SDC Handmade Blades

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Wish you all good,SDC.I love your blades.I am excited about more new blades!
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Sergio that blade is a thing of absolute beauty -- hats off to you! She is just lovely.

Congratulations and huge respect on reaching the big 1k mate... one crazy-arse, obsessive TT Bladesmith to another!

Be cool my brother! 😎🍻🪚🏓
 
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SDC

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SDC

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Sergio that blade is a thing of absolute beauty -- hats off to you! She is just lovely.

Congratulations and huge tespect on reaching the big 1k mate... one crazy-arse, obsessive TT Bladesmith to another!

Be cool my brother! 😎🍻🪚🏓

It's impressive. But I think Sergio is a lover of racket development. There is a small step between being a craftsman and being an artist (also an inventor). Sergio is turning his craftsmanship into art. I think an great exhibition would be a very beautiful path for the future. Hugs.

Thank you!
 

SDC

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A little jump in time to break the rhythm of offensive blades.

I've experimented a lot with combi blades lately, trying to get the biggest difference possible between sides. This is easier said than done, a blade functions as a whole, you cannot separate the stiffness response because the blade bends as a unit. What we can do is "play" with the hardness and dampening properties of different woods, which in the broader scope of possibilities are also limited. Normally, when you increase the speed on one side, the other side also increases, and vice-versa, there is no way around it. Well, technically there is, it would be possible to achieve it by using dampening materials not made of wood, but those may not be exactly legal... Another challenge with combi blades is warping, if the composition is very asymmetrical there is a big risk that the blade will warp, there has to be enough longitudinal and transversal stability to avoid this problem.

That being said, this is probably one of the blades with the biggest difference between sides that I've made (so far), there is a clear contrast just by bouncing a ball on it.

Available FS.

- Padauk / TC200 / Kiri / Cork / Maple
- 89.5g
- 6.2mm
- 165x155mm
- ST (100x23.2x29.3mm)
- 1033Hz
- Balance: 3.5cm (Med)

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SDC

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It's true that, used in the same conditions, AC gives a harder feeling than ALC. However, I've found that by using a more flexible resin, AC can give pretty much the same feeling, the characteristic crisp, but relatively soft feedback of ALC. It has a bit less of that cracking sound (which some people hate, but personally I like it), but other than that the performance is very similar. This puts this blade in the Maze ALC area, so nothing new. The handle is Anatomic, which I haven't been making a lot for a simple reason, and I believe it's the same reason why we see it less and less on the market. As the name implies, it's mean to suit the anatomy of your hand, but we don't have all the same anatomy. Unlike the ST and FL handle shapes, which allow for some room for adjustment, if the shape of the AN handle doesn't match the dimensions of your hand, then it get's really uncomfortable. When it does it's a match made in heaven and it feels very nice. In this case I would say that the shape fits medium small hands, or if you have a preference for not too bulky handles.

Available FS.

- Limba / AC / Ayous / Kiri / Ayous / AC / Limba
- 85.8g
- 5.75mm
- 157x150mm
- AN (102x24.3-23.8mm)
- 1400Hz
- Balance: 2.4cm (Low)

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This blade serves as a direct comparison to the previous one, as it was made in the exact same way, I just changed AC for IzC (apart from the obvious different handle). IzC is a little stiffer and faster than AC , while being marginally harder. The main difference is that it has much more vibration dampening and almost no cracking sound. Same type of feeling as ZLC, but a bit less. The handle is based on a Donic shape and the blade has wide wings.

Available FS.

- Limba / IzC / Ayous / Kiri / Ayous / IzC / Limba
- 88.8g
- 5.9mm
- 157x150mm
- FL (100x225.3-22.8mm)
- 1464Hz
- Balance: 2.6cm (Low)

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A little bit of a paradox this one, and the proof that frequency doesn't necessarily relate to speed! This is just how the "Super" Diolen-Carbon works, you get all the stiffness from the vertically weaved carbon, but Diolen is just a tough plastic: it gives vibration dampening, it increases the sweetspot a bit, but it does nothing for the speed of the blade. It does change the feeling and sound a lot, and this blade has a very pronounced cracking sound, it's essentially a Vis, but without the speed. It will work well as a push-blocker blade, for a direct and dangerous trajectory with the pips but still enough speed for attacking with inverted.

Available FS.

- Koto / S-DC / Ayous / Kiri / Ayous / S-DC / Koto
- 88.2g
- 5.6mm
- 157x150mm
- ST (102x29x23.5mm)
- 1380Hz
- Balance: 3.2cm (Med)

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The goal was to make a thin, but stiff and hard outer fiber blade. It is indeed very stiff for its thickness, as the frequency suggests, but surprisingly not that hard! It has a compact head size, with a compact feeling as well, and it should be good for a more direct, close to the table play style. The straight handle is very round and quite chunky.

Available FS.

- Sucupira / TC200 / Walnut / Kiri / Walnut / TC200 / Sucupira
- 84.8g
- 5.0mm
- 153x148mm
- ST (102x29x24mm)
- 1507Hz
- Balance: 3.5cm (Med)

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@hipnotic do you try your creations? Play and test them with rubbers? That would take so much time...
Imagine being an EJ and also building blades for a living 😅. I'm actually not an EJ, I know very well what I like in a blade, but I'm also very curious! There was a time when I was experimenting a bunch of blades and it really hurt my game. I don't test custom orders unless specifically requested, which only happened once or twice, but I do test some of my own creations, mainly when it's something out of the box and that I'm not sure if or how it's gonna work.
 

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Old school style defensive blade. Five plies of similar thickness, the vertical plies are European Cypress and the horizontal plies are Ayous. European Cypress is not bouncy like Asian Cypress, and it's actually a good replacement for Willow (which I find hard to get nowadays). The blade feels stable and not hollow, and not that slow, it could probably be used as an controlled offensive blade but with two inverted rubbers it might get too head heavy. The handle is made from Red Cedar, which I've been using a lot lately, mainly because it's light and in these situations I can keep the handle solid, but also because it's very pleasant to play with, it reacts to sweat and it exudes a very nice sweet scent.

Available FS.

- E. Cypress / Ayous / E. Cypress / Ayous / E. Cypress
- 90.0g
- 5.75mm
- 160x155mm
- FL (101x24.8-23.1mm)
- 1184Hz
- Balance: 3.8cm (Very High)

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Another stab at a faster WSC, this time closer to the original structure but replacing the soft-carbon layer by a higher density version. Medium soft-carbon seems a more appropriate name for this fiber than Super soft-carbon (as I've used previously), it's not as soft as soft-carbon, but also not as hard as a regular weaved carbon. The handle is a bit thinner, but wider than what I usually make, feels quite chunky in the hand.

Available FS.

- Limba / Anegre / ms-C / Ayous core
- 90.6g
- 6.05mm
- 155x150mm
- ST (100x30x22.5mm)
- 1356Hz
- Balance: 3.4cm (Med)

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SDC

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Note to self: when making a transparent handle, don't forget to erase all the pencil marks on the blade 😅.

It's a stiff, hard and fast blade with little to no vibration.

Available FS.

- Koto / Carbon / Kiri / Carbon / Koto
- 89.6g
- 6.1mm
- 157x150mm
- FL (100x25.2-23.2mm)
- 1593Hz
- Balance: 1.8cm (Very Low)

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