Recent content by frankhond

Whatever they do to the Neo (and for example Jupiter 2) smells really bad. H8 doesn’t smell like that, neither do the provincial H3 rubbers that my coach uses. I have a whole thread about this topic so we needn’t debate that here.

@Chen Chen a most informative thread! But for me there is a question how to continue with Chinese rubbers. I currently found a nice setup with H8 on a powerful 5 ply blade (Stiga Exclusive). But. The H8 is heavy and total weight is ≈199g. The blade is 91g so each cut sheet of rubber is 54g. It...

This is a really good video, I know now exactly what I’m missing!

And how does it play? Well, I got exactly what I wanted - that little extra in awkward positions, the ball now lands on the table, often in really nasty places. I could lay down some real forehand bombs too from mid distance, there is some extra power here for sure. The short touch game is still...

Update: I got the Stiga Exclusive and moved the rubbers onto it. The whole setup weighs 198.5g! The blade is 91g (this model is designed to be a bit heavy) which is 5g more and slightly elongated compared to the Hadraw SK. With these rubbers it certainly isn’t less top heavy, maybe more so. I...

Thanks for the innerforce suggestions. On paper it looks like a solution but all those inner carbon material options is another variable. It could well be I’ll end up with one of those eventually but need to understand the behavior of faster wood first. By the time that’s done maybe the prices...

Super helpful, thanks for taking the time to respond in such detail! I’ll take it one step at a time. First a faster blade... Then I’ll move the h8’s and see what happens. I guess the takeaway here is that the h8/h3 are inconsistent and heavy in their own way with subtle differences one needs...

Hm yeah apparently prices vary... where I’m at a euro is expensive and a local dealer has H8 at a good price.

@nivekkan well I’m thinking how to reduce weight mainly for balance, the Hadraw SK has a thin handle and becomes a bit baseball bat with two heavy rubbers. The two blades I mentioned come with larger ST handles and are a bit heavier in general which probably helps. If some extra grams can be...

@Patrick Hrdlicka Ah, your review was what got me into the 8 in the first place. The Andro looks like a fast 5 ply wood blade, I was myself thinking of a Stiga Exclusive (a fast 5 ply TTEX custom blade with what looks like walnut outer ply) so that's along the same lines. Or as a slower...

@nivekkan I'm thinking to go for a faster blade but not necessarily carbon, only fast enough to get some help in the situations I describe. The G1 on the Primorac is actually perfect in those situations, but is a completely different style rubber... maybe a spinny but hardish rubber like rakza 7...

The problem is that I’m not athletic enough to consistently get in a position to do a full stroke with brushing motion. When I do, there is plenty of high quality topspin. I was hoping to get a little extra something from a faster blade.

I’m messing around with a Hadraw sk blade and Hurricane 8 (mid hard) rubbers for a couple months now. I LOVE the short play and the spin. But it’s a very slow setup overall (slow blade and Chinese rubber). Perfectly possible to make deadly loops but it’s so unforgiving when I’m out of position...

Having tried some blades, the feeling is different. For example Primorac (5ply) has a small spot where the hit feels and sounds loud and clear. Moving away from this spot feels increasingly like a dead 'thunk'. Hadraw VK has a much larger spot where the hit sounds and feels clear, almost like a...

Most blades come in a range of weights. Either go to some shop with good selection and ask for a Harimoto (or whatever blade you like) around 82g. Or order from some online seller that lets you specify desired weight. Fwiw my Hadraw SK was selected @86g from a set where the lightest was 81g...