I accidentally made a Chinese rubber insanely tacky — so I started experimenting

[ejruk]

Hey all!

Pretty new player here — I've been playing for about a year or so.

I fell very much in love with the sport, but with kids and work I don't have the possibility to play as much as I'd like. I tend to satisfy my urges by spending way too much time on forums, reading up on equipment, watching videos and ordering shit from the internet 🙃

I also have a robot at home that I practice with.

Anyway, enough about me. Let's get to the point.

The mystery​

According to what I've been reading online, it seems like a lot of Chinese rubbers used to be considerably tackier just a few years ago, and then... something happened?

I've been searching for a really tacky forehand rubber and ordered several rubbers that I had read were supposed to be notoriously tacky.

To my disappointment, none of the ones I've tried have been nearly as tacky as some older reviews and forum posts describe them.

I've still found some very nice rubbers, and I fully understand that a rubber can produce great spin without being extremely tacky. But I was curious about the tackiness itself.

Then something strange happened.

During the summer I accidentally left my blade in the attic, where I have my robot, for about a week.

There is lots of dust up there and the temperature fluctuates quite heavily — things that, according to common sense, should probably be bad for a rubber.

But when I picked up the racket again, the rubber had become insanely tacky.

It wouldn't drop a ball at all when I held the racket upside down.

And when I played with it, it was a beast.

I couldn't let this go.

Something had clearly changed, but I had no idea what.

My best theory was the prolonged exposure to high daytime temperatures followed by lower temperatures at night, perhaps combined with condensation forming and drying repeatedly.

Unfortunately, summer is over here now, so I can't reproduce the exact attic conditions 1:1.

So naturally, instead of forgetting about it like a normal person, I bought more rubber and started experimenting.

The experiment​

I bought two more sheets of the same rubber and two sheets of commercial Hurricane 3, cut them into test pieces and started exposing them to pretty much everything I could think of.

I dug through forums looking for "established" methods people claim can restore or increase tackiness. I also read about rubber as a material in general — how it reacts to different substances, environmental exposure and ageing.

And then I added a few things that I fully expected to have a negative effect, simply because I was curious.

The two rubbers used were:

Rubber 1: Giant Dragon Submarine
Rubber 2: DHS Hurricane 3 Commercial

I limited the experiment to these two because Submarine was the rubber involved in the original attic incident, while H3 gave me a well-known Chinese rubber as a second reference.

A big disclaimer about the testing​

This was never intended to be a scientific experiment.

I originally did this purely to satisfy my own curiosity, so the evaluation method is admittedly sketchy.

I tested tack mainly by pressing a clean ball against each sample and lifting it, as well as pressing and rolling the ball against the surface to get a subjective feel for the tackiness.

In an ideal world I would have used many identical sheets mounted on blades, controlled pressure and proper timed ball-lift tests.

I didn't.

So treat small differences — especially anything marked with (?) — as subjective observations rather than hard measurements.

Basic procedure​

For the substance tests I generally used the following procedure:

Apply substance → let sit/dry for 2–3 hours → initial tack test → gently wash with a water-soaked towel → let dry → second tack test

The post-wash result was the part I was most interested in, since simply leaving an oily or sticky substance on the surface obviously doesn't necessarily mean the rubber itself has changed.

---

Substance exposure​

Glycerin ☹️​

Rubber 1 — Submarine

• Noticeable softening of the rubber itself.
• No tack at all before washing.
• After washing: slightly less tacky than the untreated rubber.

Rubber 2 — H3

• Minor softening.
• No tack before washing.
• After washing: slightly less tacky than untreated.

Result: No tack-enhancing effect. If anything, slightly negative.

---

Olive oil 😌​

Rubber 1

• Increased tack before washing.
• After washing: approximately back to original tack.

Rubber 2

• Increased tack before washing.
• After washing: possibly slightly tackier than original (?).

Result: Temporary increase, but little convincing evidence of a lasting effect.

---

Sunflower oil 😌​

Rubber 1

• Essentially the same result as olive oil.

Rubber 2

• Similar to olive oil before washing.
• No noticeable increase after washing (?).

Result: Mostly temporary surface tack.

---

Lemon oil 😖​

Rubber 1

• Slippery before washing.
• Still slippery after washing.

Rubber 2

• Slippery before washing.
• Still slippery after washing.

Result: Bad.

---

Linseed oil 😌​

Rubber 1

• Did not really dry.
• Possible minor increase in tack after washing (?).

Rubber 2

• Did not dry.
• No noticeable increase after washing.

Result: Inconclusive and messy.

---

Linseed oil soap 🙂​

Rubber 1

• Slippery before washing.
• Noticeable increase in tack after washing.

Rubber 2

• Slippery before washing.
• Minor increase in tack after washing.

Result: Surprisingly interesting, particularly on Submarine.

---

Hand soap 😞​

Rubber 1

• Possibly a very small decrease in tack after washing (?).

Rubber 2

• Possibly a very small decrease in tack after washing (?).

Result: Basically nothing useful.

---

Dishwashing liquid 🙃​

Rubber 1

• No noticeable difference after washing.

Rubber 2

• No noticeable difference after washing.

Result: No effect.

---

Hand disinfectant 😫​

Rubber 1

• Rubber ruined.

Rubber 2

• Rubber ruined.

Result: Well... don't do that.

---

Nail polish remover 😫​

Rubber 1

• Rubber ruined.

Rubber 2

• Rubber ruined.

Result: Also don't do that.

---

Bleach 😫​

Rubber 1

• Rubber became slightly stiffer.
• No improvement in tack.
• Might have longer-term effects, and I doubt they are positive.

Rubber 2

• No obvious change in stiffness.
• Possible minor decrease in tack (?).
• Again, possible longer-term effects.

Result: Nothing good happened.

---

Regular Stiga rubber cleaner 🙃​

Rubber 1

• No noticeable difference after one cleaning.

Rubber 2

• No noticeable difference after one cleaning.

This says nothing about the effects of repeated long-term use.

---

Revolution No. 3 Bio Cleaner & Rejuvenator 🙃​

Rubber 1

• No noticeable difference after one treatment.

Rubber 2

• No noticeable difference after one treatment.

---

Water 🙃​

Rubber 1

• No difference after one wash/exposure.

Rubber 2

• No difference after one wash/exposure.

---

And then there was sweat... 🙂​

This one surprised me.

Rubber 1 — Submarine

• Increased tack before washing.
• Retained increased tack after gentle wash.

Rubber 2 — H3

• Smaller effect than on Submarine.
• Minor increase in tack both before and after washing.

I reproduced this several times, and it actually seems to work.

Even more interestingly, the effect seems to become stronger when the process is repeated.

Submarine responds faster and more strongly than H3.

However, the effect does not appear to long term permanent. If I stop doing it and simply clean the rubber with water over the following sessions, the tack gradually returns to normal.

So far, this has been the most interesting and reproducible result of the experiment.

I don't know why it happens, and I'm not claiming that "sweat rejuvenates Chinese rubber". There are several possible factors involved in sweat, and my testing method isn't good enough to isolate them.

But the effect itself has been repeatable enough that I don't think I'm imagining it.

---

Environmental exposure​

I also tried several non-chemical/environmental treatments.

Heat — 50°C oven for 24 hours​

Result: No noticeable effect (!)

This surprised me considering the original attic incident.

Steam/mist from boiling water​

Result: No noticeable effect.

Refrigerator — approximately 5–6°C​

Result: No noticeable effect.

Freezer — below 0°C​

Result: Rubber became hard while cold. Obviously.

Once it returned to room temperature, I couldn't detect any short-term change in tack.

Dust — one week​

Before washing: Huge decrease in tack.

After washing: Back to approximately the original level.

Result: Dust itself doesn't seem to explain the attic rubber.

Sunlight — one week​

Result: Decreased tack on both rubbers.

---

So... what did I actually learn?​

First of all, I still haven't reproduced the insane tackiness of the original attic rubber.

That mystery remains unsolved.

Simple prolonged heat didn't reproduce it. Cooling didn't reproduce it. Dust didn't reproduce it. Steam didn't reproduce it. Sunlight actually made things worse.

Most of the substances people might intuitively expect to "condition" the rubber either did very little, produced only temporary surface tack, or actively damaged it.

There were, however, two interesting surprises: linseed oil soap and sweat.

Linseed oil soap — the small surprise 🙂​

Linseed oil soap was interesting because I didn't really expect much from it.

Immediately after application it actually made both rubbers slippery, which didn't look promising at all. But after washing it off, the result changed.

Submarine showed a noticeable increase in tack, while H3 showed a smaller increase.

The effect wasn't dramatic enough for me to draw any strong conclusions, and unlike the sweat test I haven't reproduced it enough times to feel confident about it. Still, among all the random substances I tried, this was one of the very few that appeared to leave the rubber more tacky after the substance itself had been washed away.

So I think it deserves an honourable mention — and probably some further testing.

Sweat — the big surprise 🙂​

For whatever reason, repeated sweat exposure produced a noticeable and reproducible increase in tackiness, especially on Giant Dragon Submarine.

The effect remained after gentle washing but gradually decreased after normal water cleaning over subsequent sessions.

Even more interestingly, repeated treatments seemed to intensify the effect. Submarine responded faster and more strongly than H3, but I could observe the same general behaviour on both rubbers.

Again, I don't know why this happens.

I'm very curious about what component of the sweat is responsible — salts, skin oils, moisture, pH, some combination of them, or something else entirely.

And then there is still the original attic incident.

Maybe temperature cycling matters more than temperature alone. Maybe humidity/condensation was involved. Maybe several factors acted together. Or maybe there was something completely different going on that I haven't thought of.

So at this point my completely unscientific ranking of interesting results would probably be:

1. The attic incident — by far the largest increase in tack, but still unexplained and not reproduced.

2. Sweat — the most interesting result because the increase in tack was noticeable, repeatable and seemed to intensify with repeated exposure.

3. Linseed oil soap — a smaller surprise, but interesting because tack appeared to increase after the soap had been washed away.

Everything else ranged from "basically nothing happened" to "congratulations, you have ruined a perfectly good piece of rubber."

Either way, I've now spent an unreasonable amount of time rubbing random substances onto pieces of Chinese table-tennis rubber.

In the name of questionable hobby science. 🫡🏓

 

[Haito]

🫡🏓

Try table tennis booster, there was a few guys on the forum showing good results.

 

[ejruk]

🫡🏓

Try table tennis booster, there was a few guys on the forum showing good results.

Ohhh, something to add to the list!

 

[Tyce]

It's not unlikely that the exposure has simply degraded the top layer of the rubber, like those coatings you get on PC mice that just get sticky over time.

If your bat was placed with the rubber face down on a surface, this may have been the same effect you can get when you stick a protection sheet on for a long time - especially with the rubber just slightly damp - it will build tack like nothing else. Spray, hand dry, stick a sheet of plastic on and put away for multiple weeks.

 

[jk1980]

i would have suspected your cat having a piss on your rubber ... did you try to squeeze some fresh cat piss onto the topsheet ?

 

[Archosaurus]

🫡🏓

Try table tennis booster, there was a few guys on the forum showing good results.

Basically all of my Chinese rubbers become a bit stickier after boosting (to the ball, and to my hand), although I feel like the effect wears off in a few hours of hitting, so it doesn't seem permanent.

 

[Conehead]

If sweat basically does the trick, have you tried salty mineral water?

 

[Wakkibatty]

I have a whole bunch of left field questions for you regarding your attic results (if you don't mind me asking them, that is).

You've really gotten me hugely curious now, both with your answers, and with the results of your other tests.

I actually have a bit of a theory as to what might have caused the increase in your rubber's tackiness, but really I need a bit of extra information before I can be sure.

(Besides which it gives me a chance to make believe I'm Sherlock Holmes here for a moment, and that this is a proper three pint problem (cause seriously...who doesnt love the idea of three pints in a row with nothing to do but think? 🤣🤣🤣)

One thing I can say with reasonable authority is it certainly wasn't the dust that made it stickier 🤣🤣

... but then again it also really depends on the type of dust and what it was made from i suppode. 🤔🤔 ...but I digress.

First question -- if i may be so rude as to ask -- what is the house in question made from, generally speaking? Timber? Brick? Concrete? Ice? (... hey, It may be an igloo for all I know 😂)

Secondly, what sort of construction style does the house have? Is it a single story? Double story? Is it weatherboard? Single brick? Double brick? Tin roof? Tiled roof? Shingle roof? Is it new? Is it old?

If its old, then how old? If its a shingle roof, what kind?

Thirdly, what sort of climate is the house located in? Tropical? Sub tropical? Temperate? Sub Arctic? What latitude approximately does the house exist at?

Fourthly, what were the summer temperatures like at the time generally speaking? When you say the bat was exposed to temperature variations, how big a variation are we talking about?

What about humidity? Does the house in question get humid in summer? Were the evenings humid?

Now here comes the Sherlock homes / three pint problem bit... and I'm really going out on a limb here, so please don't laugh at me too loudly if I'm horribly wrong.

Here's the situation I *think* might have led to your rubbers getting better... and please remember I'm mostly guessing here.

I think it was an accidental by-product of the way your house was built and designed.

The fact you could even fit a table tennis table in the attic suggests to me your house has more than one story, and probably also have a high roof with a very steep pitch in that attic.

Am I right?

As you have both your robot and table in your attic, that suggests to me that your attic has a decent amount of head room to it.

But I'm also guessing its probably got less than 10 feet or so of headspace.

If it IS a large attic, they sometimes come with a window or skylight.

I'm willing to bet that yours does.

But Im also willing to bet it either wasn't open during that week, or else it can't open.

Am I right?

If I'm right, I'm also betting there was some sunlight shining into the room while the bat was up there for a week or so.

But im also guessing it wasn't direct sunlight. And I'm betting it wasn't shining directly on the bat itself at the time.
Am I right?

I'm also guessing the sunlight shone instead onto some sort of moderately glossy or reflective surfaces that were moderately near the bat.

Possibly the table itself, or else the floor nearby.

I'm also guessing while your bat was up there, you left it near the table - but NOT lying flat on the table.

Most likely it was leaning against a net post, or something similar.

Now --- here's the really big questions, and the really big assumptions.

Does your attic have exposed roof beams? A lot of attics do, I'm betting yours might too.

If it does have exposed roof beams, are they made from timber, or timber products like chipboard / mdf or the like?

I'm betting they are. Or else the floorboards are.

Based on everything you've mentioned so far, I have a sneaky suspicion there is an better than average chance, there's a fair amount of timber and/or manufactured timber products located in that attic of yours somewhere.

Real timber is a bit more likely to my mind than than timber products though. (Maybe the wall frames have timber in them? Only you could know for sure).

And if I was REALLY willing to go out on a limb based on nothing but a few deductive hunches, and three really lovely pints of larger...

..im guessing most likely that timber in your attic is some species of resinous softwood.

I'm thinking Pine, cedar, spruce, fir, cypress......something in that sort of ball park.

If that's not the case,
then I'm guessing either that attic or a fair few things in it are made from processed timber products like MDF..

...or else your TT table is probably less than seven years old, and is quite possibly made from Chinese MDF.

I say all this because I think over summer, your attic had just the right conditions to act as a fume tent and collect large amounts of natural terpenes and other natural VOCs being released by resinous timbers in the surrounding structure.

Those terpenes most likely came from the surrounding wood gassing the stuff off due to higher daytime temperatures up there.

In otherwords, your bat was soaking in / repeatedly soaked in significant concentrations of gaseous softwood terpenes for a week.

Potentially enough of the stuff for your rubber to start soaking it in, to the point it got a load stickier through the VOCs in the air breaking down the rubbers natural viscosity.

The big giveaway is your bat responded to linseed oil soap. Linseed oil comes from rapeseed, which IIRC is also rich in volatile terpenes.

Either that, or iyour rubber was just naturally coated in a very fine layer of condensed pine rosin.

And if im wrong about the timber?

Then the other possibility is there's a bunch of moderately new-ish mdf up there, and that the summer temperatures became enough for it to start leeching out gaseous formaldehyde.

In which case, maybe its worth stopping practising in your attic during the summer months.

So how'd I do?

Am I right in any of the above at all? 🙂🙂

...or is that a rediculous amount of raucous laughter I hear away in the distance? 🤣🤣🤣🤣

 

[oophyte]

The Chinese lady who sold me my first assembled racket back then told me to clean the H3 with sweat after each use. So, I guess I pose to you the question that I wish I had asked her:

How does one consistently sweat enough to clean 2 pieces of rubber?

And while we are being scientifically experimental, is there a difference in results between sweat collected from the torso, hair, arms, face, or --for those of us who are gifted in such domain-- armpit?

 

[Wakkibatty]

The Chinese lady who sold me my first assembled racket back then told me to clean the H3 with sweat after each use. So, I guess I pose to you the question that I wish I had asked her:

How does one consistently sweat enough to clean 2 pieces of rubber?

And while we are being scientifically experimental, is there a difference in results between sweat collected from the torso, hair, arms, face, or --for those of us who are gifted in such domain-- armpit?

Sweat is (or can be) surprisingly acidic stuff. It's pH can sometimes be the same as mild vinegar in some cases.

Sweat also contains sebum, which is a natural skin oil. So badically the sweat on your hands can have enough natural oil in it to semi-boost a rubber's top sheet.

 

[mamedium]

moral of the story: need an attic first

 

[Tiz]

When you stored your racket in the attic, was it inside a bag or with film protectors, or by itself, in other words was the rubbers exposed or contained/covered?

 

[Coolsta Connor]

I'm very interested about this, thanks for sharing!

 

[Archosaurus]

The Chinese lady who sold me my first assembled racket back then told me to clean the H3 with sweat after each use. So, I guess I pose to you the question that I wish I had asked her:

How does one consistently sweat enough to clean 2 pieces of rubber?

And while we are being scientifically experimental, is there a difference in results between sweat collected from the torso, hair, arms, face, or --for those of us who are gifted in such domain-- armpit?

I'd like to find out how to NOT sweat enough to clean two rubbers. Maybe that explains why my tacky rubbers stay tacky effectively forever.