SDC Handmade Blades

I order some materials but they haven't arrived yet, so i had to use some stuff from another projects. These were mainly experiments but didn't turn out too bad, in fact the second one managed to overthrow the DHS301.

I weight all the materials and calculate the density so i can calibrate the models used in FEA.

Blade 1 was just to experiment with the routing and gluing process, so i used a 3 piece of ply and glued the face veneers. It's 5 ply, 5.2 mm thick and weighs 90.5 g with no weight relief and sealed with acrylic wax. Plays like an ALL blade, very similar to the Allround Classic from what i remember. It actually got the second set of handles i made (Pine) which came out much better than the first set, after making a router jig to ease the process.

Attachment 17410

Blade 2 has an unusual composition. Mahogany 0.6/Mahogany 2.0/Balsa 1.0/Mahogany 2.0/Mahogany 0.6 . The 2.0mm mahogany is very dry so it weighs less, around 0,5 g/cm3. So, 5 ply, 6.2mm thick and 87.5g with weight relief, after sealing. Plays like an Off-, very good control and moderate speed, just the right amount of "feeling" with a little flex.

Attachment 17411

So many new blade makers now, its brilliant! This is a great effort, a really well made blade. How does the thumb/finger rest feel, it looks a little short and steep? However we all like different things and this may be perfect for you. Thats the beauty of custom made blades, you can have it your own way. I've said it before but mahogany is a very underrated outer ply, especially if it's genuine mahogany i.e. from Cuba, Honduras or Brazil. Similar properties to koto, perhaps a touch softer.

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Originally Posted by GinjaNinja

So many new blade makers now, its brilliant! This is a great effort, a really well made blade. How does the thumb/finger rest feel, it looks a little short and steep? However we all like different things and this may be perfect for you. Thats the beauty of custom made blades, you can have it your own way. I've said it before but mahogany is a very underrated outer ply, especially if it's genuine mahogany i.e. from Cuba, Honduras or Brazil. Similar properties to koto, perhaps a touch softer.

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The handle on the first blade came out much better, in the second the angle is indeed steep and i forgot to account for the thickness of the rubbers. It's not uncomfortable because i mostly rest the thumb on the rubber but it could be better and it will be improved in the future. I had to use pine because the blades came out a little heavy, it feels a little soft in the hand.

I have easy access to mahogany veneer so i will be using it alot, but i only get it in 0.5mm though.

New blade. This one is:

Mahogany / Kiri / Bamboo / Kiri / Mahogany - 5.6mm - 90g sealed. I'm expecting All+/Off-.

Attachment 17447

Attachment 17448

Attachment 17449

Looking good! :)

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Originally Posted by hipnotic

New blade. This one is:

Mahogany / Kiri / Bamboo / Kiri / Mahogany - 5.6mm - 90g sealed. I'm expecting All+/Off-.

Attachment 17447

Attachment 17448

Attachment 17449

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An interesting composition, looking forward to hearing how it plays. Great craftmandship!

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Originally Posted by GinjaNinja

An interesting composition, looking forward to hearing how it plays. Great craftmandship!

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Thanks, i'm getting better. Bamboo is very heavy, i was lucky this one was a little lighter so i decided to make a core, but i think it will work better as a medial ply to enlarge the sweetspot.

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Originally Posted by hipnotic

Thanks, i'm getting better. Bamboo is very heavy, i was lucky this one was a little lighter so i decided to make a core, but i think it will work better as a medial ply to enlarge the sweetspot.

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That was my thought, bamboo is quite hard and heavy so an interesting choice for a core, how thick is it? However, your Kiri medial seems quite thick too so I presume this is how you've tried to balance it? I'm quite intrigued to see how this works out, especially the flex.

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Originally Posted by GinjaNinja

That was my thought, bamboo is quite hard and heavy so an interesting choice for a core, how thick is it? However, your Kiri medial seems quite thick too so I presume this is how you've tried to balance it? I'm quite intrigued to see how this works out, especially the flex.

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The core is 2mm, Kiri 1.2mm and top 0.6mm. Yeah, i had to use a thick medial to balance the core. I will play with the blade tonight and report tomorrow.

wow... those look great!!!

Had a chance to try the blade last night with two Bluefires. The results are positive but i have mixed feelings.

After playing i would rate it a solid Off-. The blade is on the heavy side but feels balanced, the handle is comfortable but has room for improvement.

The cons: Not suited for blocking, at least for my taste, as i prefer stiffer blades for this. The feeling is pleasant with nice feedback but i don't like the sound. It's not very crisp and i feel the blade dissipates a lot of energy, although the rubbers were dead and may have contributed to that.

The pros: Very good for the top spin game. The blade has good flex and nice kick in the upper gear due to the bamboo core. Very good control on both slow and fast loops. The sound is also different from blocking, almost feels like a different blade.

Concluding, is not a very versatile blade, but what it does, it does very well. I will keep it for further testing, to see how it plays with the Battle 2.

You might not be happy with the composition, but your craftsmanship is great! I can tell you improved on the little details from the first one you posted.

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Originally Posted by hipnotic

Had a chance to try the blade last night with two Bluefires. The results are positive but i have mixed feelings.

After playing i would rate it a solid Off-. The blade is on the heavy side but feels balanced, the handle is comfortable but has room for improvement.

The cons: Not suited for blocking, at least for my taste, as i prefer stiffer blades for this. The feeling is pleasant with nice feedback but i don't like the sound. It's not very crisp and i feel the blade dissipates a lot of energy, although the rubbers were dead and may have contributed to that.

The pros: Very good for the top spin game. The blade has good flex and nice kick in the upper gear due to the bamboo core. Very good control on both slow and fast loops. The sound is also different from blocking, almost feels like a different blade.

Concluding, is not a very versatile blade, but what it does, it does very well. I will keep it for further testing, to see how it plays with the Battle 2.

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What I found useful was to try to develop the composition on the next blade. I would get feedback from as many players as possible, especially experienced players, and then look to adapt. Sometimes I find it hard to be impartial with my blades so feedback from others is crucial. I have 5 'models' that I feel are really good blades, each one has been developed over a period of time and has various iterations. I think this really helps with my understanding of blade composition too. I would avoid trying too many different radical experiments. I really admire the work of Bobpuls and MDP and I know they've developed their blades in a similar way, finally arriving at what appear to be highly playable blades. For example, would changing the kiri medial to ayous help create the greater stiffness you want? Was one of your ply at 90 degrees, if so, could you change it?
One other thing, give it time. I find my blades really develop and change, often getting softer and better feel. And finally, enjoy the journey as you go along! I learn with every new blade.

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Originally Posted by Nate4s

You might not be happy with the composition, but your craftsmanship is great! I can tell you improved on the little details from the first one you posted.

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It's getting better. It takes patience to get the details right but it pays out in the end.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GinjaNinja

What I found useful was to try to develop the composition on the next blade. I would get feedback from as many players as possible, especially experienced players, and then look to adapt. Sometimes I find it hard to be impartial with my blades so feedback from others is crucial. I have 5 'models' that I feel are really good blades, each one has been developed over a period of time and has various iterations. I think this really helps with my understanding of blade composition too. I would avoid trying too many different radical experiments. I really admire the work of Bobpuls and MDP and I know they've developed their blades in a similar way, finally arriving at what appear to be highly playable blades. For example, would changing the kiri medial to ayous help create the greater stiffness you want? Was one of your ply at 90 degrees, if so, could you change it?
One other thing, give it time. I find my blades really develop and change, often getting softer and better feel. And finally, enjoy the journey as you go along! I learn with every new blade.

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Yes you are right, feedback is very important. But at the moment i'm looking to build blades for myself. When i find i can build what i imagine, then i can build blades to others. I'm not totally happy with this blade but actually a club mate wanted to buy it on the spot, i guess everyone has different taste.

Regarding the composition, this was just a test when i saw i had some bamboo laying around, but it actually takes a lot of work to bring the thickness down because i don't have a planer, i just use a router sled. So i'm leaving this ideia on the side, i have a few others i want to try out first. I have been modeling some blades ( I have a post about that ) and it really helps me to understand how the composition is going to work. That prevents me from trying stupid ideas that come to mind and wasting material. Because of that, i know what i have to do to improve this composition, it's just a matter of using the bamboo as a medial ply and the kiri as the core with an increase of 0.2mm. That will increase the stiffness and greatly enlarge the sweetspot with little increase in weight.

Of course i will have to build many blades to validate this method but so far it has been spot on.

4 more blades:

Blade 4: Tola/Maple/Western Red Cedar/Maple/Tola - 79.8g - 5.5mm

Attachment 17490

Blade 5: Oak/Maple/Western Red Cedar/Maple/Oak - 88.9g - 5.8mm

Attachment 17491

Blade 6: Sucupira?/Tola/Engelmann spruce/Tola/Sucupira? - 95g - 5.7mm

Attachment 17492

Blade 7: Iroko?/Maple/Kiri/MAple/Iroko? - 85.4g - 5.7mm

Attachment 17493

4 more blades:

Blade 8 - Just an experiment with leftover materials and my first attempt at dyeing the handles and a logo.

Beech/Birch ply/Beech - 98.5g - 5.0mm

Attachment 17613

Blade 9 - An attempt at 1 ply blade. Seems to be fast, 1550 Hz on the bounce test and very springy.

1 ply Tola wood - 112.7g - 7.0mm

Attachment 17614
Attachment 17615

Blade 10 - Maple/Mahogany/Balsa/Mahogany/Maple - 92g - 5.3mm

Attachment 17616

Blade 11 - An attemp to make a looping blade with good blocking capabilities. I don't know the name of the outer ply but the very hard middle ply almost acts as a carbon layer.

????/Ipê/Kiri/Ipê/???? - 85.2g - 5.3mm

Attachment 17617

New year, new gear. I call this the heavy weight series :p

Blade 2.2 - This one is a remake of my 2nd build. I liked the blade, but i didn't like the handle. This was when i was still using PVA glue, when i removed the handle the top layer just separated from the rest, so i had to apply a new top layer.

Brazilian Cherry/Mahogany/Balsa/Mahogany/Brazilian Cherry - 94g - 6.1mm - 1227 Hz

Attachment 18164

Blade 12 - My first experiment with 7 ply blades. Very heavy at 100g but well balanced. Already had a chance to play with it and had no problems dealing with the weight. The handle was made with a leftover stripe from the blade but it didn't turn out so well because the kiri core is at 90º.

Tola/Mahogany/Maple/Kiri/Maple/Mahogany/Tola - 99.6g - 6.6mm - 1378 Hz

Attachment 18165

Blade 13 - Another 7 ply blade, similar construction to Clipper but with kiri core.

Oak/Beech/Kiri/Kiri/Kiri/Beech/Oak - 96.2g - 6.8mm - 1442 Hz

Attachment 18166

I'm getting more interested in finding how different construction affects performance. These blades are similar to previous ones but changing just one variable.


Blade 14 - Similar to Blade 7 but with a softer outer ply and thicker core.

Tola/Maple/Kiri/Maple/Tola - 82.7g - 5.9mm - 1300 Hz

Attachment 19250


Blade 15 - My first balsa blade and also my first attempt using glassfibre.

Maple/Beech/GF/Balsa/GF/Beech/Maple - 84.4g - 6.8mm - 1485 Hz

Attachment 19251


Blade 16 - Similar to Blade 13 but with a thinner core.

Oak/Beech/Kiri/Kiri/Kiri/Beech/Oak - 83.4g - 5.6mm - 1162 Hz

Attachment 19252


Blade 17 - Similar to Blade 16 but with a different 2nd ply.

Oak/Maple/Kiri/Kiri/Kiri/Maple/Oak - 84.8g - 6.0mm - 1250 Hz

Attachment 19253

Nice. I have not seen a triple kiri inner layers before.