Journey of a new blade maker

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So I’ve been an equipment junkie for quite a while now, and while perusing the forums back in October I came across GinjaNinja’s post about his blade making journey and I contacted him about possibly having him make a blade for me. Through that process and dozens of emails back and forth I started to get very intrigued about making my own blades.

Fast forward a few months, and after extensive research into woods (all woods, not just the common ones used by butterfly etc), I purchased numerous veneers and a few core materials from a variety of sources and started experimenting. As a very analytical person I was very curious about trying combinations I hadn’t ever seen, and seeing how different woods combine to make a blade...how slightly different hardnesses and elasticities effect the bounce of a blade. I even tried some very bizarre combos just to see what would happen. Unfortunately the first template I made, I screwed up and accidentally didn’t turn off “to scale” when I printed it, so I ended up with my first three blades that I routed being about 8mm too small edge to edge....woops! Lessons learned!

I did all this without having any equipment to do the actual work...my friend is a woodworker by profession and has a nice shop in his basement that he let me use...however time and my impatience led me to buy my own router table, router, dust collection, router bits, etc.. that leads me to where I am now....with my first finished blade.

This blade was constructed as a 5 ply wood blade. The materials used were Makore (with a nice fiddleback grain), longleaf pine (a southern yellow pine...soft, but not very elastic), and then a 3.6mm kiri core positioned at 90 degrees. The handle is Birdseye maple...not too fancy yet on the handle, as I didn’t have a lot of material yet for handles. The blade is 5.96mm thick and weighs 90.7g

Attached are a few pics...

318F15C6-2495-47A0-845C-F5F7CEB41DA9.jpgABCB6E41-DE89-41F3-A78C-BAD371916227.jpg
 
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As a very analytical person I was very curious about trying combinations I hadn’t ever seen, and seeing how different woods combine to make a blade...how slightly different hardnesses and elasticities effect the bounce of a blade. I even tried some very bizarre combos just to see what would happen.

And don't spare any details about your research findings!!!
 
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What are the dimensions of the blade face?

How about the thickness? You say the core is 3.6mm. How thick is the whole blade? How thick are the Makore and Longleaf Pine plies?

The handle: was it a choice to make it straight-square? Have you played with handles that shape before? It looks like you sealed the handle. Is that right? I know GinjaNinja and I have talked about that subject. I used to seal my handles and at a certain point I realized I like how the handle feels much better when the wood is exposed even though it does not look as pretty. I actually get a lot more control on those tiny adjustments in grip that you make without consciously realizing it when the wood is bare because you have better contact between hand and wood so your grip can be more relaxed.

I also notice that, when I leave the wood exposed on the handle, over the course of months, the wood actually gets wear patterns that conform more to my hand and how I hold the racket. That happens considerably less when the wood is sealed. Even when the layer of sealant is quite thin.

Anyway, it is really personal choice. But since this is your show, I figured I would give you more of a platform to talk about the choices you have made as you start your journey as a blade maker.

Good luck. :) I would love to hear how the blade feels.
 
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What are the dimensions of the blade face?

How about the thickness? You say the core is 3.6mm. How thick is the whole blade? How thick are the Makore and Longleaf Pine plies?

I mentioned above the total thickness is 5.96mm. The Makore plies are 0.5mm thick and the Longleaf Pine is 0.62mm thick. The template I used for the blade is from Ross Leidy's site, http://rossleidy.com/blades/shapes/index.html, it is compact-2.

The handle: was it a choice to make it straight-square? Have you played with handles that shape before? It looks like you sealed the handle. Is that right? I know GinjaNinja and I have talked about that subject. I used to seal my handles and at a certain point I realized I like how the handle feels much better when the wood is exposed even though it does not look as pretty. I actually get a lot more control on those tiny adjustments in grip that you make without consciously realizing it when the wood is bare because you have better contact between hand and wood so your grip can be more relaxed.

The handle shape is squared off, more than i'd like i've discovered, but I didn't figure out my mistake in routing the handle shape until after i'd glued it on :) Future handles will have a more rounded edge (Routed likely with a 5/16" or a 3/8" roundover bit vs a 5/32" roundover bit that I used for this handle. It is lightly sealed with a polyurethane sealer, and then sanded with a 320 grit piece of sandpaper. It has a very nice woody feel. I could of course not do any sealing of the handle per request of anyone I would make a blade for, as you have said, its definitely a personal preference.

I have a second blade in progress that I need to finish the handles for and glue them on...that will likely happen in the next few days and i'll post pictures of course. It is a totally different construction:

Mahogany (Beautiful ribbon stripe pattern) 0.6mm - Primavera 0.6mm, Western Red Cedar (Cut from AA graded tonewood. Extremely fine straight grain structure) 4.33mm

Handle will be a straight handle (I play with straight handles), made with bubinga, and the edges have been rounded with a 3/8" roundoverbit, giving a more typical rounded edge.

Total thickness: 6.73mm. Estimated weight w/handles: 89.5-90.5g
 
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I mentioned above the total thickness is 5.96mm. The Makore plies are 0.5mm thick and the Longleaf Pine is 0.62mm thick. The template I used for the blade is from Ross Leidy's site, http://rossleidy.com/blades/shapes/index.html, it is compact-2.

Funny. I must have missed it. After reading I was scanning through for it. It won't be the last time I miss a detail or a number. :)

The handle shape is squared off, more than i'd like i've discovered, but I didn't figure out my mistake in routing the handle shape until after i'd glued it on :) Future handles will have a more rounded edge (Routed likely with a 5/16" or a 3/8" roundover bit vs a 5/16" roundover bit that I used for this handle.

I am sure the process of learning to make blades is one where, over time you find what works and what things you really like. Having the openness to experiment is a good thing.

It is lightly sealed with a polyurethane sealer, and then sanded with a 320 grit piece of sandpaper. It has a very nice woody feel. I could of course not do any sealing of the handle per request of anyone I would make a blade for, as you have said, its definitely a personal preference.

Yep. Definitely personal preference. At one point I wanted all my handles sealed. And I liked how it kept them looking nicer. At some point I realized something in the feel in my hand that I liked better about the wood fully exposed.

I know there are also people who like putting a grip on their handles and everyone is different. So, just checking if I was seeing the handle properly since it is a photo.

I have a second blade in progress that I need to finish the handles for and glue them on...that will likely happen in the next few days and i'll post pictures of course. It is a totally different construction:

Mahogany (Beautiful ribbon stripe pattern) 0.6mm - Primavera 0.6mm, Western Red Cedar (Cut from AA graded tonewood. Extremely fine straight grain structure) 4.33mm

Handle will be a straight handle (I play with straight handles), made with bubinga, and the edges have been rounded with a 3/8" roundoverbit, giving a more typical rounded edge.

Total thickness: 6.73mm. Estimated weight w/handles: 89.5-90.5g

It will be interesting to hear how they play. I am looking forward to the development of this thread and your blade making endeavors. :)
 
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So I got a chance to play with the blade today at lunch and a friend played with it as well. We are both in the USATT !500-1700 range currently. Blade currently has Stiga Mantra M on the FH and an old barely used sheet of Adidas Tenzone Ultra SF on teh backhand (the only backhand rubber i had available not currently on a blade)

Some observations:

Serve/Receive game: Very controllable. Short serves and short push receives felt very easy. Friend remarked that he felt he could control the receive game better than any blade he's used previously.

Mid-table game, loop/counterloop: Controllable with a fast top-end. When you used proper technique and put your body into it on a loop, there was significant speed there. I felt confident counter-looping with it as well. Being a 5 ply wood blade, you could really feel the ball on the blade as you rolled over the top of the ball on softer spin-oriented loops. The feeling was superb there, and I was able to hit some very precise soft spinny loops for winners.

Further away from the table: I had a few opportunities to counter loop away from the table. I don't think this is likely where an all-wood blade in the OFF-/OFF category will generally shine. I was able to counter loop from this distance, but they were not fast enough to win points generally.

Blade tested at 1383 Hz for those familiar with the frequency tests that have been done on blades to equate frequency to speed (http://www.ttbla.de/) which puts it at the bottom end of the OFF range, and that is how the blade feels to me.

I intend to carefully use a roundover bit tonight and try to round off the handle a bit more, as both of us felt it was deficient with the current handle...it was just too square.
 
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The second blade I mentioned above is nearly finished. The sealant is drying....it’s turned out very nice. The top layer mahogany has a really gorgeous pattern to it that really shines with sealant, and the bubinga handle I think compliments it nicely.



Handle and plies:
32A3AFB4-C13A-4AC8-9421-29EFB41DC5A8.jpg

Blade:
6F3BB174-6D66-4200-ACDB-50B6DADC836A.jpg
 
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This blade was constructed as a 5 ply wood blade. The materials used were Makore (with a nice fiddleback grain), longleaf pine (a southern yellow pine...soft, but not very elastic), and then a 3.6mm kiri core positioned at 90 degrees. The handle is Birdseye maple...not too fancy yet on the handle, as I didn’t have a lot of material yet for handles. The blade is 5.96mm thick and weighs 90.7g

Nice stuff! Looking forward to hearing more about your experiments.

What is the orientation of each veneer? Is it 0 and 0 for the outer and middle, and 90 for the core? (0/180 degrees = parallel with the handle.) Or 0 outer, 90 middle, and 0 core? (From the description it sounds like 0-0-90, which AFAIK is not very common, but quite interesting. e.g. TTgearlab claims that the Tibhar Lebesson uses that structure too, see pic below from their site.)

cache.php
 
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The second blade I mentioned above is nearly finished. The sealant is drying....it’s turned out very nice. The top layer mahogany has a really gorgeous pattern to it that really shines with sealant, and the bubinga handle I think compliments it nicely.


Handle and plies:
View attachment 15159

Blade:
View attachment 15160



Nice blade, good work. What was the final weight and thickness?
 
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I just finished my latest creation. This one was quite a journey.


It is a 7 ply blade that is actually the wrong composition from what I originally planned. I intended the ply directly below the top ply to be Black Limba, but accidentally picked up and used Black Walnut. The Black Walnut was cut for a top ply, and I didn't want to use multiple veneers, so I oriented the medial ply at 0 degrees just as you would the top ply. The top ply I used Masur Birch, and the ply above the core is Okoume, which is a very soft african wood that I wish was a bit harder, because it is gorgeous to look at. I felt it would provide a nice feel below the two stiffer top plies.


So the composition ended up being:


Masur Birch - Black Walnut (0 degree) - Okoume (90) - Western Red Cedar - Okoume - Black Walnut - Masur Birch


I expected this to be a fairly stiff and very fast blade, epsecially with the ply below the core being at 0 degrees. However i've been surprised by the testing results from today. It plays exceedingly well, with a very nice top end, but it doesn't feel too fast. My friend definitely noticed the pace change, and had to adjust his paddle angle a bit to compensate, but also said he felt like it allowed for some easier power on close to the table flips where the blade just does all the work for you, without having to try to exert extra power.


The handle I tried to add some more complexity to it. I started with a Redwood Lace Burl wood, and added a Birdseye Maple insert. It turned out pretty well but there are a few cosmetic issues, as Redwood Burl is very soft, so it was difficult to avoid having some dings occur during the process. I'm very pleased with the results overall though. 3 blades made, and 3 positive results for playability and feel so I'm ecstatic with where my journey has led me thus far.


I'm getting the itch to try some composite materials, so I may end up going there soon after a few more all-wood experiments. Lots of wood to play with, and lots of combinations to try. So far, nothing i've put together is remotely similar to anything on the commercial market with respect to the woods selected, yet they all play remarkably well. I think it goes to show the diversity of possible blades that can be made that are far outside the norm of what the big manufacturers are doing. I've been extremely pleased with the two blades i've made with a Western Red Cedar core. They've both been outstanding.


cef blade3.jpg
 
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So i've had numerous people trying out my blades over the last few weeks, and as of last night, someone at my local club bought the most recent blade I made, with the REdwood Burl handle. It plays really well, with a nice amount of power due to the extra stiffness provided by having both the top and 2nd ply's at 0 degrees with only the medial ply above the core at 90 degrees. He loved the feel and the speed on loops he was getting.

Also had a request from another friend to make him a penhold blade, which i'll try to post pictures of later (I don't have any with me here right now).

Finally, I worked on creating my first flared handle blade (I'd previously only made straight handles, as that is what I play with). I really put a lot of effort into this handle, trying to get everything right. I used this wonderful curly maple as the main wood, with a leopardwood insert, and a redwood lace burl endcap. It came out REALLY nice. The picture really doesn't do it justice. The composition is Sapele - Black Limba - Western Red Cedar (I'm really loving that wood as a core...it plays fantastic, and it honestly just looks stunning too...). This should be an interesting performer. I'm not entirely convinced of the speed it will play at. The bare blade bounce test with a spectrum analyzer seems to indicate solidly ALL/ALL+ range, which I suppose makes sense in a way, but Sapele is a fairly hard (Janak 1400ish) wood, so I expected a bit faster. However, I used a very thin 3.2mm core, so the blade thickness is around 5.5-5.6mm. It came out around 86.8g in weight. I'll try to get a pic of the edge tonight, as I know people like to see that.

ttblade2.jpg
 
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