Broken/Cracked Timo Boll Spirit. Any Advice?

A bit bummed. My main blade has several cracks in the core near the top of the handle. Its equally cracked on both sides. It has had a strange feeling while hitting the last week or so and I noticed the cracks today. Is it worth trying to fix it? If I wanted to purchase a similar more modern blade what would it be? I'm kind of nervous to buy another of the same blade. I purchased a backup TBS awhile back, but it didn't feel near as good as my main blade. I ended up selling it. Any suggestions?
 

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There are obviously lots of similar blades out there (Boll ALC, Viscaria, LGY ALC, ZJK ALC, FZD ALC) but none will feel the same as your old TBS, treated with years of Saigon humidity, your sweat and the heat.

Best to suck it up and stick to whichever new blade you end up getting till it plays as well as your old one.
 
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There are obviously lots of similar blades out there (Boll ALC, Viscaria, LGY ALC, ZJK ALC, FZD ALC) but none will feel the same as your old TBS, treated with years of Saigon humidity, your sweat and the heat.

Best to suck it up and stick to whichever new blade you end up getting till it plays as well as your old one.
Ive tried the same - looking for a replacement for my TBS - all the mentioned will feel harder and faster than your blade - as its older. You will just need to find something you like and preserver. A similar weight viscaria would be the obvious choice. Or give yourself the chance to try something else?
 
Well, I was looking through my equipment and I found a blade I forgot that I even have, Nexy Yoo Nam Kyu Pro ALC. I won the blade in a lucky draw a few years back. From what I remember it feels quite different than the TBS. I recall the Nexy being harder and stiffer. I have my doubts that I'm going to like it, but it doesn't cost any money to give it a try. Wish me luck!
 
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You can drill one or two small holes and fill the crack with epoxy or fiberglass resin. With a syringe you might be able to have enough pressure to distribute the glue inside the crack.

It's broken anyway, could be a fun thing to try.
 
You can drill one or two small holes and fill the crack with epoxy or fiberglass resin. With a syringe you might be able to have enough pressure to distribute the glue inside the crack.

It's broken anyway, could be a fun thing to try.
There's a shop here in Saigon that repairs blades. I was thinking of taking it them to see if they could do anything with it.
 
says Spin and more spin.
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There is nothing wrong with trying to fix it. But one thing to know, since that is the area of the blade that handles all the force transition from handle to blade face and from blade face to handle, once a blade has damage there, it is not so possible to fix. The damage will just resurface.
 
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says Table tennis clown
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remove the rubbers and clean the blade.
fit the blade into a vice or fix to a heavy table with clamps.
Use a top quality epoxy and using an epoxy thinner make a thin mix about the consistency of creamy milk.get somebody to twist the blade to open the cracks and slowly apply the resin
After a minute or two your partner can let go. the excess resin will be forced out.
If it looks like there are still open cracks you must clamp the blade and press until
the parts are together .Then walk away for 24 hours.

If you do not think you could handle a procedure like this you may have to buy a new blade
 
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says Spin and more spin.
says Spin and more spin.
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remove the rubbers and clean the blade.
fit the blade into a vice or fix to a heavy table with clamps.
Use a top quality epoxy and using an epoxy thinner make a thin mix about the consistency of creamy milk.get somebody to twist the blade to open the cracks and slowly apply the resin
After a minute or two your partner can let go. the excess resin will be forced out.
If it looks like there are still open cracks you must clamp the blade and press until
the parts are together .Then walk away for 24 hours.

If you do not think you could handle a procedure like this you may have to buy a new blade
That seems to me to be the method that would have the most success if you can get the epoxy way into the crack.
 
says Table tennis clown
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That seems to me to be the method that would have the most success if you can get the epoxy way into the crack.
I could. When the epoxy is thinned down exactly to right thickness, it will wick itself into the crack.
I have done repairs like that before on much more complicated pieces than a TT-padel, which is
after all just a piece of plywood. 😁
 
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You can drill one or two small holes and fill the crack with epoxy or fiberglass resin. With a syringe you might be able to have enough pressure to distribute the glue inside the crack.

It's broken anyway, could be a fun thing to try.
Yes, you give it a try... and if it doesn't work, play Chopin piano (Funeral March) and do it all over again with a different blade.
 
says Aging is a killer
That should be a relative straightforward fix for an experienced carpenter.
Stiga blades made in the sixties and seventies all had that weakness. Many many professional and advanced amateur users in that period reported broken blades.
The thing is that once repaired, the blade feeling was clearly improved.
Some manufacturers even tried to design in that separate handle to blade face feature. Look up Donic Dotec blades.
The photo attached is one of my repaired Stiga. Notice the crack.
 

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Well, I played my first session with the Nexy Yoo Nam Kyu Pro ALC today. I'm probably going to be in the market for something else. Even though they are both ALC blades, the Nexy blade is very much a different type of beast. D80 felt pretty good on backhand side. The D80 felt much more direct and I was ripping backhands down the line and cross court. T80, not so much...

T80, didn't feel too good at all on FH. With the TBS/T80 the blade/rubber combination does a lot of the work for you. I would say its quite springy and dynamic feeling. T80 feels like a brick on the Nexy blade. It feels like I have to loop every single FH stroke. Can not hit, this make a terrible sound. The Nexy blade is pretty great on looping backspin and serving. It feel like the short game will potentially be pretty good, but will take some getting used to. I Feel like I have to spin every single time now. I can not hit and smash or block like I did with the TBS. Much of my FH game is focused around hitting, blocking, and counter attacking. I feel like I'll need change my entire playing style to play with this blade. I'm going to give it a few more sessions, maybe it will grow on me. Perhaps I should just take the T80 off?

I'm also going down to the shop that repairs blades tomorrow. I'm gonna have them take a look at it. Hopefully they can do something with it. If not, I'm not sure what I'll get.
 
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