FH rubber for one-ply hinoki

[SFF_lib]

I have played with H3-50 on FH for about 2hrs.

As compared to R7 soft:

• More spiny serve
• Shorter return
• Easier to lift back spin
• Less power close to table (hinoki power not yet kicked in with slower stroke)
• More deadly loop mid or far from table once the hinoki kicks in.
• More power when looping (small adjustment needed)
• Higher arc - great for looping, better second bounce
• More sensitive to spin as expected.

Overall very impressive rubber. #50 DHS sponge behaves like European sponge - more lively. But the feel and control is still less than R7 soft. Overall I still find it a bit too hard to control.

Might put a layer of booster to soften the sponge a bit more and see how it goes.

 

[Jabugo]

I have played with H3-50 on FH for about 2hrs.

As compared to R7 soft:
More spiny serve
Shorter return
Less power close to table
More deadly loop mid or far from table once the hinoki kicks in.
Higher arc - great for looping
More sensitive to spin as expected.

Overall very impressive rubber. #50 DHS sponge behaves like European sponge - more lively. But the feel and control is still less than R7 soft. Overall I still find it a bit too hard to control.

Might put a layer of booster to soften the sponge a bit more.

From my understanding, for hinoki as a blade material to be effective ("kicks in" as you say), it does not require the sponge to bottom out. As long as you are using the blade, hinoki is engaged in the "on" position all the time. Different rubber/sponge hardness and thickness can affect the overall feel of the blade, but the blade has a hinoki feeling all the same. The same holds true with any blade of any material. They all have a specific feel with all your strokes which should not require the sponge to bottom out in order for the blade to kick in.

The behavior of German/Japanese/Chinese sponge is rapidly getting blurred. I found OVA to behave very similarly to H3. But since there's also a 3-50 variant, I can't really say that so generally anymore.

 

[SFF_lib]

From my understanding, for hinoki as a blade material to be effective ("kicks in" as you say), it does not require the sponge to bottom out. As long as you are using the blade, hinoki is engaged in the "on" position all the time. Different rubber/sponge hardness and thickness can affect the overall feel of the blade, but the blade has a hinoki feeling all the same. The same holds true with any blade of any material. They all have a specific feel with all your strokes which should not require the sponge to bottom out in order for the blade to kick in.

The behavior of German/Japanese/Chinese sponge is rapidly getting blurred. I found OVA to behave very similarly to H3. But since there's also a 3-50 variant, I can't really say that so generally anymore.

I must say hardness of the rubber/sponge need to be down to a certain degree to feel the hinoki kick. I tried a 40degree TG3 briefly on my Darker blade- no kick, no feel, just full of speed. Feels like a carbon blade. Very powerful yet hard to control.
I have heard OVA behaves like H3 on a tensor sponge, but I have never tried.
DHS says H3-50 is 37 degree hardness. It feels as hard as my tenergy 80 I think because the topsheet H3 is quite hard compared to Japanese rubber like R7 and tenergy.

 

[Jabugo]

I must say hardness of the rubber/sponge need to be down to a certain degree to feel the hinoki kick. I tried a 40degree TG3 briefly on my Darker blade- no kick, no feel, just full of speed. Feels like a carbon blade. Very powerful yet hard to control.
I have heard OVA behaves like H3 on a tensor sponge, but I have never tried.
DHS says H3-50 is 37 degree hardness. It feels as hard as my tenergy 80 I think because the topsheet H3 is quite hard compared to Japanese rubber like R7 and tenergy.

Among carbon blades, the Hypertouch that I'm using is one of the most "feel-some" that I have used. By that I mean the vibration feedback it provides gives me more touch sense with ball control, and this is with just light looping using max OVA. I have moved the OVA to a Speed 90 10mm hinoki blade that I had not used in over a year. When I got around to trying it out, I was pleasantly surprised by how good a single ply of hinoki felt. I believe my revelation came from the difference in the way I used to play compared to now. In the past, I had a drive forehand and now I was topspin looping with the hinoki blade. My curiosity led to putting the OVA back on the Hypertouch to compare the two. There is no question that the Hypertouch is an exceptional blade, but it feels numb when compared to the hinoki one ply. The difference is night and day. I also tried my old sheet of H3 National 40 degree 2.2 on the Speed 90, and the feel is even more amplified then the OVA. So when you say that your hinoki blade has no feel like a carbon blade, it makes no sense to me.

 

[SFF_lib]

Among carbon blades, the Hypertouch that I'm using is one of the most "feel-some" that I have used. By that I mean the vibration feedback it provides gives me more touch sense with ball control, and this is with just light looping using max OVA. I have moved the OVA to a Speed 90 10mm hinoki blade that I had not used in over a year. When I got around to trying it out, I was pleasantly surprised by how good a single ply of hinoki felt. I believe my revelation came from the difference in the way I used to play compared to now. In the past, I had a drive forehand and now I was topspin looping with the hinoki blade. My curiosity led to putting the OVA back on the Hypertouch to compare the two. There is no question that the Hypertouch is an exceptional blade, but it feels numb when compared to the hinoki one ply. The difference is night and day. I also tried my old sheet of H3 National 40 degree 2.2 on the Speed 90, and the feel is even more amplified then the OVA. So when you say that your hinoki blade has no feel like a carbon blade, it makes no sense to me.

Probably a bit extreme, i must say a little feel when using TG3. But soft topsheet+soft sponge (R7 soft) gives the best feel of the kick of hinoki.

 

[SFF_lib]

Update on Hurricane 3-50 rubber on Darker Speed 90 single ply hinoki.

I read a guy on Hktt forum. He put a few layers of oil on the sponge and got amazing result.

So I put two layers of Dianchi booster on my H3-50. It didn't curl up as much as H3 Neo does. I put it back on my speed 90 and had a session last night.

Compared to no booster, the key difference is the catapult power. It's amazing. The power is comparable to T05 FX. It shines when looping far from table. Counter loop is a breeze due to the strong grip.

Yet short game is still very short and spinny compared to Euro or Jap rubber.

In conclusion, even DHS states H3-50 does not require booster, in my experience booster will bring H3-50 to the tenergy level.

Sent from my ONE E1003 using Tapatalk

 

[ML fan]

I am using Miyabi 1 Ply Hinoki,
I tried DHS Hurricane 3 National Blue Sponge 2.2mm not boosted, I also feel that it cannot reach the blade on impact. I boosted it, still the same. I need to hit harder to feel the solid and crisp.

I like the feel of 729 battle 2 national blue sponge 2.1mm on my hinoki, it feels crisps and solid on impact.

I don't why, but I love the feeling of a hitting crisp and solid sound and feel of 729 battle, even not boosted..

I will change my backhand from H3 NEO to 729 battle 2.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

One day, if I am good enough, I want to put Tenergy 05 Hard on my One-Ply monster. To me T05H is my ultimate FH rubber, my end-game so to speak. I only wish my end-game would come sooner than later.