Differences between stiff all wood and carbon blades

[Baal]

Composites containing arylate, kevlar, or zylon tend to absorb high frequency "buzzy" vibration. By them selves they make blades feel slower but if those materials are in a weave with carbon fibers the blade will also be faster, all other things being equal.

There are all kinds of variations on the weaving patterns of the composite materials (just like with cloth) and that pattern affects the resulting playing properties. Even carbon comes in different weave patterns (for example in various TeXtreme blades, Tamca, etc.). In fact, table tennis is a really small percentage of the products TeXtreme carbon composites are used in and they sell many different carbon cloths.

Add different kinds of wood, and how deep one places the composite layers, vary the head size, and there are infinite possibilities. So it's hard to make general statements.

The blade manufacturers buy the composites in big sheets from other companies that produce them almost as if they were textiles. Those companies in turn buy composite threads from chemical manufacturers.

 

[Baal]

I should add something else. When carbon fibers first started appearing in blades the critique was that they made the blades very hard and stiff, like "playing with a piece of glass". That was especially true when we used 38 mm balls. Blades like the Butterfly Gergeley and Sardius fit into that category. (Of course some people like that feeling).

Before long though manufacturers made the blades thinner and using something like Vectran fiber (Arylate) in a weave with carbon was a real advance. Blades could be a bit thinner, still retain a bit of flex (low vibration frequency) but reduce the really high high vibration frequency. (Remember, blades simultaneously vibrate at multiple frequencies, like a violin string. Actually they vibrate in two dimensions, so a better description is like the head of a drum).

These days there are not so many "pure" carbon blades that are widely used by pro players or being introduced by the big companies. The vast majority of new blades have carbon in a weave with fibers made out of a "liquid crystal polymer" such as Vectran (arylate), kevlar, or zylon. Also, even blades that are made of pure carbon weaves (like Stiga Carbonado blades) use different and thinner weave patterns then we saw in the 1980s and 1990s.

Also the transition to 40 mm and now 40+ mm balls (which are closer to 41 mm) have made it a lot easier (and for many players almost essential) for offensive players to use these composite blades. In the 1990s (38 mm balls) all the really good players I knew (2500-2600) would say that playing with carbon was a mistake, it was just a crutch, you could generate adequate power from your body and legs, the blades had no feeling, etc. They also all used speed glue. By circa 2015 all but one of them used a composite blade (40+ balls, no speed glue). (The one hold-out would be better if he changed but he never will).