Homemade table tennis blade

[GinjaNinja]

Inspired by others and a desire to develop my skills I decided to have a go at making my own blade. After a couple of experiments this is the first one that I am quite happy with. It's based on Stiga blades and is a 5 ply Limba - Fir - Ayous - Fir - Limba combination with mahogany handle. The only problem is that I don't want to hide the wood with rubbers!

 

[Tek101]

That's a beauty :-D. Well done!

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[Dhaen]

Beautiful. Maybe you should start your own Table Tennis equipment brand.

 

[bobpuls]

nice ... welcome between us ;-)

 

[GinjaNinja]

Thank you Tek101 - very kind. It's a long way from perfect but I think by the time I've completed 2 or 3 more they should start to look more professional. I learned a lot from this one. The next one will have walnut outer piles so should be a little faster.

 

[GinjaNinja]

Thank you - still much to learn but having fun doing so. Welcome to you too!

 

[keenansouthall]

I think the real question here is, how does it play? [emoji6] have you tried it yet?


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[Archosaurus]

I'm very interested as well to hear of the differences in playing quality between a professionally produced blade and something like this.

I really don't know what to expect to be honest.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

It does look good. What are the plies on the blade?


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[bobpuls]

It does look good. What are the plies on the blade?


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Have look at the first post one more time and this time read it carefully.

 

[GinjaNinja]

I'm very interested as well to hear of the differences in playing quality between a professionally produced blade and something like this.

I really don't know what to expect to be honest.

this was the second blade I made which is walnut and nearly 7mm thick and 90g. It plays really well but is a bit faster than what I'm used to which is a stratus power wood. none of my club mates could tell that it was a professionally produced blade - or maybe they were being kind!

 

[GinjaNinja]

No not yet. I'm going to wait until I've made another one so I can compare the feel and bounce without any rubbers on. I'm hoping that way I'll get learn more

 

[Jirrex]

Good job, keep making them

I was wondering, what glue and press method do you use?

 

[MDP]

this was the second blade I made which is walnut and nearly 7mm thick and 90g. It plays really well but is a bit faster than what I'm used to which is a stratus power wood. none of my club mates could tell that it was a professionally produced blade - or maybe they were being kind!

Walnut is heavy and hard, so it will give more speed to the blade and be better suited for flat hitting/blocking. The combination of this hard wood and the extra weight and thickness make your blade faster then stratus power wood. I recently made a blade with walnut outer plies aswell. I 'compensated' this extra speed/less spin by using Limba as second ply and thinner core wood, to improve the control and spin.

Here you can see a picture if interested: https://postimg.org/image/aptuydcvr/

 

[Jirrex]

Walnut is heavy and hard, so it will give more speed to the blade and be better suited for flat hitting/blocking. The combination of this hard wood and the extra weight and thickness make your blade faster then stratus power wood. I recently made a blade with walnut outer plies aswell. I 'compensated' this extra speed/less spin by using Limba as second ply and thinner core wood, to improve the control and spin.

Here you can see a picture if interested: https://postimg.org/image/aptuydcvr/

Damn that one looks nice!

 

[GinjaNinja]

That's awesome! I'd be so happy if I could get close to that. Really interested to know what your process is. I've struggled to get a perfect shape - how have you managed it? Also what are the thickness of your piles and apart from limba and walnut what's the core. Great work, it's given me something to aspire to now!

 

[Jirrex]

That's awesome! I'd be so happy if I could get close to that. Really interested to know what your process is. I've struggled to get a perfect shape - how have you managed it? Also what are the thickness of your piles and apart from limba and walnut what's the core. Great work, it's given me something to aspire to now!

I think MDP uses a template and a router/trimmer to get a perfect shape, just like bobpuls does: https://www.tabletennisdaily.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?11808-Create-your-own-blade

 

[MDP]

There are different ways you can do it. Just experiment and see what tools you van use/have. This blade was made with a router but I havent always used it.

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[GinjaNinja]

There are different ways you can do it. Just experiment and see what tools you van use/have. This blade was made with a router but I havent always used it.

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Ive just read the other post and realised that it was your YouTube videos that I had followed! Your 3 part series was a really useful tool for me. How did you complete the inlay on the handle?

 

[MDP]

The youtube videos are made by bobpuls. All credit goes to him.

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