Afrobro's Handmade Blades

Sure - you should be able to see it in this photo...at least a little if you look closely.



Look at the side of the handle and you will notice that the ply next to the core is horizontal.

After a few Carbon blades and all Hinoki blades I've finally got around to trying a classic composition (Limba - Limba - Ayous - Limba - Limba) that I've been meaning to make for a while. I spent quite a long time playing with the Yasaka Sweden Extra which was great so I'm making a couple of blades around a similar speed.

This one came out at 89g and 5.8m thickness:



I also have a 7 ply on the go which I'm looking forward to testing out as it's quite a new composition. It will be Ayous - Anegre - Cedar of Lebanon - Anegre. It should come in at about 6.1mm thickness. I'm tempted to try this composition out with a few different medial plies as I really like all of the blades using Anegre that I've tried so far.

Hi all,

I haven't posted in a while for a number of reasons but I have still been making blades and trying out lots of new compositions with varying degrees of success. I'll try to upload some photos over the next few days as I've probably made around 20 blades and have a lot of to sort through but my latest favourite is below.

While I was waiting for the Nittaku Violin Carbon Inner to arrive from Japan, I decided to make my own version. It has arrived now and is an amazing blade (91g so 10g heavier than my regular Violin) but I'm a bit torn as to whether I'll stick to it or keep switching.

I didn't have a great stock of Kiri left so i decided to try drying out the Ayous wood that I had for the core - making it lighter and firmer. A few very short sessions in our regular oven on a low temp really dried it out nicely. After the Ayous core, I used a 90gsm Carbon fabric to try and reduce overall weight. Then, two thin layers of Ash - Epoxy throughout which was a first for me as I don't usually use it for wood - wood layers. The result really surprised me as it was lighter than my Violin Carbon at 85g. Considering Ayous blades are usually heavier, I have to think that drying out the wood made a considerable difference.



After spending money on a blade or the first time in a while to try out the Violin Inner...I think I actually prefer the Ayous version and I'm a very conflicted about that! It might be that I'm used to playing with ayous blades but it has a wonderful feel, great control and plenty of speed for my game while the Violin just feels a little bit more like a chunky powerhouse and it really felt like it was a touch on the heavy side for me - I might have to work up to it as I'm not playing a massive amount at the moment.

and the photos of actual Violin Carbon Inner



I will try to update with some playing impressions from both soon but I've also been distracted by some new deliveries.

Textreme 64gsm



and some new stock of thicker limba (1mm and 1.5mm to experiment with) and very thin balsa to see what effects it could have as a medial ply (0.5mm and 0.8mm).

I'd be interested to hear any thoughts on Textreme, thick Limba or thin Balsa blade compositions to consider. I still have a large range of other woods including Ash, Elm, Obeche, Spruce, Hinoki, Walnut, Mahogany, Meranti, Red Western Cedar, Various Limba, Poplar, Anigre...and quite a few more.

Morning Suga - thanks for replying. I've made a few Balsa blades previously but only ever as a core. The 0.5mm Balsa is more like paper so it'll be interesting to see what effect that could have.

As far as I've read Obeche, Abachi and Ayous are all the same tree - with different names from different parts of Africa. I've nearly finished a new blade which is a first asymmetrical 5 wood + 1 90gsm Carbon ply, all Obeche. It was really just to try out a new handle design but I'm looking forward to testing it as I haven't played with an all Obeche blade before and I'm expecting it to have a lot of control.

Thanks. I'll definitely be trying out some more designs with various woods and patterns when I get a chance. The woods used in this one were Walnut and Obeche.

The Textreme is more expensive than most but the 64gsm is so much lighter and I've been wanting to try it out for a while. It was around £50 per square meter which is about enough for 8 blades - making it £6.25 per blade (it gets cheaper the more you buy). I also have some 90gsm Carbon fabric, 160gsm Dynanotex spread tow and 187gsm Carbon/Zylon.

New blades

Been a little while since I've updated this thread so just posting some pics and specs of blades from the last month or so. Any questions or suggestions always welcome.

Hinoki Textreme (FL)



7 Ply: Kiso Hinoki + Textreme 64 g/sm
Thickness: 4.8mm
Blade size: 155mm x 150mm
Weight: 77g
Handle: 100mm x 22mm

Western Red Cedar/Textreme/Kiso Hinoki (ST)



5 Ply: Western Red Cedar/Textreme/Kiso Hinoki
Thickness: 5.4mm
Blade size: 155mm x 145mm
Weight: 70g
Handle: 100mm x 28mm x 23mm

Burned Ayous/Ayous/Textreme/Koto (FL)



Thickness: 5.6mm
Blade size: 155mm x 150mm
Weight: 86g

Burned Ayous/Ayous/Limba



5 Ply: Burned Ayous - Ayous - Limba
Thickness: 7.2mm
Blade size: 155mm x 146mm
Weight: 93g
Handle: 100mm x 28mm x 24mm

Thanks. I haven't tried all of them but usually anything between 5-6mm is fine for me. The 4.8mm was very thin but with the Textreme it should be strong enough. I expect it will probably give quite strong vibrations and I doubt it's too fast but it was a good experiment. Probably most pleased with the Textreme blade with Koto outer out of the lot.

Just made shakehand blades so far as I don't have any experience playing with anything else but hopefully I'll get around to trying some in the future.

Thanks all.

@Nate: Thanks. I hadn't done much work with WRC before but I was really pleased with the grain patterns on the handles. I have another blade on the go at the moment with a new Wenge layered handle which is also looking great (pics to follow soon).

@realtor_dillon: I have more blades at the moment than I could ever hope to test! Will give you a PM.