SANWEI Hinoki Carbon Series Table Tennis bats.

[lodro]

Now , as I have become very comfortable with my multilayered Hinoki blade I tried to buy a spare but the Lazer L8 is out of production.
I found the Sanwei Hinoki series, 4 Hinoki blades all with different layers, core woods and also ranging from a layer of soft carbon to ALC.

Now before I do something silly, was anybody here silly enough to buy the whole lot and is doing some serious experimenting.
Or I am really the last of the serious EJs on the planet ? 😁

 

[belllfador]

I have HC-6s, 3+2 layers, hinoki out, kiri core. Looks like the second handle from the picture, with a bit thinner top layers. Fast, stiff, very jumpy (trampoline effect), 79g, 1600Hz, with small sweet spot. Makes dead rubbers alive, but for my game brings only better block. It could be a good update for balsa carbon blade. For comparison, Masamune (3 ply hinoki, 84g, 1620Hz) offers less jumpiness, but so much more control and gears range. Another hinoki top ply blade that I have is JRE - carbon inner, 82g, 1400Hz, flexible with a soft hinoki feeling, comparable with all wood blades. My guess is Sanwei HC-1S is closer to JRE, probably a bit stiffer and faster.

 

[lodro]

My guess is Sanwei HC-1S is closer to JRE, probably a bit stiffer and faster.

Wow, I thought the HC-1S with the ALC might be the pocket rocket of the four.

For myself I gather the HC -5 might be best with just 2 layers of soft carbon it comes closest to my Razer L8, at least on paper.

 

[belllfador]

You mean Razer L8, and yes HC-5S is looking the closest. From the database, HC-1s is a bit faster than HC-5s, 1350 vs 1300Hz. If we look at the frequency/weight ratio, JRE will be even faster. Cheap carbon/alc is not equal to Butterfly level carbon/alc.

 

[lodro]

You mean Razer L8

Thank you, yes, i corrected it.
I also found 2 Hinoki blades from XVT, one with soft carbon and one with ALC. I should have bought the one with the soft carbon but (please don't tell anybody) I do not like the handle so i bought the ALC-version. The 2 outer Hinoki layers are quite thick so my hope is that I will get the dwell effect that make my short game so effective.

 

[belllfador]

Thank you, yes, i corrected it.
I also found 2 Hinoki blades from XVT, one with soft carbon and one with ALC. I should have bought the one with the soft carbon but (please don't tell anybody) I do not like the handle so i bought the ALC-version. The 2 outer Hinoki layers are quite thick so my hope is that I will get the dwell effect that make my short game so effective.

Looking good. Share impressions when you test it.

 

[Taramot]

I have owned HC5 and HC 5s. Three of each. The HC5 were wonderful. Superb feeling. At the time only FL handles were available so I replaced them with HC5 S.
The later incarnation had much better handles which fitted my XXXL hands. However they felt hollow mainly because they were considerably lighter ( mid 70 grams). I later found some on Spinfactory. I guess these had undergone stricter quality controls. I still play with them I would rate them all+ to off-.
I went for the heaviest available from the Sanwei shop on Ali. Dreadful finish. Sent it back. Last week I found another Ali shop selling the old HC5 with ST handle. Great I thought. Again the finish was terrible, the surface has the consistency of chami leather. Even wondered if this was indeed hinoki. No hint of the subtle fragrance that emanated from other hinoki blades. Still it is now sanded and smooth awaiting a new set of rubbers. Moral of the the story? Buy it from Germany if you want a decent Sanwei blade.

 

[lodro]

Looking good. Share impressions when you test it.

Tested last night at club.
Using a new set of rubbers identical to my usual setups. Perfectly playable very steady and controllable on FH hitting with a mighty crack. BH was as surprise as my usual BH-flicks often ended in the net. I assume it is a matter of the XVT blade having a bit less dwell-time than the Razer. The Razer has one layer of soft carbon, the XVT has the blue/black sALC . Otherwise the new setup works great, I can do blocks with lots of spin that end up just on the other side of the net as a virtually dead ball for me a typical characteristic of hinoki.

 

[lodro]

Moral of the the story? Buy it from Germany if you want a decent Sanwei blade.

Ha ha, the problem of this is twofold:

1) One will have to pay not only the 20% Wust but also the NZ eqivalent the 15% Gst, then there is the freight to NZ.
2) The prices in Euro are considerably higher than in Ali.

P.S. I actually found a German shop that still has Razer L8 blades . The price landed in NZ would amount to about NZ$ 125, while I only paid NZ$ 28 for mine . 😫