Blade differences between brands?

[Zwill]

Wood is not a very nice material to work with. Whenever something is made from wood, you need a bit of luck when buying it.

I think that is generally a problem in every factory day by day. I suppose every manufacturer has their source of supply, DHS, Butterfly, Korean factory, Yinhe, Sunflex and I'd be surprised if they were the same, could be some wood is from China, some from Indonesia, Africa. The same type of ayous might be different between African or Indonesian grown, I don't know but I wouldn't be shocked.
Also I suppose they have their own method to dry the wood, cut it etc etc

Gluing is probably also a difference between the factories. Type of glue, how they cure it, how much is used. I can imagine Butterfly or DHS having some own made goo that others don't know about. I'm not saying they are vastly different but maybe makes some difference.

Also the artificial fibers they use, I don't think they buy the same fibers to begin with but I also don't think the weave them the same way either. And God forbid if I start thinking if there's any tensioning during weave and gluing and who know what other factor might matter. I think this is where big factories have the biggest advantage over custom blade makers, the massive scale of testing and budget to develop interesting new methods.

Lastly I also believe the special blades like W968 national or double code Butterfly blades are made by different people, not the same as their commercial blades. But generally the worker skill level can be quite different between Japanese and Chinese factories just based on work culture. While in Japan probably butterfly or Nittaku workers are kept for long time even for commercial blades, I'm not so sure the Chinese commercial blade makers have such long lasting carriers, and again just based on the work cululture. For the special blade production probably the skill level is quite even.

Well lots of assumptions 🌚 Wish someone interviewed retired blade makers from Japan or China maybe even Sweeden.

 

[Archosaurus]

This is very untrue - the Harimoto ALC and W968 are both inner ALC limba blades with larger head sizes, and no player over the level of 1600 USATT would ever confuse the two especially when it comes to more powerful strokes.

Throw Ovtcharov ALC into the mix, and the same applies. You could take 50 Harimoto ALCs, you would struggle to find one that could be confused for an Ovtcharov by most decent players.

Sure, only because of the handle design and probably the laminating technique.

Objectively the differences in performance between 100 samples of those blades is probably almost as large as the differences in performance between those two blades compared to eachother.

 

[ThePongCommenter]

Objectively the differences in performance between 100 samples of those blades is probably almost as large as the differences in performance between those two blades compared to eachother.

For low to mid level amateurs maybe. For most people above that level, the differences are very noticeable. Anyone in the latter group who is given the chance to get familiar with a Harimoto ALC and a 968, and then given 100 of either of them blind with all other variables the same, would be able to tell which one they're using with a very high accuracy rate especially when it starts coming to full power strokes for those two blades in particular.

To prove my point, can you easily name a list of professional players who base their game on forehand power that use the HALC? Because I can easily do so for the Ovtcharov ALC and 968, but would struggle to think of a single power player that uses the HALC.

 

[zeio]

Yuji-kun, who have competed in All-Japan TTC and beat Kaufmann once when she was in Japan, set up 2 blind tests once, one for 4 Butterfly blades and one for 4 Joola rubbers, and got them completely right twice.

特殊素材と木材の違いはわかる？【卓球】
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqJo-6YAQ3U

悪魔のブラインド試打再び…【卓球】
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHPOC8ygxXU

【世界女王】長身から放たれる超攻撃！アネットカウフマン降臨！
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAzUNrmmu6g

 

[jonol]

Sure, only because of the handle design and probably the laminating technique.

Objectively the differences in performance between 100 samples of those blades is probably almost as large as the differences in performance between those two blades compared to eachother.

Nah, no way in this case. 0.2mm thickness difference is definitely noticeable.

I agree your point has merit for blades that have the same manufacturing specs, but the Ovtcharov and Harimoto ALC have a meaningfully different design beyond just the handle.

 

[Zwill]

If you have both blades with same setup I think most better players can tell the difference between W968 or HALC or Ovtcharov ALC, but if you only have one per day I think it's more tricky. Without immediate cross reference it's a more interesting blind test.

 

[Archosaurus]

For low to mid level amateurs maybe. For most people above that level, the differences are very noticeable. Anyone in the latter group who is given the chance to get familiar with a Harimoto ALC and a 968, and then given 100 of either of them blind with all other variables the same, would be able to tell which one they're using with a very high accuracy rate especially when it starts coming to full power strokes for those two blades in particular.

To prove my point, can you easily name a list of professional players who base their game on forehand power that use the HALC? Because I can easily do so for the Ovtcharov ALC and 968, but would struggle to think of a single power player that uses the HALC.

That's why I said objectively. They're not large differences at all most of the time, but a decent player will be able to easily tell two different same-model blades from eachother, let alone two entirely different designs.

 

[Haito]

I don't have a very big amount of blades that I tested. BUT all the kids in a club I used to play at had Tibhar Curious at one point. I think I played with about 20-30 of them total. Maybe more. All of them played a bit differently, maybe 5-10% difference. You could adjust quickly.

I played with 20-30 BTFY Innerforce. The difference was much bigger. Most of them were dull AF. Like you played and the blade was totally mute. I noticed a difference in top veneers. I do not want to start a fad or anything so I will refrain from spreading possible missinformation, but the ones I played with and like them, had common feature.

When making the blade you have to consider how much moisture there is in the wood. My hypothesis is wood not being dried properly might have an effect on what I was feeling. I think that older wood might be better feeling.

Since I am also exposed to playing instruments and whatnot, I might be a lot biased here. But if you dry the wood before you make the guitar it tends to feel better. And I think a very similar think might be happening with blades.

Older parts of the wood are also typically denser, so the place where the wood comes from, like the literally part of the tree seems to matter.

Only thing I figured out how to do is to just buy a bunch of blades and tap them.

 

[Haito]

So I've been bothering the Loki Alibaba seller to tap the blades and send me the ones that ring far, wide and loud. I do not know if she actually tapped the blades, I do not know if their new factory has better QC, I have no idea what the reason is. BUT, so far I've been happy and have no qualms.

The experience of ordering a couple of blades, and every single one of them is actually feeling good is new to me. But yeah I might be a bit over sensitive.