SDC Handmade Blades

Originally Posted by Basmundo

Hello Hipnotic. Stunning blade. I would be interested to hear the logic behind the construction to achieve what sort of characteristics for what sort of rubbers. I am assuming an inverted rubber on the carbon side and some form of pimples on the other.

Thanks Basmundo. Well, the player uses inverted on the Fh and long pips on the Bh and has been playing with a Stiga Allround Evolution. He plays a pushblocking game but likes to attack with the Fh and he was looking for something as slow, or even slower than his AE on the Bh, but faster on the Fh and without the hollow feel. So I suggested this composition, keeping it relatively thin and similar to the AE on the BH side, but using bouncier woods on the Fh side that would give him easier access to speed, as well as the IC to add some stability.

Originally Posted by Basmundo

Fascinating, as that is something that I have been considering for a bit of fun. I have read that a lot of people do not think that there is much difference between the fast and slow sides of most commercially available blades such as the DMD Wizard. Some have suggested that the fast and slow sides influence each other and tend to cancel out. Have you been able to measure the difference in speed of the two faces of this blade?
By the way, my beautiful SDC blade that you made for me is fully equipped with Tenergy 05 and 05FX ready to go but I have been unable to hit a ball with it yet because of the Covid situation.

Speed is greatly influenced by stiffness, and the stiffness acts as an whole, so in most blades it will be the same for both sides no matter what the composition is. However, you can still change the hardness and other variables a bit, and that is where the speed difference lies. There was a clear differences between sides in this blade, but I would say All / Off- at best. I would be suspicious of a rating that claims a difference of Def/Off for example.

I hope you get a chance to try it soon!

Originally Posted by PushSmasher

Having heard ones say that there is no difference in speed with combo blades, I did my own little experiment with 2 Neubauer Titan blades about a year ago. Had long pips and short pips on each, but on one of the blades I put the long pips on the 'fast' side, and the short pips on the 'slow' side. There was a noticeable difference in speed between the two blades. Could repeatedly have the 2 blades handed to me without knowing which one was reversed, and could tell each and every time by how they played.

Having said that, I agree that the difference isn't as great as probably hoped for, but there is definitely a difference, which may make it worthwhile for some to use a combo blade. I only tried it with my Titan blades, as they are the only combo blades I own. So it's certainly possible that with many combo blades the difference might be so small that it's not worth it. Just my experience...

That's interesting PushSmasher. Dr N quotes the speed difference of the Titan as being 87 and 70, so effectively one side is 24% faster than the other. DMS quote the speed difference for their Wizard blade as being 89 and 65, which would make one side 37% faster. Interestingly a UK stockist quotes the speeds for this same blade as being 85 and 42 which would make one side 102% faster. That seems an awful lot to me.

Originally Posted by Basmundo

That's interesting PushSmasher. Dr N quotes the speed difference of the Titan as being 87 and 70, so effectively one side is 24% faster than the other. DMS quote the speed difference for their Wizard blade as being 89 and 65, which would make one side 37% faster. That seems quite a lot to me.

That's a huge difference, if their numbers are accurate. I don't know if it was that much, but I do know it was noticeable.

One thing that might have made the difference more noticeable was that I had a very fast short pips (Waran 2.0), so it might be less obvious with a slower rubber. Just a thought...

There aren't many inner fiber blades with Kiri core out in the market and I really don't know why... They can be very good blades!

Composition: Hinoki / Ayous / Super A-C / Kiri / Super A-C / Ayous / Hinoki
Weight: 82g
Thickness: 5.95mmFreq.: 1485 Hz
Balance: 1.8cm (very low)

I used to work with guitars but I never worked with violins before, let alone three! A commissioned blade with a Violin composition and a cool custom Cobra Kai logo, as well as some simple repairs on a couple of damaged Violins.

Composition: Ash / Ash / Kiri / Ash / Ash
Weight: 85.3g
Thickness: 5.35mm
Freq.: 1141 Hz
Balance: 2.8cm (Low)

Originally Posted by SpinSquid

I went through a lot of this thread, and it's really impressive seeing where you started to what the blades look like now!

Excellent progress and products!

Thank you!

One of my personal favorites, too bad I didn't get to keep it! I must say I don't get any credit for designing this handle, it all came from the owner's mind, I just executed his idea.

Composition: Framiré / Ayous / I-C / Ayous / I-C / Ayous / Framiré
Weight: 84.6g
Thickness: 5.7mm
Freq.: 1230Hz
Balance: 2.9cm (Low)

This one is available, the blade not the cat

The blade is based on an Acoustic, built with hide glue but I used two thinner Limba medial plies instead of a thicker one, so this is technically a 7 ply.

Composition: Limba / Limba / Limba / Kiri / Limba / Limba / Limba
Weight: 91.8g
Thickness: 5.75mm
Freq.: 1205 Hz
Balance: 2.3cm (Low)

Originally Posted by yoass

Beautiful! (Blade and cat.)

Definitely not beautiful, also very moody and with a big personality, but we still love her (the cat not the blade )

Lately I've been getting a few requests to make something similar to Butterfy's Liu Shiwen blade which is discontinued. Well, unfortunately I don't work with plain zylon, but this has been my suggestion. An over-sized, relatively fast and high throw blade that retains a nice woody feeling. It's not the same but it does have similar characteristics. This one was made specifically top-heavy as a request by the owner.

Composition: Black Limba / Limba / I-C / Ayous / I-C / Limba / Black Limba
Weight: 89.7g
Thickness: 5.75mm
Freq.: 1290Hz
Balance: 3.7cm (High)

The owner of this combi blade was so happy with the first one that he wanted a spare, apparently this one came out even better than the first. Any resemblance to Mima Ito's blade is merely a coincidence

Composition: Koto / A-C / Ayous / Kiri / Ayous / A-C / Ash
Weight: 81.8g
Thickness: ~5.65mm
Freq.: ~1485 Hz
Balance: 2.3cm (Low)