I don't think there is anything cheap out there Shinshiro if you want Kiso Hinoki, the real Kiso Hinoki. A lot of blades that say they are Hinoki such as modes made by Sanwei, etc are from the same tree family, but not true Kiso Hinoki from Japan. And I do believe the age of the trees does have something to do with the way blades play, if they are made from wood of the Kiso Hinoki trees from Japan which are hundreds of years old. The fact that no two Kiso Hinoki blades play the same also indicates that there is some truth to this.
So, this means you have two options. Either stay on the lookout for a used one-ply Kiso Hinoki blade by Darker which is not that easy because most people do not let go of these. I will never sell mine. Or you can get one made by Kevin at American Hinoki. His blades are excellent and that would be better than any Taiwan or China made Jpen blade.
Some of the woods that Kevin use make beautiful blades that play very well also. I have a Lutz Spruce Jpen that is not quite the same as my Darker Speed 90, but I reallly cannot find any fault with that blade and if I did not have the Darker, I would say the Lutz Spruce would have have served me wonderfully well. In fact I still play with it a lot. They are so close that I can practice with one and play with the other with minimal adjustment.
Yeah, Kevin make good blades. I also have one made of WRC, but its shape was adapted to RBP, and the blade was also very light to play with only one rubber (well, not that I like heavy blades, but 64g is a bit too light for traditional jpen haha)
Yes, I saw your blades on mytt, I'm the one that created that thread haha
About cheap kiso hinoki blades, I guess all kokutaku bishu series is made of kiso hinoki. Kokutaku D50 is the 2nd cheapest (even tough it is not exactly cheap) in that line and it is made of KH (it was written on blade face), so I believe all the others are also KH (includind D40, which is the cheapest). But I don't know how much different it plays from one to another...I have no idea what criteria they use to differentiate a cheap kiso hinoki to an expensive one, and also no idea about the differences in playability between them. There are basically no information about the cheaper kokutaku blades, only a few posts about their high end blades (bishu no.100 (super cho tokusen) and cho super cho tokusen (kiwami)).
Even tough price is a big part of the problem, I'm more curious about the differences between one blade to another. For example, what is the difference in playability between a KH 10mm from different brands/models, like Kokutaku kiwami, Darker speed 90, Ariex Excellent A, Butterfly Cypress, ITC Athena RSM, KTS Quantum XO, etc...there is too little information about them on internet. Just a few people play jpen do there is basically almost no reviews, and even the brands themselves don't seem to say much about their blades. All this mystery makes KH wood to be even more "mystical" haha.
Probably a heavier WRC will play very very similar to a KH blade. But I know that if I buy an alternative to KH, my EJ disease will force me to buy a real KH blade after some time
...that's why I'm not much willing to buying alternatives, even tough they are good ones.
