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Hi hipnotic,
I am just wandering, that for many blades the most usual ply structure is to include harder plies towards the surface.
Did you made and/or played blades with reverse order - progressively harder plies towards the core, except that the core is also a soft and light wood (for example, Joola Rosskopf Emotion came into my mind with hinoki | koto | thin carbon | ayous structure)?
What differences do you feel between the usual and the JRE kind of blades in gameplay - and does this affect your rubber choices?
The same question would apply to "sandwich" blades as well - 7 ply all wood with hard | soft | hard | soft arrangement.
I would be happy to hear other members' thoughts as well, just I guess, you are familiar with these either by your experience, or by your clients' experience, who requested similar blades.
There is a limit to how much a blade can weigh, otherwise it will become unplayable for most people, so you can't use heavy woods everywhere. Putting the hard and dense plies on the outer part of the blade is the most efficient way in terms of stiffness and hardness. The core is usually the thickest layer on a blade, so if you use a heavy wood you really limit the other plies, they will have to be really light light or thin. The consequence of putting a very hard layer against a soft one is that it can make the blade feel "hollow". That can happen on all types of structures, including inner fiber blades with a really hard composite and a soft core. For me, blades with harder outer plies are more predictable, they may have a higher base speed, but the speed increment is proportional to the force you apply. Some inner fiber blades can become a bit tricky to handle, for example when you have szlc next to the core. They feel tamed of soft strokes, but will suddenly shoot off on higher impact. Rubbers will perform differently on different blades, but it's really more of a personal taste rather than a good or bad situation.