J-pen single hinoki ply questions

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I went to a sports shop in taipei and there was some 1 ply taiwanese hinoki handmade jpen blades and I want to buy one, but I have some questions.
1.How do you choose a good hinoki blade looking by the wood feeling when hitting a ball and appearence?
2.Which type of rubber is good to go with these type of blade?
3.How to you cut the edge of the handle, every jpen I saw it is very deep cut on the handle, if there is ant guide on how to do it please let me know. Tks
4.Should I use organic glue or water based glue to not damage the wood.
Thank you in advance.:)
 
says transitioning from JPEN to CPEN
says transitioning from JPEN to CPEN
Member
Aug 2019
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not a good TT player but i do play with jpen, so i guess i'll try to help

1) you could take a read of this link to get some insight for yourself regarding sound http://mytabletennis.net/forum/itc-ryu-seung-min-jpen_topic82621.html

if you value appearances, the rule of thumb is that the grains (lines) of the wood should be straight. the distance between one line and another should be narrow and uniform as well. it is better if you have an "eye" (the ellipse pattern you see on the sides of the blade) on one side or two.

blades made of younger wood look paler and more white compared to older wood.

2) depends on your preferences. chinese rubbers are definitely playable with 1 ply jpen as well, but eurojap rubbers are the ones recommended by most jpen players because you get power more easily out of them compared to chinese rubbers. i switch between euro and chinese rubbers from time to time.

i recommend yinhe mercury 2 with medium hardness if you wanna play with chinese rubbers. plays even better if boosted. for eurojap, there's a lot of good choices. i can vouch for fastarc g-1 and stiga mantra M.

no words on hybrid rubbers as ive not used them yet, but having briefly tried out dignics 09c, first impression is pretty good.

3) use this vid as guideline

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpa9jsoiYIA

don't really recommend shaving it deep like the ones u c on the internet. shave till comfortable but not too much or else your grip would be too loose. the cork piece on the back of the handle is optional, you dont have to cut it off. but it does make transitioning from forehand to TPB smoother if not faster imo.

4) you can use both, but i prefer water-base glue cuz i dont want VOC glue to change the properties of my rubber. though, if you wanna use VOC glue there's no problems at all. my friend uses VOC glue all the time and so far so good.

water-base glue wont damage your blade unless you take your rubber on and off everyday, but u should be careful tho cuz WB glue can splinter ur blade if the glue is too strong. i recommend lidu WB glue (the small one), but i heard nittaku finezip is good. if you wanna protect your blade from splintering, you can look into sealing it with 1 very thin layer of polyurethene or your standard TT lacquer.
 
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Usually look for uniform tight and straight grain lines, but appearance does not always equal better quality blade... Weight is more important
because if it was even the same blade and same weight they will not always equal the same preformance as wood is organic. Everyone has different preferances some like harder feeling blade while some prefer softer feeling ones. I personally prefer a more direct harder feeling blade as mentally my brain can not really process a blade feeling softer while looking that thick.
Usually most jpen player prefer euro/jap/tensor type rubbers as they go well with them added springy effect and good ball holding. Chinese tacky will work but aren't as compatible as they are harder and hinoki is already hard which leaves little room for dwell/holding, altho some player do like Chinese rubber if they don't mind the super fast feeling. They also say Chinese rubber takes away the feeling that is liked about one ply hinoki so they are not a preferred setup. What works very well is tenergy 05 1.8 this is already a really offensive aggressive fast setup, as you learn to control it you can move on to max rubber. Something else that can also work is hybrid/combination rubbers if you like the likes of Chinese tacky rubber, i.e. Tau 2, DIGNICS 09c, rakza Z.

Shave blade to prefferance like the likes of CPEN blades, they more contact from you index finger the better.

Rubber cement or WBG will work but if using WBG please let it dry all the way before deciding to stick rubbers on. Water does not go well with hinoki as it absorb water very quickly compared to other woods.
 
Last edited:
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Member
Mar 2020
205
23
232
not a good TT player but i do play with jpen, so i guess i'll try to help

1) you could take a read of this link to get some insight for yourself regarding sound http://mytabletennis.net/forum/itc-ryu-seung-min-jpen_topic82621.html

if you value appearances, the rule of thumb is that the grains (lines) of the wood should be straight. the distance between one line and another should be narrow and uniform as well. it is better if you have an "eye" (the ellipse pattern you see on the sides of the blade) on one side or two.

blades made of younger wood look paler and more white compared to older wood.

2) depends on your preferences. chinese rubbers are definitely playable with 1 ply jpen as well, but eurojap rubbers are the ones recommended by most jpen players because you get power more easily out of them compared to chinese rubbers. i switch between euro and chinese rubbers from time to time.

i recommend yinhe mercury 2 with medium hardness if you wanna play with chinese rubbers. plays even better if boosted. for eurojap, there's a lot of good choices. i can vouch for fastarc g-1 and stiga mantra M.

no words on hybrid rubbers as ive not used them yet, but having briefly tried out dignics 09c, first impression is pretty good.

3) use this vid as guideline

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpa9jsoiYIA

don't really recommend shaving it deep like the ones u c on the internet. shave till comfortable but not too much or else your grip would be too loose. the cork piece on the back of the handle is optional, you dont have to cut it off. but it does make transitioning from forehand to TPB smoother if not faster imo.

4) you can use both, but i prefer water-base glue cuz i dont want VOC glue to change the properties of my rubber. though, if you wanna use VOC glue there's no problems at all. my friend uses VOC glue all the time and so far so good.

water-base glue wont damage your blade unless you take your rubber on and off everyday, but u should be careful tho cuz WB glue can splinter ur blade if the glue is too strong. i recommend lidu WB glue (the small one), but i heard nittaku finezip is good. if you wanna protect your blade from splintering, you can look into sealing it with 1 very thin layer of polyurethene or your standard TT lacquer.
I really appreciate your answer, I think I am going with a tibhar aurus but i dont know whih version
 
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