if this person pays shippment (other blades as well)...

 

[SlowPower]

Yeah that's right -- apparently because of its naturally high oil content, you can bury the stuff in a swamp for 1,000 years and it's still useable.

The stuff doesn't rot, as water can't penetrate into the wood. Huon Pine from Australia is exactly the same 🙂

Didnt find much about the Huon Pine- but here in europe you can find "mooreiche" which has also been conserved buried and is very beautiful and unique.