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Thanks for that Tony 🙂
There's not a huge amount I can conclusively draw from all that really, apart from maybe some key deductions about the glue and the outer ply.
If the W968 genuinely lasts only two months at pro level, and if it genuinely seems to pack it in even sooner for players with sweaty hands, then that strongly suggests to me they make it with a very soft glue.
The fact the blade consistently degrades *even just a little faster* in the presence of excess moisture, to my mind that pretty conclusively rules out the use of all the most commonly-used harder synthetic adhesives ie: polyurethane, epoxy, urea formaldehyde, cyanoacrylate, contact cement, and some phenolic resins (eg: Titebond III). All these glues are very hard-wearing, and are either usually water-proof, or pretty water resistant (with the exception of cyanoacrylate, which is water soluble, but is also too hard and brittle for a blade's internals really).
While I don't know the ply & composite composition of a W968, if DHS were using *any* of these glues, I very much doubt the blade would degrade as quickly as it does... (the playing feel would also be more likely be pretty firm to hard, and the speed would be high. None of these glues are ideally suited to looping blades IMO for this very reason.) Type 3 PVA is also probably out for the same reason, as most of the ones I know would fall under phenolic resins.
I haven't seen the glue lines up close, but next time you see one, have a really good look at them (and if possible take a few close-up pictures), and look for any discolouration. Some glues have distinctive colours (like titebond 3's pale as piss yellow) and don't always dry perfectly transparent. Other glues can sometimes be spotted by the presence of micro-clays in the glue line (brown flecks of varying g size).
To my mind, most probably the blade is put together with some of the softer-playing, water-soluble wood glues: eg Type 1 or type 2 PVA, starch-based glue, latex based glue, or even potentially a protein-based glue (hide glue, fish glue, even a blood-based glue is not out of the question. If it's a hide glue then it's probably of the liquid variety (ie: with urea added) as opposed to a true hot-hide glue.
Most likely however they are using a simple straightforward type 1 PVA. It's cheap, it's readily available, and depending on the formulation / brand, you can dial in a variety of different hardness through either substituting one formulation/brand for another, or else just simply add some sort of physical hardener to the matrix (eg: nano-clay particles, ceramic particles... even some types of wood dusts can potentially do the job if they are hard enough..., although these would also be readily visible in the glue line I imagine.)
Looking at the outer ply in a close up,the high porosity of the outer wood really jumps out at you -- there's pores everywhere on its playing surface, which would contribute highly to its spin levels. Limba is the most likely culprit here, but there's plenty of other straw-coloured, mid-density diffuse porous woods out there that also might fit the bill.
Not that this really matters though -- regardless of what the outer layer actually is, it's best to regard it as being either Limba, or so limba-like that there's really no substantive difference to speak of.
That's all I got sorry at this point. The above points are all educated guesses on my part, so don't put too much faith in them as they stand. To tell you any more about its make-up I'd need to either see one close up and in person, or else take a core sample from one. 😂😂
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