Question for Blade-Builders

says Spin and more spin.
says Spin and more spin.
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Carl,

I know the stock market has been taking your attention lately, but HOT DAMN, watching over the US Govt Black Ops and beating them at their own game has been your calling card...

Oh Wait... you baiting the trap for them, OK, better play your style on this.

OK everyone, nothing happening here, everyone move along, yes.

View attachment 22756

hahahah.

Baal has actually been helping me with more expensive versions of EJing. I am getting set to buy a new Road bike. Baal has given me a ton of info to help me know what to get. :)

I may as well EJ on something you can do outdoors with this pandemic going on.
 
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I invested 50 usd in an ok 80l rucksack and a couple hundred in survival gear that has helped me March in some remote areas.

I always knew getting more sleep and rocking an hr or two a day melts off fat, but never really had enough to say enough is enough

I guess one year of being 245 us lbs was enough. The marching is going on, but the dedication to sleep needs improvement

If you see radio silence from me for a week, either the Goon Squad knocked me out, or I commenced deep range rack ops

Rack ops = equals rack operations = sleeping

Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk
 
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Some new blades for a forum member who is well known for liking handle-heavy blades. The following two blades were designed as replacements for the 5-ply Koto-Larch-Engelmann Spruce (core) -Larch-Koto composition that he has been playing with. Long-story-short, I don't have access to the core wood I used in that blade, so we've opted for two similar variations of that blade - one with Port Orford Cedar as a core, and another with Sitka Spruce. They come in at 102g and 106g, respectively (the OG blade I was replicating came in at 105g, so they're very close!).

Koto - Larch - POC - Larch - Koto:
POC%20Blade.JPG
POC%20Handle.JPG

POC%20Thumb%20Chamfer.JPG


Koto - Larch - Sitka Spruce - Larch - Koto:
SS%20Full%20Blade.JPG

SS%20Handle.JPG
SS%20Thumb%20Chamfer.JPG



The other blade, below, is a bonus blade I am including in this member's order. I had built it for myself thinking it was going to be an ideal composition for me. Unfortunately, the Redwood I used for this core was just a bit heavier than my typical pieces, so once I realized it was going to be heavier than ideal for myself (I had already cut it out as a flared-handle), I decided to slap a solid/heavy walnut handle on this beast and send it his way. It comes out to....110g. 😬

Limba - Spruce - Alaskan Yellow Cedar - Redwood (core) - Alaskan Yellow Cedar - Spruce - Limba:
Full%20Blade.JPG

Full%20Handle.JPG
Handle%20Chamfer.JPG
 
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says 2023 Certified Organ Donor
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110 grams. You SURE that isn't too light? I would argue it might be just right. Well, gunna hafta slap sum rubbers on that thing and see how dat dog barks !!

However, TTD member erm might have first crack at those blades as appears the Goon Squad upgraded their electronic warfare capabilities and got a hold of one of Carl's discarded SpyPhoney prototypes. Luckily, that tech is shetchy and unreliable and full of false postives... but somehow the Goonies made it work. Well, a dead clock might be right twice a day, so who knows?

For me, 110g is nowhere near the edge of tolerance specs for too heavy SO LONG AS IT IS BALANCED... but the mention of those handles may reassure me the balance will be low enough to create a depression in the ground.

I have always publicall stated (and several higher level players agree) that a heavish blade can really be an asset when facing a really strong incoming ball. Blocks are more controlled (bat doesn't "shake" of deflect too much) and the nice mass more easily overcomes the incoming energy.
 
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Der_ said:
I almost cannot wait to be able to play this Friday with the OLD 105 g blade, let alone the new ones I should be getting next week.

I think I gunna flip the bat over and use FX-S on FH.
I can't wait for you to get the new ones to compare! I want to love the Sitka-Spruce variant most because of how aesthetically pleasing that blade is, but I get the sense the Port Orford Cedar core variant will be closer to the current OLD version (with the engelmann-spruce/lodgepole pine core). Even though I shipped them USPS 2-day priority, they might not get there until early next week (I'm hoping they'll get in by this Saturday).
 
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Nate, your local post seems to have enough of a demonstrated record of actually getting them on the road in a timely manner, while just about every post in my region seems to have the same timeliness and sense of urgency representative of the prototypical government employee. For anyone NOT knowing that, it means about the pace of an arthritic turtle. :D
 
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Holding each blade... the 104g and 107g koto outer blades feel lighter... of course they are, by a whopping 3 and 6 grams... but thse koto baldes feel WAY lighter in hte hand...

I am serious.

The feel of the two koto outer blades in the hand is like a mid to upper 80 grams blade.

Our local Ukrainian friend TSOS just LOVED on the previous nate-made koto outer blades... dude was right at home ASAP playing it equipped with my rubbers (MX-K and FX-S) it just did everything without miss.

If this doesn't get the TSOS to join up for TTD and start posting, I am going to initiate a campaign of water cannon warfare against him in unexpected moments akin to CATO from the Pink Panther movies.
 
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I'm glad they arrived safely! Also, I see that your scale is more precise than the one I have...🤣. Those solid walnut handles add quite a bit of weight, though they would have been closer to low-90 grams with typical lighter-weight wood handles. That low balance point makes them feel a lot lighter than they actually are! The 110g blade has no excuses - it's definitely a bit more solid with the balance point slightly higher up than those koto-outer blades.

I'm excited to hear your impressions on the new blades once you get a chance to try them out! Also, do you have a clear preference for which one of the new koto-outer blades you find more comfortable in-hand? I kept the circumference the same as your previous blade (87mm), but sent them to you with two slightly different handle profiles as we had discussed through private messages.
 
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Hi Nate,

I guess I will NOT really know until I slap rubbers on them... then I can know if it will whip well or not.

For those folks who do not realize it yet, if a handle is shaped the right way, one can really whip it at the end with the fingers and inside portion of the outer/lower chunk of beef on your paw.

I see Nate you have made the 103 gram version wih a similar shape/overall dimensions (it is almost roundish) as the original 105g blade... and the 107g Blade has a much more pronounced oval shape.

The THEORETICAL advantages of the latter oval shape is that there is a little more width and when you whip at the end violently with fingers and meat of paw, you have a little mre with on top which SHOULD make it easier to initiate that whip. The advantages I saw of the rounder shape were that it fit my hand well, was really easy to wrap hand around handle and keep it there... and the somewhat shorter width accross handle COULD possible result in a more accellerating whip if done violently enough at the right time.

The last part of my feelings on the handle may explain why I feel so good operating Nate' REJECT 105g blade. Not a reject in that it is reject kind of quality, quite the opposite in that only that Nate really didn't want to play matches with a 105g blade that could double as a one-shot knockout weapon in close quarters hand to hand combatives.

In an obscure part of one of my posts last year, I related a story where our City's legend TT player, James T got a Balsa ST blade from a well respected dude in the blade making indusrty : BBC Charlie his-self. I so HATE on Balsa blades, but when James let me hold that one, I KNEW I would be able to whip that bat and spin a ball heavy. I tried it for three loops, I think rubber was an OFF control class one I disremember name, but it wasn't a modern spin rubber... but that sucka spun the cover off the ball.

So... my liking for a good handle shape and fit and feel can play a large part in how I like a blade and how it can do one of the most important taks I ask of it: SPIN THE DAMN BALL.

Another thing that can be important is transition between FH to BH and BH tod FH... for me, this is why overall, I went from FL to ST handles... so a really good feeling shape on the handle is a damn good start to a blade.
 
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Well, on the 110g blade, even if it is FL, since I was a FL operater for years, so it will not be an issue, yet I will need to slap on rubbers and go at it Monday to see how it goes... both how it loops, and whether our friend TSOS has registered and started to share his 2100+ level knowledge and stories with us. He is one of the ones who can firsthand trash Der_Echte's antics as he has seen some.

Honestly, when I heard you describe how you built your 110 gram WMD, I KNEW it would have potential. Now I gotta wait until damn Monday!! Oh well, I can have fun Sunday gluing 6 new rubbers on those blades. Luckily Nexy delivered the goods earlier in the month on my personal order of rubbers, so I have enough MX-K and FX-S to make it, even a couple FX-P to toss Carl's way. CARL, did you get them yet?

I gotta get a pic Monday of the action.
 
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