Composite or all-wood

[XariuzCruz]

Which one is your favourite? Composite or all-wood?

 

[Alborz]

I prefer all-wood blades.
They have much more feel and control than composite ones. They are a little slower but with good technique you will be able to get that lost speed back. Also it is easier to play spiny shots with all-wood blades.
They are also much cheaper than composite ones so when you accidently smash them on the edge of the table you can buy a new one without trouble.

 

[TTFrenzy]

Definitely all wood. Much more feeling to develop correctly your strokes. Carbon blades are for players with excellent technique that want to increase speed in their shot in order to put more pressure in their opponents, in high level play placement is not enough, you need extra speed also. All wood blades are great in overall feeling and you can apply a vast variety of different shots

 

[XariuzCruz]

But is there any thing that has carbon layer and still react like all-wood?

 

[KM1976]

But is there any thing that has carbon layer and still react like all-wood?

Yes, blades which have carbon/composite layer more towards the center and away from the top layer of the plies will tend to give more wood like feel. However, make a note that carbon imparts a stiffer feeling to the blade and also reduces vibration. So the flex and feeling which is there in an all wood blade is not so much evident in a carbon blade. Manufacturers like Donic, Stiga have approached this problem by making hollow handles. I have been using Donic Senso blade from past 6 years and due to a hollow handle the ball feeling is very pronounced. However, adding a hollow handle increases the weight towards the head of the blade thus it becomes a matter of preference, since many players prefer a weight balanced blade.

 

[Der_Echte]

I prefer a good composite blade.

Having said that, my good Nexy/Tibhar composite blades are all cracked (waiting to look for wood clamps to fix em).

So... I am practicing what I preach and using 896 and Instinkt blades with Aurus and XP 2008 on each.

 

[Der_Echte]

The 896 and Instink+ blades are ALL+ to OFF- speed class all wood blades and I play just fine using either.

 

[XariuzCruz]

I prefer a good composite blade.

Having said that, my good Nexy/Tibhar composite blades are all cracked (waiting to look for wood clamps to fix em).

So... I am practicing what I preach and using 896 and Instinkt blades with Aurus and XP 2008 on each.

I have an Arylate Carbon blade,YinHe T8, at first equipped with XIOM Tau and XIOM Vega Elite MAX. I retire the combination after a few play, the blade is too stiff and with Tau's rock hard sponge, the ball comes in (I COME IN LIKE A WRECKING BALL lol) and flies off without a single dwell time. SMH...
Those rubbers now are replaced with Donic Acuda S3 (forehand) and Tibhar Aurus (backhand). Both are soft rubbers so dwell time is increased.

Actually I found that the backhand sidespin flick is more easier on stiffer blade. On my MC2, the ball goes into the net directly. Is the equipment or my stroke?

 

[Der_Echte]

The T-8 problem for me is the ball stays on the bat too short a time - no dwell, even with a slower rubber.

I have had faster blades with more dwell than T-8. Dwell, feel, weight balance are a lot more important to me than maximum speed class. I could control a BTY Amulart OFF+ with T05 WAY BETTER than I could with T-8 and a soft sponged 999 allround rubber.

 

[Alborz]

I have an Arylate Carbon blade,YinHe T8, at first equipped with XIOM Tau and XIOM Vega Elite MAX. I retire the combination after a few play, the blade is too stiff and with Tau's rock hard sponge, the ball comes in (I COME IN LIKE A WRECKING BALL lol) and flies off without a single dwell time. SMH...
Those rubbers now are replaced with Donic Acuda S3 (forehand) and Tibhar Aurus (backhand). Both are soft rubbers so dwell time is increased.

Actually I found that the backhand sidespin flick is more easier on stiffer blade. On my MC2, the ball goes into the net directly. Is the equipment or my stroke?

Its easier to play backhand flick with fast blades but it doesn't mean its impossible with slow ones.
Its because of your stroke. Actually it's very hard to adapt that with different blades.

I was using a defensive blade and i was able to flick easily with my backhand. Then i changed to and Off- blade and all my flicks flies out of the table directly but after some adjustments i was able to play them with the very good control like before. But the adjustment takes more time than any other stroke for me.

 

[agold]

Just switched from 7ply allwood to Viscaria. My thoughts are that I get same control close to the table and more power. People have said things about short serves not being good, but yesterday I ripped a lot of short ones, as short as short can be, that a 1600 couldn't return. Counter looping was good too. I had no trouble.

 

[mahomedy13]

i think ill go with all wood-cheaper,more feeling and the original

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

I generally like all wood blades better. The blade I am using now (the Timo Boll ZLF) is one of two blades that is not all wood that I like. The other composite blade I like is Innerforce ZLF. Both have Zylon but not carbon. The carbon deadens the vibrations and makes it harder to feel the ball. Zylon is a plastic like substance which is sort of soft and gives the blade more dwell time. You can still feel the ball pretty much how you would with an all wood blade. But, because it has Zylon it is a composite blade.

There are plenty of all wood blades that I find to be about as good as my TB ZLF. And in general, I like all wood blades better than composite blades. My blade is just one of the exceptions to the rule.

 

[XariuzCruz]

I generally like all wood blades better. The blade I am using now (the Timo Boll ZLF) is one of two blades that is not all wood that I like. The other composite blade I like is Innerforce ZLF. Both have Zylon but not carbon. The carbon deadens the vibrations and makes it harder to feel the ball. Zylon is a plastic like substance which is sort of soft and gives the blade more dwell time. You can still feel the ball pretty much how you would with an all wood blade. But, because it has Zylon it is a composite blade.

There are plenty of all wood blades that I find to be about as good as my TB ZLF. And in general, I like all wood blades better than composite blades. My blade is just one of the exceptions to the rule.

So what is the function of Zylon in there? Stiffen the blade like carbon does?

 

[Rajah*]

Zylon gives you an additional dwell and feel on the ball.. sort of mimic qood woodblades.

Sent from my HTC One X+

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

So what is the function of Zylon in there? Stiffen the blade like carbon does?

I will quote myself. If you read, I gave the answer to this:

Zylon is a plastic like substance which is sort of soft and gives the blade more dwell time. You can still feel the ball pretty much how you would with an all wood blade. But, because it has Zylon it is a composite blade.

But, now I will expand the answer. Because Zylon is a soft pliable substance, like Arylate, it gives the blade more dwell time. The ball stays on the surface of the blade for longer because there is more give from the Zylon. So this blade has a lot of control and you can generate a lot of spin with it. It is good for touch and short game. It is good for looping.

The blade is not stiff. There is decent flex to it. When you take a more powerful stroke the rebound effect of the Zylon kicks in and, even though there is more dwell time, the ball comes off the racket decently fast. This blade is a bit faster than a Clipper which is a decently fast all wood blade. So, because of the Zylon, the blade has more gears than most all wood blades. It is slow and good for touch when you go soft. It kicks into another gear when you go hard.

Stiga knows ways of getting this effect with all wood blades, where they us an outer ply that is soft and slow but very thin and the inner ply is springy and helps catapult the ball on the power strokes. But the Zylon does it very well.

When you combine Zylon with Carbon, I do not like the effect. The Zylon makes the blade too fast and the Carbon makes it so you can't feel the ball. Arylate is similar to Zylon but a bit softer and a bit slower. In my opinion, when you combine Arylate with Carbon it works better than Zylon with Carbon even though I still don't really like that you can't feel the ball as well and the blade is a bit stiff in blades like TB ALC or TB Spirit.

There are some blades that have just Arylate, but the with the ones that are available today there is something off about them. Butterfly used to make a blade called the Timo Boll Spark which was just Arylate with wood and that was really good. I don't know why they stopped making it. It was a little slower than the TB ZLF, it had a little more dwell time and great control and feeling. I did not like the handle but the blade played REALLY WELL. There is an Innerforce AL, but that one does not quite work in my opinion. With the two thick plies of Limba over the Arylate ply, it makes the blade too soft and there is not enough effect from the Arylate to help the speed because it is deeper in the wood. But the Innerforce ZLF does work and is a really great blade.

And when a blade has just Zylon or just Arylate, they feel very much like an all wood blade in most ways.

 

[XariuzCruz]

I will quote myself. If you read, I gave the answer to this:



But, now I will expand the answer. Because Zylon is a soft pliable substance, like Arylate, it gives the blade more dwell time. The ball stays on the surface of the blade for longer because there is more give from the Zylon. So this blade has a lot of control and you can generate a lot of spin with it. It is good for touch and short game. It is good for looping.

The blade is not stiff. There is decent flex to it. When you take a more powerful stroke the rebound effect of the Zylon kicks in and, even though there is more dwell time, the ball comes off the racket decently fast. This blade is a bit faster than a Clipper which is a decently fast all wood blade. So, because of the Zylon, the blade has more gears than most all wood blades. It is slow and good for touch when you go soft. It kicks into another gear when you go hard. Stiga knows ways of getting this effect with all wood blades, where they outer ply is soft and slow but very thin and the inner ply is springy and helps catapult the ball on the power strokes. But the Zylon does it very well.

When you combine Zylon with Carbon, I do not like the effect. The Zylon makes the blade to fast and the Carbon makes it so you can't feel the ball. Arylate is similar to Zylon but a bit softer and a bit slower. When you combine Arylate with Carbon it works better even though I still don't really like that you can't feel the ball and the blade is a bit stiff in blades like TB ALC or TB Spirit. There are some blades that have just Arylate, but there is something off about them. Butterfly used to make a blade called the Timo Boll Spark which was just Arylate with wood and that was really good. I don't know why they stopped making it. It was a little slower than my blade, it had a little more dwell time and great control and feeling. I did not like the handle but the blade played REALLY WELL. There is an Innerforce AL, but that one does not quite work in my opinion. With the two thick plies of Limba over the Arylate ply, it makes the blade too soft and there is not enough effect from the Arylate because it is deeper in the wood. But the Innerforce ZLF does work and is a really great blade.

And when a blade has just Zylon or just Arylate, they feel very much like an all wood blade in most ways.

But they are no match to all wood in terms off dwell time?

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

One more piece of information. A lot of the top pros from China use all wood blades and do not use composite blades. They are very powerful and they are just using all wood. I don't think you need Carbon.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

But they are no match to all wood in terms off dwell time?

Innerforce ZLF has more dwell time than any all wood blade I can think of. TB ZLF has a lot of dwell time. The top ply of the TB ZLF is Koto, which is hard so it gives the blade a crisp feeling. Even with a hard top ply, this blade has more dwell time than most All+ all wood blades. The Zylon gives MORE dwell time. You would have to go to allround or or defensive blades to get more dwell time.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Soft plastic is softer than soft springy woods like Spruce or Ayous that are used as middle plies. Also softer than soft woods like Hinoki.

Now, if you take an all Hinoki blade those are amazing to play with. Especially those thick one plies. But it still is not more dwell time.