Blade Materials

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Originally posted by Nexy.

Hinoki:

1. Character

When hinoki is used for the surface of a blade, as Iwrote in the before article, it makes the player feel that the ball sticks to the blade. If your swing movement is fast, then you will feel that the ball will follow the whole arch of the blade's trajectory.

Hinoki feels different from other material in that point. So, you can make a effective top spin shot even thought you hit the ball very light. The ball follows the blade, and it goes very slowly, but with big spin, and it looks that really flies too slow to be visible.

Many Koreans can do this kiond of slow but spinny looping, because they have been playing with Hinoki for many decades, and we call it "fake loop", because sometimes the ball comes after the blade, due to it's slow speed. If your arm moves very fast, and the ball is hit very slightly, then the ball flies after the blade has finished the whole swing, and everybody can see the ball flies slowly after the blade. It’s very awesome moment, because it takes away the expected timing for the opponent, and sometimes even the opponent block the ball with right timing, still the ball is too slow and weak, the ball doesn’t react to the usual way, and it creeps onto the rubber of the opponent’s blade, and goes high making the other player struck by unusual surprise.

So, this is one factor I like hinoki material. It’s good to make the ball follow the blade.

But on the contrary, it’s also harmful for a player to learn fast and powerful looping skill.

In Korea, it was not hard to see people making only “fake loop” instead of normal powerful loop, because it’s fantastic to feel how it works. But sooner or later, that kind of style will be defeated by a higher level player with big disappointment and purplexity. If the other player knows well when to block with what angle, that kind of style can not win against him. So, it’s not good if a player wants to upgrade his level.

Anyway, I think there could be some people interested in this kind of “fake loop”.

I used to do it, when I played with one-ply hinoki, but now I lost it.

I hope I can show it some day with movie clip, if possible.

There is another distinction you can easily feel when you use Hinoki on the surface.

If you block the ball with Hinoki surface, it’s really good to control the length of the ball.

If you push down your blade with good angle loosening the power, then the ball will go very short.

It’s very sensitive moment to enjoy. You can feel how the ball touches your hinoki surface, and to go back with stable trajectory.

The blocked ball moves in a very stable way, because the trajectory is higher and in good control.

It will not be very aggressive, but you can feel comfortable, and you will feel the you hold the control of the returning ball.

I think this is very fascinating factor, and that’s the true merit of Hinoki surface.

This factor also comes from the first factor that hinoki feels sticky.
 
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2. Demerits of hinoki

Yes, there are lots of demerits in Hinoki. It’s not a magic material.

The first thing is, once you are accustomed to this material, you will not be comfortable with other materials any longer, because Hinoki has it’s distictive swing trajectory.

When you are good with Hinoki, then it changes little by little your swing movement as it wants.

You happen to fold your upper arm faster, and will get better speed and impact, but the angle of the blade can be little bit different from others.

You might become faster, but you lose some general movement, which goes all right to most other players.

I can say this way, because I’ve gone through the same, while I study what’s the difference between hinoki and other material.

And another demerits will be price.

Hinoki material is extremely expensive.

Let’s start with the brief history of one-ply hinoki blade with Japanese penholder grip.

Most Korean and Japanese players used to play with Japanese penholder grip.

And that style is totally different from normal shake hand users.

Most popular blades were one-ply hinoki, and if a player wants to have enough speed, it should be around 10mm thick.

So, one-ply thick hinoki plate is needed for production.

But if you use that hinoki plate, then it needs to come from one hinoki trunk. It can not be glued from different pieces.

If you look at hinoki material, there are vertical lines.

Each line comes from one year, because it is made according to the speed of growth.

When it’s warm, it grows fast, but in winter, it’s speed is slow.

So, when it grows slow, it gives darker color, which results in darker line we can notify.

Normally, one blade needs a width which takes up around 150~200 lines.

If a tree is 100 old, then it will have 200 lines; 100 lines from center to each other end.

So, we can say that if we want to make a blade without jointing pieces, then the mother tree at least need to be older than 100 years.

But it’s not only about width.

If a tree is 100 years old, then the blade will be only soft, not very speedy.

Young part is softer and weaker.

And old part is harder and more solid.

If a blade is made from big old tree, around 300~400 years old, then we can cut one blade from out part, and another in the middle, and the best one in the center.

So, it depends on the width of a tree how we can get the hinoki plate of which we make a blade.

By the way, all those old and big trees are getting smaller and smaller in their numbers, so recently the price of raw material is growing up high seedily.

When we see the blade, hinoki blades can be categorized by several factors.

( 1) Are they soft and weak? Or hard?

If they are soft, then they are from young tree or from the inside of old tree. If they are from young tree, then their price can be cheaper, but if they are from old tree’s center part, their price is priceless. But in fact, they are not very different. Actually, a blade made of the inner part of a big and old tree is almost the same from the one from young tree.

Recently, the price of the blade from that old tree’s center part is two or three times higher than several years’ ago. But I think the difference is not very wide from the one cut from young tree, if we are making a several plies’ shake hand blades. And mostly I use that soft part for my blades. But still that material’s price is very expensive compared with other surface material, and that’s one reason I can not sell my hinoki surface blades cheaper.

There are several brands using American or Taiwanese hinoki, but those are not expensive at all, and the character is very different. Taiwanese hinoki is heavier than Japanese Kiso Hinoki, and the function is very different, and I don’t think it’s good surface material.

(2) Do they have vertical lines with constant distance, or else lines are getting wider into one direction?

If a material is cut exactly on the center, then the lines will get wider into both directions. If not, it should get wider from one side to the other end. Normally, it’s not easy to find all the lines keep the same distance, because young parts close to the outer are wider and also the part headed to south gets more wider than the part headed to north. So, normally, a blade can not keep the same width over the whole lines on the blade.

For long years, many Korean people have known that narrower lines mean better blade, but I found that it’s not always correct. If lines are narrow, then it means they are hard, which is not good for all round play. If a player wants to have a big “bang impact”, then it has to keep modest softness, if not, the ball does not stay some due moments needed for that “bang impact”.

(3) Are they heavy or light?

Now I think you already know the answer. If the material from inner part or from younger tree, they tend to be light. Any way, that’s why expensive blades are light. Most expensive blades are cut from the inner part of an old tree, and they are soft and light, so some brands are making them 10.5mm thick, not 10.0, because they need to cover that lightness by thicker material.

(4) Are they brown or white?

Hinoki has it's typical color.

Some are very whilte, and in that case, most blades are from inner part. If a blade is brown, it normally means that are from outer part of a big tree, which is more expensive than the part from young tree.
 
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CARBON

This is fantastic material for table tennis blade.

Most people now think they know this quite well.

And also most table tennis blade designers think that way too.

But I don't think so.

I think I have vast ocean to swim through to find still something new, veiled, hidden in the deep water.

Carbon ply was found by butterfly brand, and later on lots of European brand trid to follow it.

But the first carbon blades shown by Butterfly did not attract European market a lot.

European market thought carbon blade is too much bouncy.

So, Donic, Stiga.... started to make soft thin carbon blade.

And some blades were using carbon layer deeper than second layer.

They thought they can neutralize the carbon's too much bouncy character by keeping it deeper.

But that was little bit dull idea I think.

They didn't have to neutralize; if they really want to newtraize, then why they use it?

Rather they had to find how to harmonize it better.

Some brand used balsa to make it light.

But balsa has a kind of hollow feeling, so when you joint it with some other material, then you need to think about how to make up for that hollow feeling.

For normal long pimple our rubber blades, balsa was good material, because they need that hollow feeling. But for others, I think it should be careful.

Carbon is the most attractive material, among all the artificial materials for blades, I think.

It's solid and hard, very good for adding more power onto the ball, plus not very heavy as you might think.

If this can be matched with good wood, then it's perfect.

It can have good vibration, solid feeling, and also pleasant touch.

That's how I made my blade Hannibal.
http://nexy.com/shop/blades/57-hannibal.html

I think I will try this material with my next version blade.

I will prove how attractvie a carbon layer can be, with my next blade.

Please, European players, don't think little of Carbon layer.

When it is in good harmony, like in hannibal, it can be really good.

You will see.
 
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