Yea so basically it IS made to be head heavy in the first place. And that answered alot of the questions i have in my head just now haha. Wiilaim - Hey Cake, I feel the stuff (concepts) are pretty simple. Don't let nails get in ur head... they hurt... and you will encounter problems when you go through Airport Security
Still leaves me with one important question. Why nails? wont it be abit shaky when the vibrations come into play and ruin the feeling of the blade?
Actually, it doesn't shake, I filled in all the space with glue. The nails (sometimes I use paperclips when I want to add "less" more weight.
Think concrete. Have you ever seen any company build a concrete road or use concrete on a building? The lay down a grid of iron rods (called Rubarb) then they pour concrete over the rods. The iron rods serve to re-enforce the concrete to make the structure stronger. I use the same concept. I guess if I really want to add "less" more weight, I could have used broken off toothpicks. The Beast I re-built ended up being 30 grams heavier and it still didn't feel heavy in balance and it never felt heavy when i swing it. I played 4 straight matches with it and had zero strain on wrist or arm. That is remarkable since I rarely play TT and I am not in TT shape, like I was in Korea.
The ammount of weight I add depends on how hollow the blade and handle was to begin with. My objectives vary based on how the blade feels on a swing, how it feels at impact, how lacking in power it might be, and how it badly vibrates at impact. These are the factors I consider when deciding if, and how much, and what kind of re-enforement I use.
For example, the Stiga Allround Evolution was SERIOUSLY hollow. You coulda shouted down that big gap and you would have heard your echo. Plus, it is not such a fast top end speed and the sucker vibrates entirely too much. Such a blade requires a lot of re-enforcement and totally fill in empty space.
Another example was the Sparticus in this thread. I was already a pretty solid feeling blade with decent balance, it didn't need a whole lot of extra weight, a lot less would work great for it. It vibrated, but not crazy earthquake-like. I also had to be concerned about A-Gold too, as buff as the lad is for a lad, I don't think his coach wants him to operate a bat that could double as a fearsome Blunt Instrument Bludgeon that would disable a Beserker Viking in one blow to the head.
As for being shaky... ANDRO with a purpose made a few SHAKY blades... the Kinetic series. They thought it would be really novel idea that no one on the market yet did (true, no one did it) (Hey Dummy, there was a reason for that Andro !!) so they decided to hollow out hte handle and 1/2 fill it up with some crap that would roll around and move as you swing it. You could feel it and a little balance shift on your swing, that moving stuff inside was supposed to use your kinetic energy of the swing to change the balance and "Dynamically" shift teh force forward, which many TT customers in modern times have quasi demanded of the market.
Then you had manufacturers (Andro and Nittaku I think) (Super Core) or (Super Cell Core) hollow out the handle and fill it with very light stuff like compressed foam, kinda like the stuff you use to seal window frames when you build a house and need to seal off air entering house.
Manufacturers have been listening to consumers and have also been very keen to invent and innovate, some for good reasons and good results, some for simply making something new to market, usually at a higher price and a lower cost to make.
Therin lies my smart-aleck answer is that very often, it is the chasing of money that drives all this in industry. The art of Business is to convince someone (like Billions of someone) that they absolutely NEED something that the compnay has created a WANT or Desire.
TT players at first when they get into the game are the absolute extreme most stingiest Grinch-Like Misers on the entire planet. They want to spend minimum money, often ZERO money on their equipment and expect to perform and have fun. We all know it doesn't work out that way. Then on the other end of the rainbow, you have the EJ crowd. (Equipment Junkie) They crave new equipment more than a drug addict craves illegal drugs. EJs will buy new equipment because they never tried it and they will buy it, try it, and own it the rest of their life until their Pirate Chest of TT equipment is worth (in new retail price) more than a Pirate's Buried Treasure Chest !!! Then, when they tried it all, they will try whatever the industry churns out.
and there are some interesting points made !
