Have You Used an Asymmetric Blade Like the SANWEI Two Face? Share Your Experience!

[Andrea Jiang]

Thank you so much for your very kind words. 🙂 I genuinely hope they get something out of it as well, and I wish you all well with this project.

If your engineer wished to speak to me about my thoughts at length, I'm happy to do so, and they are welcome to send me a DM to that end. Given however I do this stuff for a living, I will sadly also need to charge Sanwei sorry if it wants me to contribute any further 🤣

I truly appreciate your thoughts, and I hope my experience will also be helpful.

 

[Lee]

Hi Andrea, I have experience using Sanwei blades before ( 2 Sanwei SU-C) which I've got it from Ali X. They are very good blade and very well designed. I even told my penholder friends and they bought them as well.

As of now I started to play & experience with some LP rubbers ( Victas P1-V 0.5; Grass D Tech 0.5; DMS Specter OX; DMS Fakir OX, Dawei 388 D-1 & D-2 0.5) with Yinhe Def 9 which is oversized.
I love this blade with LP on my penhold forehand & Spinfire on my RPB. But I do twiddle sometimes so my opponent can get surprises. I also have Yinhe T10-S penhold that I experiment to attach LP on it. To my surprise, Def 9 power is not far behind than T10-S which has carbon layer on both sides. I suspect this because 9mm thickness on oversized face vs 10mm w carbon layer standard size face on T10-S. Somehow there is bigger trampoline effect on Def 9. For your info, my current style of play with LP is Allround with bias towards attack. My favorite player is Zhou Xin Tong which she has similar setup with me.

As I am still pretty new in LP world, I am learning the knowledge of it by reading comments on online TABLE TENNIS communities, either it is about woods properties or rubbers.
I really like Sanwei Two Face concept especially putting hard ebony layer as outer on the face where LP should be sticked on ( I've learn this harder face enhance LP effects), while having carbon & limba for attacking face (for SP in my case). But the standard size face really turn me off somehow as I think, having slightly bigger face ( or wider face like by 5~6mm) is a big plus for LP play, especially if we play a lot near & on the table.

In this instance, I also hoping for suggestions / inputs for me from fellow LP player here 🙏🏼

 

[Andrea Jiang]

Hi Andrea, I have experience using Sanwei blades before ( 2 Sanwei SU-C) which I've got it from Ali X. They are very good blade and very well designed. I even told my penholder friends and they bought them as well.

As of now I started to play & experience with some LP rubbers ( Victas P1-V 0.5; Grass D Tech 0.5; DMS Specter OX; DMS Fakir OX, Dawei 388 D-1 & D-2 0.5) with Yinhe Def 9 which is oversized.
I love this blade with LP on my penhold forehand & Spinfire on my RPB. But I do twiddle sometimes so my opponent can get surprises. I also have Yinhe T10-S penhold that I experiment to attach LP on it. To my surprise, Def 9 power is not far behind than T10-S which has carbon layer on both sides. I suspect this because 9mm thickness on oversized face vs 10mm w carbon layer standard size face on T10-S. Somehow there is bigger trampoline effect on Def 9. For your info, my current style of play with LP is Allround with bias towards attack. My favorite player is Zhou Xin Tong which she has similar setup with me.

As I am still pretty new in LP world, I am learning the knowledge of it by reading comments on online TABLE TENNIS communities, either it is about woods properties or rubbers.
I really like Sanwei Two Face concept especially putting hard ebony layer as outer on the face where LP should be sticked on ( I've learn this harder face enhance LP effects), while having carbon & limba for attacking face (for SP in my case). But the standard size face really turn me off somehow as I think, having slightly bigger face ( or wider face like by 5~6mm) is a big plus for LP play, especially if we play a lot near & on the table.

In this instance, I also hoping for suggestions / inputs for me from fellow LP player here 🙏🏼

Hi Lee,

How are you?
Thank you for your love of Sanwei Su style, I'm very happy to hear that.

I also appreciate your style of play, as similar to Zhou Xin Tong's play（周欣彤）, it's so cool.
To be honest, it is a very rare play style in China now. I hear from my mom, in their era, it was popular.
But I don't think this means that this style of play is not competitive.

For your advice, I will let our designers know.

Sorry that it is hard for me to give you some advice, because I am a FL player, using Chinese sticky rubber, and my playing style is defense combined with backhand looping. So I hope anyone who sees this post can give you some advice.

Regards,

 

[kase]

Hello,

I'm currently using a Yinhe T10, but have tried the T9 and Two Face recently too. The T9 is 9mm and the two face is 10mm, like the T10. I prefer the thicker blades. I use a medium pimple + inverted. I tried the asymettrical blades with the pimples on the non-carbon side, to increase dwell time when defending against powerful shots. I liked it.

The most important thing in a blade is the sweet spot. This determines control and accuracy. Even a super fast blade is controllable if the trajectory / ball bounce is predictable. Unfortunately most manufacturers don't understand how important it is and how large the sweet spot can be. The two-face and T10/T9 have 'ok' sweet spots. There is a local manufacturer who makes blades with a much better sweet spot - but of course it costs a lot more. Giant dragon had a blade called the super balsa ii, which had an incredible sweet spot - it went all the way to the edge of the blade! But it was super fast, so not everybody's cup of tea.

My advice for the two-face redesign is to just use balsa, get rid of the ayous. The ayous adds nothing - the blade is already stiff because of the thickness and balsa. Instead you can put a thin layer of cork (or something else that is dampening) just under the dark-coloured side top-ply, to make that side slower and more suitable for long pimple players. But keep it 10mm thick so the other carbon side is fast and the sweet-spot large.

 

[Lee]

Hello,

I'm currently using a Yinhe T10, but have tried the T9 and Two Face recently too. The T9 is 9mm and the two face is 10mm, like the T10. I prefer the thicker blades. I use a medium pimple + inverted. I tried the asymettrical blades with the pimples on the non-carbon side, to increase dwell time when defending against powerful shots. I liked it.

The most important thing in a blade is the sweet spot. This determines control and accuracy. Even a super fast blade is controllable if the trajectory / ball bounce is predictable. Unfortunately most manufacturers don't understand how important it is and how large the sweet spot can be. The two-face and T10/T9 have 'ok' sweet spots. There is a local manufacturer who makes blades with a much better sweet spot - but of course it costs a lot more. Giant dragon had a blade called the super balsa ii, which had an incredible sweet spot - it went all the way to the edge of the blade! But it was super fast, so not everybody's cup of tea.

My advice for the two-face redesign is to just use balsa, get rid of the ayous. The ayous adds nothing - the blade is already stiff because of the thickness and balsa. Instead you can put a thin layer of cork (or something else that is dampening) just under the dark-coloured side top-ply, to make that side slower and more suitable for long pimple players. But keep it 10mm thick so the other carbon side is fast and the sweet-spot large.

I couldn’t agree more with this idea of getting rid of ayous core and adding corks layer directly or inderectly below the ebony to act as a dampener & divider so each face has different frequency! More over, the blade will be lighter! You are genius!! 🙌🏼 Wish we could build our own blade!

 

[Lee]

Hi Lee,

How are you?
Thank you for your love of Sanwei Su style, I'm very happy to hear that.

I also appreciate your style of play, as similar to Zhou Xin Tong's play（周欣彤）, it's so cool.
To be honest, it is a very rare play style in China now. I hear from my mom, in their era, it was popular.
But I don't think this means that this style of play is not competitive.

For your advice, I will let our designers know.

Sorry that it is hard for me to give you some advice, because I am a FL player, using Chinese sticky rubber, and my playing style is defense combined with backhand looping. So I hope anyone who sees this post can give you some advice.

Regards,

Hi Andrea, thank you for your kind reply. Zhou Xin Tong debut in table tennis competitions still exist in 2014. I’m not sure if she still play in national/ provincial competitions nowadays. The latest Chinese young player who has similar style is Ba Yongbo.
While I can still playing shake hand style, I choose penhold CS style LP because it has advantages over shake hand LP ( if you can do RPB & classic penhold backhand & twiddle capability).
Anyway, do you now approximately when the New version of Two Face will be launched? I really looking forward to it.

 

[Dr Evil]

I played with an OSP Vario+ AC for a few months. Koto/outer AC on one side, limba-inner AC on the other. Beautiful high quality blade, great feel on both sides with the limba/inner softer as expected. Surprisingly faster and lower throw than my usual Viscaria on both sides.

 

[Andrea Jiang]

Hello,

I'm currently using a Yinhe T10, but have tried the T9 and Two Face recently too. The T9 is 9mm and the two face is 10mm, like the T10. I prefer the thicker blades. I use a medium pimple + inverted. I tried the asymettrical blades with the pimples on the non-carbon side, to increase dwell time when defending against powerful shots. I liked it.

The most important thing in a blade is the sweet spot. This determines control and accuracy. Even a super fast blade is controllable if the trajectory / ball bounce is predictable. Unfortunately most manufacturers don't understand how important it is and how large the sweet spot can be. The two-face and T10/T9 have 'ok' sweet spots. There is a local manufacturer who makes blades with a much better sweet spot - but of course it costs a lot more. Giant dragon had a blade called the super balsa ii, which had an incredible sweet spot - it went all the way to the edge of the blade! But it was super fast, so not everybody's cup of tea.

My advice for the two-face redesign is to just use balsa, get rid of the ayous. The ayous adds nothing - the blade is already stiff because of the thickness and balsa. Instead you can put a thin layer of cork (or something else that is dampening) just under the dark-coloured side top-ply, to make that side slower and more suitable for long pimple players. But keep it 10mm thick so the other carbon side is fast and the sweet-spot large.

Hello bro,

Thank you very much for your detailed explanation regarding the blade structure — I really appreciate your input and will definitely share your suggestions with our designers.

As for the sweet spot, I personally feel that it seems to be more related to the overall surface area and shape of the blade face. When the shape remains the same, it appears that a larger blade face generally results in a larger sweet spot.

Of course, it is my personal view, and I really glad to hear your thoughts.

Regards,

 

[Andrea Jiang]

I couldn’t agree more with this idea of getting rid of ayous core and adding corks layer directly or inderectly below the ebony to act as a dampener & divider so each face has different frequency! More over, the blade will be lighter! You are genius!! 🙌🏼 Wish we could build our own blade!

Lol, maybe it is really a good idea.

 

[Andrea Jiang]

Hi Andrea, thank you for your kind reply. Zhou Xin Tong debut in table tennis competitions still exist in 2014. I’m not sure if she still play in national/ provincial competitions nowadays. The latest Chinese young player who has similar style is Ba Yongbo.
While I can still playing shake hand style, I choose penhold CS style LP because it has advantages over shake hand LP ( if you can do RPB & classic penhold backhand & twiddle capability).
Anyway, do you now approximately when the New version of Two Face will be launched? I really looking forward to it.

把永博（Yongbo ba）, yes, I know him, and I've seen a lot of his matches.
To be honest, I appreciate his style, it's always impressive, but I saw one match where he lost, his opponent sacrificed a game to adapt to his long pimples attacking style.
And for the new Two Face, I think it will be launched soon, but I still hard to give u a precise time.
I will let u know as soon as I know.^_^

 

[Andrea Jiang]

I played with an OSP Vario+ AC for a few months. Koto/outer AC on one side, limba-inner AC on the other. Beautiful high quality blade, great feel on both sides with the limba/inner softer as expected. Surprisingly faster and lower throw than my usual Viscaria on both sides.

Thank you for your information.

 

[kase]

Hello bro,

Thank you very much for your detailed explanation regarding the blade structure — I really appreciate your input and will definitely share your suggestions with our designers.

As for the sweet spot, I personally feel that it seems to be more related to the overall surface area and shape of the blade face. When the shape remains the same, it appears that a larger blade face generally results in a larger sweet spot.

Of course, it is my personal view, and I really glad to hear your thoughts.

Regards,

The shape is one factor. Also the thickness. Other factors may be: Gluing technique and thickness of glue layer, and quality / age / dryness of wood used. I'm not sure of the details, as I'm not a blade-maker.

I have used custom-made blades with huge sweet-spots that go almost to the edge of the blade. But some blades made by the same person have a slightly smaller sweet-spot, so it seems there is some variability. It may be difficult to produce within a mass-manufacturing environment.

I can tell you that I have a bunch of blades from LKT with small sweet-spots. Even the KTL magic, which is a massive and thick blade, has a smaller than expected sweet spot. Yet Kinson pre-made bats usually have a good sweet spot. This makes me think that the wood and / or gluing may have a large influence.

When I talk about the size of the sweet spot, I mean the size relative to the overall surface area of the blade. Most blades are between 60% and 80%. The best blades are 90% - 100%. The bigger the sweet-spot, the more consistent the trajectory, which increases precision and control.

 

[Draycott old man]