SDC Handmade Blades

Originally Posted by hipnotic

Yes, Ako has a very similar grain structure to Koto, but it's softer. Quarter sawing exposes the medullary rays and produces that effect, what we like to call fish scale.

I think you misunderstood me. Of course the top ply is quarter sawn because it has the "fish scale" pattern that indicates it has been quarter sawn. Different wood grains show different patterns when quarter sawn.

Is the Olive Wood on the handle also Quarter Sawn? Or is there some other reason it has such a cool grain effect?

Originally Posted by UpSideDownCarl

I think you misunderstood me. Of course the top ply is quarter sawn because it has the "fish scale" pattern that indicates it has been quarter sawn. Different wood grains show different patterns when quarter sawn.

Is the Olive Wood on the handle also Quarter Sawn? Or is there some other reason it has such a cool grain effect?

Oh ok, I misunderstood you. Olive wood has a very scattered and random grain pattern, it's just the nature of the wood not the sawing orientation.

This is a blade with a typical outer composition, but I used a plain Kevlar fiber to see how it would perform. Compared to ALC or A-C, it feels a bit softer, more dynamic and bouncy because you don't get the extra hardness that comes with having carbon mixed in the weave. It's still a fast blade, a solid OFF, with a medium-low throw and nice control.

Available in my FS thread.

Composition: Koto / Kevlar / Ayous / Kiri / Ayous / Kevlar / Koto
Weight: 90.0g
Thickness: 5.8mm
Freq.; 1420 Hz
Balance: 2.8cm (Low)

Originally Posted by Manto76

Beautiful as always!
You recently made one of the same composition except with Diolen instead of Kevlar; how would you compare them?

These were actually made some time ago, I'm a little behind on my posts. Anyway, they aren't exactly the same because in the Diolen blade I used the heaviest Koto I had, while this one has white Koto which tends to be a little lighter and softer than average. Despite that, this blade is a lot faster, Kevlar is much more elastic than Diolen which feels a bit numb in comparison.

Sent from my MAR-LX1A using Tapatalk

Sometimes I'm asked if I can replicate a blade I built in the past. In most cases the answer is yes, I keep records of all the builds so I can reproduce them in the future if necessary. This was such a case, a blade for a customer that wanted one just like his first.

Composition: Black Limba / Black Limba / I-C / Ayous / I-C / Black Limba / Black Limba
Weight: 87.5g
Thickness: 5.75mm
Freq.: 1290 Hz
Balance: 4.0cm (High)

Everyone seems to like the blue stuff so here it is. Koto outer ply with ALC underneath? You know what this is...

Available in my FS Thread.

Composition: Koto / ALC / Ayous / Kiri / Ayous / ALC / Koto
Weight: 89.1g
Thickness: 5.75mm
Freq.: 1400 Hz
Balance: 2.6cm (Low)

A custom order with an handle featuring the flag of the Netherlands

Composition: Framiré / Kevlar / Framiré / Kiri / Framiré / Kevlar / Framiré
Weight: 89.4g
Thickness: 5.75mm
Freq.: 1350 Hz
Balance: 2.7cm (Low)

A commissioned blade with different FH and BH sides.

Composition: Spruce / Carbon / Limba / Ayous / Glass fiber / Ayous / Limba
Weight: 94.5g
Thickness: 5.7mm
Freq.: 1335Hz
Balance: 2.5cm (Low)

This was a combination blade I made a few months ago for a medium pips player, first time I used SZLC. ZLC is hard to work with, but this thing is extra hard!

Composition: Koto / Ayous / SZLC / Kiri / ZLC / Hinoki / Ash
Weight: 96.1g
Thickness: 6.05mm
Freq.: 1507/1485 Hz
Balance: 2.3cm (Low)

George has not yet received his blades, nor seen them live, but is already absolutely STOKED and ready to see beauty and performance come together.

Originally Posted by Der_Echte

George has not yet received his blades, nor seen them live, but is already absolutely STOKED and ready to see beauty and performance come together.

Hopefully they will arrive soon so he gets to try them!

Be careful out there, there is a weapon of mass destruction on the loose!

Composition: Hinoki / Ayous / SZLC / Kiri / SZLC / Ayous / Hinoki
Weight: 110.6g
Thickness: 7.9mm
Freq.: 1700 Hz
Balance: 2.4cm (Low)

That shapes up to be an OFF+ monster.

Originally Posted by Der_Echte

That shapes up to be an OFF+ monster.

Yes! But a monster with a soft side. Sulley would be a good name.

Another Happy Customer from SDC Blades.

Hi, I am Ame from the Philippines.
A short pips FH user with inverted for BH
I'll only post one photo and let Hipnostics do the Postings.


Composition:
Smoked Eucalyptus
ZLC
Spruce
Balsa 6mm
Aramid Carbon
Spruce
Blue Fig

87gms. It feels lighter in the hand even though I weighted it myself and the same reading appears.

I use the Smoked eucalyptus side for the FH and Blue Fig for the BH

FH Side:
Medium in feel
Off in speed
Dwell time is there
Flat driving loops need a slightly closed angle for it to land since there is dwell time.
Trajectory: Slight curve
Blocking: Blocks very short, the balsa really absorbs the speed of the incoming ball
Usually balsa blades are hard to loop with but I find this one good for looping too w/ sp

BH Side:
All+ in speed
So much dwell time, it really sinks in.
A bit on the softer side
May make medium rubbers feel like soft rubbers.
Spins made on the BH kicks making it hard to block
Punching the ball works very well
Receiving needs more of a push since the BH Side is slightly slower
Chopping is very easy creating nasty backspin balls


Handle is inspired by our Philippine Flag
Made of Wenge and Maple wood.
Wenge strips of Blue and red.

Original plan was making both halves red and blue but not possible.
Since the paint would make it to slippery to hold.
But everything went well aesthetically.

Will definitely order again.
SDC Blades is very CS oriented and answered all of my Queries regarding this project.
I cant wait to work with him on another one soon.

PS. I hope I did the blade justice in this review

I might as well show a couple more pics from Ame's blade.

Full disclosure. Balsa is a pain in the a** to work with, especially with thick cores such as this one. It's very soft so it's hard to get a clean edge while routing. Cleaning up the edges is also hard because ZLC is very resilient, so if you are not careful you end up removing too much material on the core. In this case I also had a problem applying the logo, the material is so soft that the drill bit drifted. Amekun was very understanding, so I'm extra glad that he likes how the blade plays.

Oh, the blade feels so light because balance on this one is just 2.0cm, which is very low. For those who are wondering, the frequency is 1873 Hz.

Originally Posted by Chase Bradshaw

Awesome looking blade! Of course that problem you have with the button won’t effect the blade at all but if you Pre-drill the bottom and glue a small piece of a dowel in there smaller than your button you have then your forstner bit will have a harder wood to grab onto and won’t walk on you. They’ll never know!

Thanks for the tip. I actually had to do that in this case because the first hole I drilled was for my regular 12mm logo, then I had to clean up the mess with the 15mm one but it still wasn't enough.

Out of interest, does the blue Aramid Carbon you have used in a couple of the recent builds, play any differently to the more yellow coloured one, or is it purely a cosmetic difference?