Reducing flare in handle

says Thanks for the suggestion Splasher! I was going to try...
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Hello,
This is probably going to sound a bit bonkers but here you go.
I have played with flared handles till a couple of months ago when I got a blade as present, a better blade than the ones I own (supposedly) but with a straight handle. First time I played with it, took me just 10 minutes to make it fly off my hand. Being used to flare and loose grip, it just took off.. I have since used grip tape, I play daily and I got used to it quickly, to the point that now the bottom of a flared handle really bothers me and feels uncomfortable. So I might stick to straight handles from now, but as experiment, I was about to take my flared Yasaka SE and do a bit of a reshaping of the end flare, the idea is to remove the flare by 50% and do a sort of in-between flared-straight. Am I just going to ruin the poor blade forever?Is the handle even partially hollow or I can take as much wood off as I want?
 
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Before you ruin the poor blade forever, how do you hold the racket?

I, personally, hold it mostly with my thumb and index finger. The index finger laying on the bottom of the rubber, and the thumb resting on the bevel at end of the handle. This is already enough for me to lock the blade in hand, and preventing it from flying away. The other fingers are just gently supporting the grip, so the handle being flared or straight shouldn't matter for me.

Try the thumb locking on the bevel thing. The bevel does all the work, even with loose grip.
 
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says Thanks for the suggestion Splasher! I was going to try...
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Thanks for the advice. I do pretty much the same as you suggest, I think I have a pretty decent grip and probably even more now that I don’t rely on the flare anymore. But I will surely take the advice and focus on using the bevel more.

In any case, now I feel that the flared shape gets in the way against the inside of my wrist and I was tempted to shave some off from my spare flared blade... But I get it, it’s a bad idea
 
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I believe the bevel use should be a preference thing, people rest the thumb on the rubber and that works fine too. I just mentioned it because your racket went airplane mode haha

And I just got it that the Yasaka blade is a spare one. If it is, and you have no intent of selling it, then why not? :)





Edit: On the other hand, YSE is pretty cheap right now on TT11, 22$
 
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says Spin and more spin.
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There is most likely a hollow space in the handle. But it should not interfere with you filing off some of the flare to make it closer to straight. If you filled to make the handle torpedo to a point (the opposite of a flare), then you would get in trouble with running into the hollow space. But only if the taper was narrower than the lens that says Sweden Extra on the handle where the lens is.

The hollow space is comfortably narrower than the lens.

So, no torpedo handle. That aside, you should be fine. But why not buy one with a straight handle and keep the flare for if some day you change again?

The flare actually helps you use your wrist and get more acceleration on certain shots.
 
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says MIA
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But why not buy one with a straight handle and keep the flare for if some day you change again?

I went from FL to ST and back to FL for similar reasons to OP.

I almost tried to turn my Viscaria and Korbel FL handles into ST but in the end just bought the ST versions and kept the FL. Glad I did since I would have probably butchered these blades a bit and ended up coming back to FL anyway.

Oddly, I prefer certain blades in FL and others in ST.
 
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says Thanks for the suggestion Splasher! I was going to try...
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than you all for your wise recommendations,I decided to keep the FL as considering the ej issues im experiencing, It’s very possible I to will go back and forth between handle favourite style. I have removed the grip tape from my ST handle and in a couple of days I will check if my hand has really gotten used to ST or if I will witness another take-off..
 
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I have played with a lot of blades. Too many to be precise. ;)


There are so many versions of the same handles that I wouldn't say that just FL or ST is enough to describe the handles in every case.
The difference in a Stiga Legend FL and like a Nittaku Acoustic FL are quite substantial in my opinion. Also the old Stiga Stellan Bengtsson is far from the same as a regular ST handle.
I have a Yasaka Dynamix ST and a Synergy ST. The Dynamix is round, and the Synergy is square. So handles differs a lot.


For example the classic Viscaria handle is a tad too flared for my liking, so I reduced it. Not a lot, but a little. Some would say I ruined the blade, but I prefer it this way.
I could have bought a Zhang Jike ALC, which probably would have been better, but I got this Viscaria for a good deal second hand.


IMG_20190618_123909_2.jpg
 
says Thanks for the suggestion Splasher! I was going to try...
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I reduced it a bit at the end but just a bit, rounded the bottom hard edge and all hard edges that were bothering me. It looks really nice but probably not to everyone, and its different enough to make the blade hard to sell. But I never planned to sell such a cheap blade. Btw sandpaper works beautifully, TT blade wood is so soft especially the handle and it’s a pleasure to work it with different grit sandpaper. I got carried away and I even engraved my initials into the bottom of the handle. I really didn’t have anything better to do that night!
 
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A20F8019-4541-44B4-B91F-A9D1D1F9FC2E.jpg
3082D212-7D53-40B4-B684-6711F39B7837.jpg
Not sure I managed to attach the photos,
its taking me longer to find how to attach photos
via mobile phone than the handle reduction/smoothing job I did!
Anyway If photos work, this is the smooth all over handle which
feels a bit like one of those smooth Donic handles.
Still need to glue rubbers and try it.
 
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View attachment 19727
View attachment 19728
Not sure I managed to attach the photos,
its taking me longer to find how to attach photos
via mobile phone than the handle reduction/smoothing job I did!
Anyway If photos work, this is the smooth all over handle which
feels a bit like one of those smooth Donic handles.
Still need to glue rubbers and try it.

Looking comfy!

I too refinish my handles by hand to be smoother, specially at the wings like you did there. I don’t round the tops though, I like this part square with the rubbers.

I do that right out of the package, it is one of the fun parts of having a new blade for me. I don’t even understand how most people that I see don’t even think about this possibility.
 
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says Thanks for the suggestion Splasher! I was going to try...
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Yes I agree, it’s nice to customise our own bat and do a bit of arts&crafts with it LOL, unless you plan to sell it.
I wasn’t sure about rounding the tops neither but got carried away. In fact I wonder if I lose the ability to find the top with my thumb and read the angle.. I was in fact tempted to refine this part (since blade is naked right now) and sharpen it up a bit but in a non-symmetrically way, based on where I place the thumb!
 
Hey Blueskies, may i ask how you did that modification to the handle? Last night at my club i held my friends J.Mizutani ST handle and LOVED IT!!!. I love flared handles particularly on the thicker side like Stiga Legend for example. Right now I'm using a Rosewood Vii in Master and wish I'd gotten it in either ST or Legend but I was told they NCTVii didnt come in Legend so I settled for master fl. and to purchase another blade in ST wouldnt be feasible for me. I was thinking of changing the handle cups but was told even if I was successful at it, it would change the 'feel' of the blade when playing. Thinking of doing what you did, but I don't want to try it and mess it up beyond repair.

I have played with a lot of blades. Too many to be precise. ;)


There are so many versions of the same handles that I wouldn't say that just FL or ST is enough to describe the handles in every case.
The difference in a Stiga Legend FL and like a Nittaku Acoustic FL are quite substantial in my opinion. Also the old Stiga Stellan Bengtsson is far from the same as a regular ST handle.
I have a Yasaka Dynamix ST and a Synergy ST. The Dynamix is round, and the Synergy is square. So handles differs a lot.


For example the classic Viscaria handle is a tad too flared for my liking, so I reduced it. Not a lot, but a little. Some would say I ruined the blade, but I prefer it this way.
I could have bought a Zhang Jike ALC, which probably would have been better, but I got this Viscaria for a good deal second hand.


View attachment 19680
 
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Hey Blueskies, may i ask how you did that modification to the handle? Last night at my club i held my friends J.Mizutani ST handle and LOVED IT!!!. I love flared handles particularly on the thicker side like Stiga Legend for example. Right now I'm using a Rosewood Vii in Master and wish I'd gotten it in either ST or Legend but I was told they NCTVii didnt come in Legend so I settled for master fl. and to purchase another blade in ST wouldnt be feasible for me. I was thinking of changing the handle cups but was told even if I was successful at it, it would change the 'feel' of the blade when playing. Thinking of doing what you did, but I don't want to try it and mess it up beyond repair.

I used a dremel type electric tool. Sanded away little by little.
Some people regard these blades as almost holy. But it's just a blade.

A friend of mine change "cups" a lot. I've tried his Viscarias both with Stellan Bengtsson cups and with Mazunov cups.
I don't think the feel of the blade change that much. But it for sure changes a little.
 
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Blade wood is really soft , so sand paper of different grit works a treat, slower than a Dremel of course but at least it’s a gradual and safe way to take away material. I have a Dremel and opted to manually sand it as I didn’t want to accidentally shave off a chunk of wood.I would just be careful sanding blades with carbon fibre or similar, as you don’t want to inhale particles of that stuff.
 
Hey thanks for the advice. I usually don't attempt any modification or repair on ANYTHING unless I'm absolutely sure it will be successful. I've butchered many film cameras and electronics in the past that cost even more money in the end! Haha so i've learned my lesson. And you're right, in the end it's just a blade. "But it for sure changes a little" that is GREAT advice to me. "a little" in table tennis equates to ALOT in my opinion! Anyways, i'll just deal with it and adapt. If I do modify it though will keep you posted. Thanks again!

I used a dremel type electric tool. Sanded away little by little.
Some people regard these blades as almost holy. But it's just a blade.

A friend of mine change "cups" a lot. I've tried his Viscarias both with Stellan Bengtsson cups and with Mazunov cups.
I don't think the feel of the blade change that much. But it for sure changes a little.
 
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