SDC Handmade Blades

[hipnotic]

Jean Paul Montanus (NED), using a custom SDC blade, at the side of Kelly Van Zon (NED), became world champion in Mixed Doubles Class XD14 at the Andalucia 2022 World Para Table Tennis Championships!

 

[Lazer]

Great, is it possible to get a description of the blade in question?

Cheers
L-zr

 

[hipnotic]

A very fast asymmetrical 5 ply blade

- Hinoki / Rosewood / Kiri / Hinoki / Rosewood
- 93.6g
- 7.25mm
- 1500Hz
- Balance: 3.1cm (Med)

This one Lazer. It might remind you of something [emoji28]

Sent from my MAR-LX1A using Tapatalk

 

[Lazer]

Yep Mjölnir’s big brother, (with a twist) really cool.
And the middle part of the handle looks very much like Barda.

Thanks and Cheers
L-zr

 

[BateDoska]

Looking good!

 

[hipnotic]

A typical outer ALC construction with a crisp feeling. The wings are sanded for a right handed player.

Available FS.

- Koto / ALC / Ayous / Kiri / Ayous / ALC / Koto
- 83g
- 5.8mm
- 160x150mm
- CPen (82x23mm)
- 1442Hz
- Balance: 3.6cm

 

[hipnotic]

An asymmetrical blade aiming for a soft but springy FH side, with the combination of thick Hinoki and inner ALC, and a crisp but slower BH ,with a Koto outer ply and soft-carbon underneath. The handle is made from natural Portuguese cork.

Available FS.

- Hinoki / Ayous / ALC / Ayous / Limba / Soft-Carbon / Koto
- 85.3g
- 6.2mm
- 157x150mm
- FL (25-23x34x101mm)
- 1335Hz
- 3.6cm (Med)

 

[Lazer]

Gotta be carful with that handle …

Cheers
L-zr

 

[hipnotic]

Gotta be carful with that handle …

Cheers
L-zr

This is solid natural cork, not agglomerated cork, it is as durable as wood.

 

[Lazer]

You said that before but I have my doubts…

Cheers
L-zr

 

[hipnotic]

You said that before but I have my doubts…

Cheers
L-zr

No, the previous handle was agglomerated cork, what I said was that it had been subjected to some severe routed and sanding, and it held up Ok. This one is solid natural cork, if you look at both you can see the difference, it behaves just like a solid piece of wood.

 

[hipnotic]

This blade is based on the Donic Defplay, no not the two modern versions, the really old one with the white lens. The owner of the original blade wanted something a little faster and with more stability, so we decided to add a soft-carbon layer next to the core. He loved it so much that he ordered another one, at that time I decided to build a third one to put here. Here's what he had to say:

"The blade is very well suited for a modern defensive playstyle. Its slightly increased head size gives enough stability for blocks as well as far from the table chopping, without hindering aggressive offensive strokes on the forehand. It has a soft touch allowing for high spin production with a distinctive sound and consistency due to the soft carbon. I had great success utilizing long pimples with and without sponge on the backhand and hard offensive rubbers on the forehand with this blade. The blade is very nicely balanced and has a fantastic feedback."

Available FS.

- Basswood / Mahogany / Soft-Carbon / Ayous / Soft-Carbon / Mahogany / Basswood
- 90.6g
- 5.85mm
- 159x153mm
- FL (102x25-23mm)
- 1270Hz
- Balance: 3.3cm (Med)

 

[ricospin]

Hey sergio!

Curious thought came up, have you ever made viscaria but it's inner carbon? Or W968 but outer carbon? I find it weird that there hasn't been variations of these blades by any major manufacturer.

Is it because they would play weird? Surely not THAT weird right?

 

[yoass]

Such blades do exist - Andro Treiber CI, Hurricane 301. They play just fine, and pretty much exacty how you’d expect them to. A shallower power curve for the innies, a steeper one for the outies.

 

[hipnotic]

Neither of those blades is like an inner Viscaria or an outer w968. Most inner fiber blades on the market use an Ayous core, outer fiber blades use a Kiri core. Kiri is softer and lighter than Ayous, so on outer fiber blades that balances the feeling caused by having the fiber close to the surface. If you build a inner Viscaria, exactly with the same structure, you will have a substantial power loss. And by power I don't mean just speed, I mean the spin/speed ratio, mostly further away from the table. On the other hand, outer fiber blades with an Ayous core can get too hard, especially if you use a thick medial layer like on the w968, or A-C (which is not ALC). So, to make those compositions more "user friendly", some changes need to be made.

My most popular composition locally, used by some very good players, is a inner blade with a Kiri core, but usually I make it thicker and use a denser composite to compensate for the loss of power.

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[latej]

- Basswood / Mahogany / Soft-Carbon / Ayous / Soft-Carbon / Mahogany / Basswood

What is Basswood similar too? Couldn't find its density and hardness in your nerdy-stuff list of veneers. And mahogany... When/if you have time...

 

[Ergosquare]

Basswood: density slightly above Spuce/Ayous, hardness in the middle between Spruce and Ayous, but speed should be noticably below the two.

Mahogany: density/hardness about the same as Koto, but not as dynamic I would guess.

 

[Ergosquare]

Sergio - regarding the blade with the cork handle: how do you call this kind of Flared handle shape? It seems to be quite different from the usual Flared shape (like Viscaria?) you use. I like it.

 

[hipnotic]

The Basswood I'm using is from Europe, also known as Linden. The density is about 480 kg/m3, between Ayous (380 kg/m3) and Limba (550 kg/m3). In terms of hardness is very close to Limba.

The Mahogany term is very loosely used, myself included. There are only 3 types that are considered "genuine Mahogany": Cuban, Honduran and Mexican Mahogany. The you have African Mahogany (Khaya), which is generally accepted as close enough. Then you have a bunch of woods which are somewhat related to Mahogany, where Sapele is included. Then you have some woods that are often labeled as mahogany, but are completely unrelated like Meranti (Okoume) or Santos Mahoghany.

For veneers I'm using Khaya and Sapele, Khaya is slightly softer and lighter than koto ( 550 kg/m3 / 3800N) but Sapele is fairly heavier and harder ( 670 kg/m3 / 6280 N). The problem with Mahogany is that it's very porous, it's really hard to use as an outer layer with a fiber underneath due to resin bleed through.

 

[hipnotic]

Sergio - regarding the blade with the cork handle: how do you call this kind of Flared handle shape? It seems to be quite different from the usual Flared shape (like Viscaria?) you use. I like it.

The Viscaria handle isn't a pure flared handle, it's a bit chunkier near the wings and then it flares out towards the bottom. This one is purely flared, but not with a pronounced curve, I usually make it thicker and rounder.