Question for Blade-Builders

says 2023 Certified Organ Donor
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What I was saying is that for me, my best fulcrum is if blade is a little thicker than normal and if the bottom of the blade rests around 1/3 up the meaty part of my inner palm.

My requests initially to Nate to make handle hugely fat did not optimize my whip, but wasn't killing me in base grip

My requests on the last set of blades I realize I asked for too long a handle for my BH. I asked for 110 mm. I can always shave that down. The only slightly larger handle fatness (an extra 2 or 3 mm total circumference) seems to be good.

I got enough MX-K to equip all these, I gotta scrounge around for more bh rubbers.

More time and data will tell.

Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk
 
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says 2023 Certified Organ Donor
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Finally got to try one of Nate's three recent blades today. I tried the "Factory Second" blade 7 ply.

Limba - Lutz Spruce - Poplar - Kiri (core) - Poplar - Lutz Spruce - Limba

Weight of blade advertised at 106 grams. With 2x MX-K rubbers (no scale) prolly in neighborhood 210 grams without mods.

Balance right there neutral feel with the heavy-ish rubbers.

I asked for 110 mm handle and got 110mm handle... what I discover is with a thicker handle (which I asked for and got) I am very stable within base grip... to Koreans this means it doesn't shake at all, to English speaking folks this means total grip is secure and stable. If I had asked for the same 3-5 mm total overall circumference thicker and just a standard 100mm handle, then I believe that my whip action at the end by squeezing #3 and #4 fingers would be greater with a 100 mm length handle given my hands. As it is, the thicker handle and extra length give a very good balance and stability to FH to BH and BH to FH transition under pressure within same grip.

Handle is ST. Nate said he had a minor Chernobyl incident with the gluing process and that the International Nuclear Commission asked him to soak this blade in Carl's basement water for a full week before releasing it into the public. The gluing "Accident" caused the overall thickness to be 7.1 mm and weight 5 grams higher than intended. Well, I reckon the tomato in the horror movie Invasion of the Tomatoes kinda grew a little more than expected as well. It is all good, we can handle it.

The blade overall does not feel heavy at all, even with rubbers. I bet some cheeze-its that I could hand it to a nit-picky offensive player and they would be at home with it right away. I actually did that to a few, one of them Scoobie-Doo, who already knew what was coming a mile away, and the other a dude more agile than a monkey and hits McDonald's Quarter Pounders as his only FH shot of record. That dude was pounding it and landing it like crazy within the first 20 seconds.

Again, since this is a heavier blade, and a thicker one, and the blade shape is modern standard OFF 157x150 mm shape, this is not gunna be your average 7 ply spinning Off- blade. The blade, while it does have its gears, is for the most part a very linear blade, especially with the MX-K rubbers... of course except for the very top end where you crush it... in that situation, you are simply throwing the rule book out the window and defying laws of physics.. or at least attempting to.

The differing shots that require a low and medium force produce a very predictable linear response medium to low throw consistent with a solid OFF blade.

The blade and rubber combination still could produce those heavy and slow topspins that wreck timing and devastate opponent. There is still safety on that shot. However, it isn't what this blade was built for. make no mistake, this blade was crafted to FINISH THE POINT... PERIOD. Now you can look at it a few ways… go pound the "Go Nuclear ATTACK ASAP" button, or do a few shots to construct the point and listen to that 9mm go BANG BANG.

With this blade, when you setup the chance to blast it... and you go for your power loop... you will finish the point, opponent will watch ball go by him, pick up the ball, then look at 4 letters you apparently wrote on the ball. BY-YA. Yes, the ball went BY YOU. The top end of this blade is pushing the top end of the OFF spectrum almost into OFF+ when you smack a cracker.

When you are close to the table under the pressure of a fast rally and you want to use shorter swings, this blade works. When you want to punch block, good. When you are a step away from table and do a very short stroke kinda like an active block a meter away, it is almost like a counter.

I did not have a very long time to use the blade, but I found that it will be one of those blades for me that I could take out of the bag and adjust to it within the first few points and play my kind of match and win. The Akkad is one of those blades. Ditto with the 25 yr old Mono.

I have yet to test Nate's other two blades and I am especially hopeful for the Koto outer blade which I can see already NASA setting up data link between Houston, Cape Canaveral, and Sacramento.

Since the dimensions of these last three are NOT over-sized, but are standard 157x150 shape, these will be more offensive oriented.

I do not have vibration measuring device, but I would say frequency of these three will be higher than most OFF- blades and close to those in OFF range.

This blade has high potential
 
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says 2023 Certified Organ Donor
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My Ukrainian friend Scoobie Doo Tsos who may one day post because of blades and talk like this, he really liked the choice of words there.

Of course I took a heavy dose of liberal license in describing the events that took place leading you to declare it a "Factory Second"... but you prolly know very well, a craft or a product or both is greatly enhanced by a story to associate it to what you did or feel. Those memories are part of the experience.

I coined the phrase "pounder" or "quarter pounder" for those shots and the people who like to really pound the ball with great force. I use those phrases around the players and it always brings a smile when you are sitting off court watching a match and someone smacks winner and you say "Dude be buying 2 bags of Quarter Pounders for the club !!"
 
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Tried the other two regular blades.

I did not do justice to them by gluing on my rubbers too soon. Should have waited another 10 minutes.

With my bad glue job, both blades felt like solid OFF- class spinning blades, but I know they got more punch than that. Scoobie Doo Tsos really liked both of them.

Will have another chance tomorrow. glue job will gas out and we will see how it really goes.
 
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says 2023 Certified Organ Donor
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So I had a chance to hit around with Scoobie Doo Tsos at the club today (wearing mask - and man you cannot see the ball well in the strike zone wearing one...)

I felt a LOT better about the blades today now that the glue job gassed out.

Over all, BOTH blades (the koto outers blade and the limba outers blade were both in the middle low end of OFF range... were not totally linear, had more vibration than the Chernobyl Incident Factory Second (CIFS) blade, had better prospects to spin the ball, yet an ability to finish the point if you decided to eat Quarter Pounders to finish the point in a strong manner.

These blades had a better ability to more easily spin the ball with a weaker stroke and loose grip.

I was able to counter a strong heavy slow loop and fast pound counter fast loops... or loosen grip and slow it all down.

Both these blades had a wider range of shot potential for spin and speed over the CIFS blade.

Overall, I am SO MUCH happier with these blades.

The one with Limba outers was maybe a 1/4 to 1/2 level faster on top end. These blades certainly had more feel.

Sergey could pick up either blade with MX-K and play his game immediately... that is how fast and well he could transition just grabbing it out of the bag. That is remarkable, Scoobie Doo is one picky fellow when it comes to equipment.

Another revelation I discovered today is that I play SO MUCH BETTER with Tibhar FX-S on FH. FX-S is a very soft and dynamic spinning rubber. My shot consistency shot up on my big swings and my shot quality got much better. I have 4 sheets of that rubber and I think I am gunna play that rubber on FH, maybe also on BH for the next 4 months or so to develop some more touch and confidence in countering shots... so that I can train and learn how to cope with strong shots when under pressure... so that I will be making more positive shots, even if it is soft topspin defense of loose wrist counters or ripping it... I need to develop better responses when under attack other than blocking or punch driving.
 
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Had another session with all three blades.

Nate made them very round shape, so with rubbers, balance is nuetral, not biased towards handle.

The Koto outer blade also had OFF class performance on loop drives. Blade is springy, has a kinda tonk-tonk sound and feel on impact with stronger strikes. Can perform all the shots with enough consistency, top end is above Akkad.

The Limba outer blade was 96 grams today, with rubbers almost 190 grams. Nuetral balance, could spin easily, block easily, drive easily... power shots were there, performance solid middle OFF class... not a vibaty blade... solid feel at impact, but not high pitchy crisp like composite OFF or OFF+ blades... if you choke up all the way, grip is very stable in the stroke and transition between wings. With MX-K struck when I could be in position I felt like I was absolutely crushing the ball. With softer sponge FX-S rubber in 2.1 sponge... dude, it might just be downright unfair and illegal to hit the shots I did with FX-S... SO DAMN DYNAMIC !!! Power shots were pounder (but slower than MX-K) SPIN was simply EXTREME with this combination.

Factory second Limba outer blade... weighed 103 grams today. With rubbers 198 grams. Damn, I thought it would crack 200. Perofrmance pretty much the same as above, with more solid feel and a little faster performance overall. With FX-S soft sponge rubber and that blade, I might banned from the club sounds so damn loud explosive super spinny.
 
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I love it! I'm glad you're getting a chance to really try them out. It sounds like the limba-outer blade is a good fit for the rubbers you selected and for the way you play. It's interesting that they blades are losing weight this many weeks after they were built.
 
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Three new quarantine-era blades:

Blade 1: My goal was to try and improve upon the relatively soft/dull feel of the redwood by placing koto directly next to the core.

Composition: Koto-Spruce-Koto-Redwood(core)-Koto-Spruce-Koto
Handle: Walnut-WesternRedCedar-BigLeafMaple-Walnut
Weight: 93 grams

B1 - IMG_1928a.jpg
B1 - IMG_1921a.jpg
B1 - IMG_1944a.jpg

Blade 2: My goal was to create the most powerful 7-ply I could using the materials I had on hand.

Composition: EuropeanLarch-AlaskanYellowCedar-AlaskanYellowCedar-WesternRedCedar(core)-AlaskanYellowCedar-AlaskanYellowCedar-EuropeanLarch
Handle: Walnut-WesternRedCedar-BigLeafMaple
Weight: 98 grams (balance point 2.8 cm off handle)

B2 - IMG_1931a.jpg
B2 - IMG_1933a.jpg
B2 - IMG_1935a.jpg

Blade 3: Experimenting with a different gluing technique and trying out a heavy handle with some of my ideal woods.

Composition: Koto-Spruce-Limba-WesternRedCedar-Limba-Spruce-Koto
Handle: Walnut-Maple-Walnut-Maple-Walnut
Weight: 101 grams (balance point 2.2 cm off the handle)

B3 - IMG_1950a.jpg
B3 - IMG_1954a.jpg
 
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My friend George is at it again and wants Nate to make him another blade.

George is looking for a hybrid blade where one side has different properties than the other. He wants a controlled speed blade low end OFF to OFF Minus on the fast end, 5 ply, all wood, Kiri core (size not specified - will depend on performance peramaters I think) 7 mm or so total blade thickness, weight not specified, (I think he is OK with anything from 80-100 grams), a normal 157x100mm shape, ST handle standard 100mm long, and an overal circumferance several mm larger than regular size.

I think I remember somewhere (maybe earlier in this thread) where Nate recently constructed a blade with the similar concept.

I believe this is a good story to document what George wants and the kind of things Nate must think about, engineer, and adjust.
 
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I could just hand George a Nexy designed Tibhar Actium and tell George to call it a day... but George wants something custom made and just doesn't roll that way.

... and neither do I, so I support Nate's efforts in research, development, design/testing/engineering, prototyping, evaluation testing, re-engineering, and production.
 
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My friend George is at it again and wants Nate to make him another blade.

George is looking for a hybrid blade where one side has different properties than the other. He wants a controlled speed blade low end OFF to OFF Minus on the fast end, 5 ply, all wood, Kiri core (size not specified - will depend on performance peramaters I think) 7 mm or so total blade thickness, weight not specified, (I think he is OK with anything from 80-100 grams), a normal 157x100mm shape, ST handle standard 100mm long, and an overal circumferance several mm larger than regular size.

I think I remember somewhere (maybe earlier in this thread) where Nate recently constructed a blade with the similar concept.

I believe this is a good story to document what George wants and the kind of things Nate must think about, engineer, and adjust.

I'm always happy to try and meet someone's table-tennis related needs (and, as a researcher by trade, I do love experimenting)! Hybrid/combination blades are such an interesting thing - I don't think it's possible to create a single blade with two completely unique feeling sides (i.e., they are "attached", so they must share some commonalities). That said, the things I've found that can change the speed and feel of a blade are: wood (species, thickness, "treatments"), glue (type, thickness), and other materials (carbon, etc).

Philosophically, I am curious if it's better to make a combination blade or if it's better to try and achieve the speed characteristics through rubber sheets. Any thoughts on this?

I could just hand George a Nexy designed Tibhar Actium and tell George to call it a day... but George wants something custom made and just doesn't roll that way.

... and neither do I, so I support Nate's efforts in research, development, design/testing/engineering, prototyping, evaluation testing, re-engineering, and production.

Thanks - that's very kind of you to say! At the same time, it should be noted that I'm just an enthusiast making blades in the living-room of my house - I am certain that all of the expertise, resources, and ability to test blades at Nexy is superior to what I'm capable of. I have some interesting woods at my disposal, don't mind trying out novel concepts, and can make blades of any shape or size as requested (something that wouldn't be worthwhile for a larger company), so that's really the benefit of having me put something together for people.
 
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Scoobie Doo Sergey (Tsos) (who one day WILL register and talk on the forum) tried out the Nate-made Koto outer 7 ply blade with 110 mm handle. I had slapped on two NEW sheets of Tibhar MX-K 47.5 rubber in 2.1 sponge...

DUDE... Sergey was simply LUVIN IT !!

That cat could LITERALLY hit ANY SHOT HE WANTED. Sergey plays a hybrid heavy/slow spin, control ball, punch counter, and POUND the ball attack kinda game. Sometimes he chops. As fast as these rubbers are and as fast as the balde is OFF class 7 ply all wood, Sergey could do chops well.

... but it wasn't his consistency accross a wide range of his favored shots that was causing him to rave... it was the FEEL and FEEDBACK and FEELING of control that gave him confidence.

I kidnapped the blade back out of his hands after a forceful 15 minute Jijitsu struggle... and I confirmed my earlier observations that that blade is simply different and SUITABLE for how both Sergey and Der_Echte strike the ball with a middle firm rubber.

I am obviously, by the amount of time I spend using the Limba outer blades, more favorable towards the limba outer blades, but that Koto outer blade can deliver the goods for either of us.

I might ask Nate to make another TWO of those (for Sergey and TTD memebr erm)
 
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