SDC Handmade Blades

[SDC]

Stunning as always! Man I really have to get in contact with you in the future for some custom blades. Too bad I am impatient and couldn't wait until they finish. And it would probably lead to too many orders with all the ideas I have rn

If you are that impatient, I probably won't be able to help you, the waiting list is close to one year at the moment 😅

 

[Julzig]

If you are that impatient, I probably won't be able to help you, the waiting list is close to one year at the moment 😅

Yeah I saw that on your website and deciced to not give you even more work. Sooner or later it'll happen anyways I guess. Im cooking up 2 nice concepts and know that I wont be able to produce something even close to your work

 

[SDC]

#1270 - Asymmetric Inner - All-/Off-

When a customer asks you to make a ST handle, but you make a mistake and create a Fl instead 😅. Well, I wanted to put something like this in here for a while, so I guess it was fate forcing me to do it. I guess you can call this a modern defensive blade, at least that's what it was designed to do. There's a very noticeable speed difference between sides, in great part thanks to the "Super Diolen-Carbon" fabric that I'm using on the slower side. I'm not going to explain the concept again, since I did it a few times, but the results using this fabric on this type of blade have been great. It's not a super slow defensive side, but it allows for a fairly faster (than usual for this type of blade) offensive side. It may also be used with double inverted rubbers, if you just want a slower Bh for example.

Available FS.

- Limba / Ayous / A-C / Ayous / S-DC / Kiri / Anigre
- 91.7g
- 5.9mm
- 158x152mm
- FL (101x24.6-23.7mm)
- Balance: 2.8cm (Low)

 

[tzifos]

#1270 - Asymmetric Inner - All-/Off-

When a customer asks you to make a ST handle, but you make a mistake and create a Fl instead 😅. Well, I wanted to put something like this in here for a while, so I guess it was fate forcing me to do it. I guess you can call this a modern defensive blade, at least that's what it was designed to do. There's a very noticeable speed difference between sides, in great part thanks to the "Super Diolen-Carbon" fabric that I'm using on the slower side. I'm not going to explain the concept again, since I did it a few times, but the results using this fabric on this type of blade have been great. It's not a super slow defensive side, but it allows for a fairly faster (than usual for this type of blade) offensive side. It may also be used with double inverted rubbers, if you just want a slower Bh for example.

Available FS.

- Limba / Ayous / A-C / Ayous / S-DC / Kiri / Anigre
- 91.7g
- 5.9mm
- 158x152mm
- FL (101x24.6-23.7mm)
- Balance: 2.8cm (Low)

I need this. You got PM

 

[tzifos]

It is a beauty!! Eager to put some rubbers and pips and play!

Thank you Sergio

 

[tzifos]

Today I tried it, using a Nittaku DoKnucle (BH) and Stiga Mantra Pro M (FH). The chop is fantastic, like I cannot miss a ball and I was playing with Victas KojiMatsushita almost 4 years now and with this blade just half an hour!!!! The FH top spin is quite faster than VKM (same rubbers) and with Mantra the ball is "low", I might need to adjust my stroke or return to Fastarc G1, also I don't need to use so much power with FH top spin as with VKM there is a lot of power with this blade! Excellent

 

[SDC]

#1262 and 1267 - Inner TC90

These two blades exist because they were part of the iteration for a customer's blade. He had something very specific in mind, and I made a few tries until we got there. I wasn't planning on finishing them now, but recently I had a debate with another blade builder, and he claimed that hardness doesn't have a relevant effect. Well, my position is exactly the opposite, hardness does play a big role in the overall performance of the blade, and these two are proof of that. Apart from some very minor differences, the structure is the same, except for the medial layer which is Ayous on one, and Limba in the other. The motive behind this change, was exactly to bring a more solid feel, stability and power to the blade. That's what we have here, the blade with the Limba medial a well established OFF-, and despite still having a soft feel, it definitely feels "firmer" than the one with the Ayous medial, which is a step below in terms of speed. Limba is not even that much harder than Ayous, imagine if we had something even harder. However, with more hardness also comes more weight, so in order to accommodate this change, I had to use a lighter core to keep a similar overall weight. This further proves my point, despite having a denser core, the Ayous blade is still slower, because the impact of "hardness" increases, as the distance to the surface decreases, just like what happens with inner and outer blades
I decided to sell them separately because they do have slightly different characteristics, but they can also be an interesting pair for someone who likes having a slightly faster setup for different occasions (for example playing in a small room vs a big hall).

Compositions:
Limba / Ayous / TC90 / Ayous core
Limba / Limba / TC90 / Ayous core
Weight:
87.6g
87.4g
Thickness: 5.9mm
Head Size: 157x150mm
Handle: ST (102x28.5x23.0mm)
Balance:
3.1cm (Med)
2.9cm (Low/Med)
Condition: New

 

[latej]

#1262 and 1267 - Inner TC90

Posts like that are really interesting for me to read and learn. If it can be disclosed, where did the iteration go, and what was the final blade and the differences between it and these 2 blades?

 

[Tyce]

@hipnotic how do you define "slower"?
- more bounce on touch shots?
- faster balls on medium effort?
- top speed?
- a combination of these things?
- something else entirely?


I'm saying this, because some people insist that a HL5 is a very fast blade, which is true if you talk about the top gears but definitely not when you look at the touch and medium speed - before the fiber becomes the dominant layer. On the other hand, a Viscaria is usually called fast, but while it starts at a high gear, it doesn't ramp up *as much* as a HL5 for example.


My layman's impression would be that the harder blade has a higher base/starting speed, yet not necessarily a higher top speed than the softer one. So now I'm curious

 

[SDC]

Posts like that are really interesting for me to read and learn. If it can be disclosed, where did the iteration go, and what was the final blade and the differences between it and these 2 blades?

Ironically, the iteration lead to the first one that I made 😂. In fact, that one is also interesting because it proves another point. This blade maker also has another position which is: mass doesn't influence the speed of the blade. Curiously, the only difference from that first blade to the one with limba medial, was that it had a denser core, making it heavier overall and more head heavy. This blade clearly felt more solid and faster than the other two. The only reason I didn't use it in the first place, was because the customer also had a weight/balance specification, and I thought it wouldn't work, but in the end it didn't turn out that head heavy so we compromised.

 

[SDC]

@hipnotic how do you define "slower"?
- more bounce on touch shots?
- faster balls on medium effort?
- top speed?
- a combination of these things?
- something else entirely?


I'm saying this, because some people insist that a HL5 is a very fast blade, which is true if you talk about the top gears but definitely not when you look at the touch and medium speed - before the fiber becomes the dominant layer. On the other hand, a Viscaria is usually called fast, but while it starts at a high gear, it doesn't ramp up *as much* as a HL5 for example.


My layman's impression would be that the harder blade has a higher base/starting speed, yet not necessarily a higher top speed than the softer one. So now I'm curious

This is actually a very good question. Slower is slower, it's a relative term, it serves as a comparison, so in this case I can confidently say one blade is slower than the other. That doesn't mean one is slow or fast.

These slow or fast terms are very important to me because, in a way, they are also relative. We don't have a precise measuring system for the speed of a blade, and everyone has their own perception of a slow or fast blade. I have customers who consider the Viscaria an extremely fast blade, and other who consider it slow(ish). That communication with the custumer is very important to understand their POV and needs.

When I talk about speed I mostly mean the rebound speed of a blade, because without trying all these blades, that's what I can access. However, I like to differentiate speed from power, or at least that's what I call it. Speed comes purely from the rebound, while power is a combination of speed and spin, and it comes from the mass and flexibility of the blade. Viscaria is a speedy blade, the HL5 is a powerful blade. So yes, in general terms the speed of a blade isn't linear, but a curve. The more speed a ball has, the faster it is slowed down due to air resistance. Have you ever played against those older players who just smash, the ball is usually very fast but if you step a bit away from the table they are very easy to return. If you want to increase the speed without this happening, you have to take advantage of the magnus effect, but for that you also have to create more spin.

 

[Tyce]

Very satisfyingly clear explanation, thanks!

 

[SDC]

#1297 - Outer S-AyC - OFF/OFF+

This blade only came to life because I made a mistake (as usual 😂), I laminated S-AyC for a customer's blade instead of S-AxC. I've explained this a few times but the x and y in those names are not just for fancy effect, they represent the direction of the Aramid fiber. In S-AyC, the Aramid fiber is only in the vertical direction, and the Carbon is in the horizontal direction. Aramid is soft and flexible, carbon is stiff and hard, so this configuration gives us more flexibility with a harder touch, as opposed to S-AxC for example, which would gives us more stiffness, but a softer touch. Anyway, I decided to use it here and go even further in terms of hardness/flexibility, so I used Ayous for the core, which is unusual for outer fiber blades, but I also rotated it. I wasn't planning on posting this blade now, as I have lower numbers that were supposed to go first, but this blade also relates to that debate I spoke about in the previous blades. The blade maker also mentioned that grain direction is not important; I say it is, and it matters a great deal. Wood grain only runs in one direction, and that's the stronger direction. A board as much more longitudinal stiffness than in the other directions, so by rotating the core we are "sacrificing" longitudinal stiffness by transversal stiffness. What does this mean? The blade bends more easily, but it has much more lateral stability. This blade has a huge sweetspot, but it also changes the way vibrations are transmitted to the hand, so the feeling is entirely different. It's hard to describe, you can somewhat feel the blade flex, but at the same time the feeling is harder (alos becuse of the carbon), and because there are virtually no vibrations, you do not relate the same way to it, as you would with a vertical core. An important aspect is also the frequency, and here we can feel how it relates to stiffness, but hardness as well. The blade as less stiffness than an usual outer fiber, so the frequency should be lower too, right? Well, no. Hardness plays a part too, and we have increased the hardness, so the frequency is also quite high (~1507Hz). In summary, it's a very different blade than usual, it has a hard feeling, a huge sweetspot but less rebound than other blades in this category. I can see it in the hands of someone who likes to play close to the table with blocks and counters.

Available FS.

- Koto / S-AyC / Ayous / Ayous core
- 90.6g
- 5.75mm
- 156x149mm
- FL (102x25.0-23.7mm)
- Balance: 3.1cm (Med)

 

[SDC]

#1277 - Asymmetric Inner/Outer - All/Off-

I've built an asymmetric blade for a veeery good player, he's a modern defender and wanted something fast on the Fh, with a more dampening Bh side. My experience with using "super diolen-carbon" on these types of blades has been very good, so that's what I recommend. He loved the blade so much he asked for another. This is a warning I give to everyone in such cases, replicating blades is a hard task. I always take note of everything during the manufacturing process, the weight and thickness of the layers, the glue type, clamping pressure, etc... but even when they are built at the same time and I'm able to chose exactly similar layers, some minor differences appear sometimes. We are dealing with something that was alive once, and this variation in wood properties is enough to cause some variances in the final product. Replicating a blade after a while, further increases the uncertainty, because then I may not be able to chose from the exact same batch. Still, we decided to try, and despite following everything I had taken note of, this one turned slightly different than the first. I may inadvertently made some mistake, but I did try to follow the same "recipe". Anyway, the second attempt went better and he got his blade, but we still have this one 🙂. As I've said, his blade was fast (even with the slower side), so this one may actually be better for someone who doesn't have his skills, although it's still a pretty fast blade in the Defender category.

- Limba / A-C / Ayous / Ayous / S-DC / Willow / Limba
- 90.2g
- 6.0mm
- 157x150mm
- ST (102x22.5x28.8mm)
- Balance: 3.0cm (Med)

 

[Egon]

In my opinion, making a copy of a blade over time is like making brothers . The blades turn out to be very similar to each other, but still each has its own character.

 

[tzifos]

I think that you need serious SKILLS to play this as a defender with long pips. Even a offensive player that needs a slower (asymmetric) side can use #1277 and be extremely happy!!!

 

[SDC]

#1279 - Outer Kev - OFF

This post if full of speculation, so don't quote me as a reliable source...

So, there has been all this hype around Hugo's blade, and everyone wants a Hugo HAL. I'm almost certain he is using the earlier model, the Hugo SAL. Xiom first came up with the SAL version, the composition is the same as this one but they used the term "Arylate" for the fiber. Kevlar, "Arylate", "Axilium", are all very similar and they all belong to the Aramid family, the problem is that "Arylate" belongs to Butterfly, so they got in trouble for that and decided to change the name. They also changed the composition, the HAL version uses a Kiri core, not Ayous. This is precisely why I think Hugo is using the SAL, he's probably the hardest hitter on the circuit, and I don't think Kiri supports his playstyle, at least not in this composition, without a little more help from the fiber (and we all know he doesn't like carbon). The problem with using Ayous in this composition, is that it's very hard keeping it consistently under 90g. Of course it's possible, I did it right here, but I also had to use lower than average density layers in order to do it. This is the main reason why Limba is not present as the intermediate layer in most compositions, because of the weight, and then we also have Ayous which is heavier than Kiri. So I believe he uses the first version with an Ayous core (and a pretty heavy one probably), and they released a more "user-friendly" version to the public.

- Koto / Kevlar / Limba / Ayous core
- 87.1g
- 5.7mm
- 157x150mm
- FL (100x25.0-22.8mm)
- Balance: 3.1cm (Med)

 

[Khimmi]

I was going to buy it, but I arrived late. Cheers.

 

[laowa]

#1279 - Outer Kev - OFF

This post if full of speculation, so don't quote me as a reliable source...

So, there has been all this hype around Hugo's blade, and everyone wants a Hugo HAL. I'm almost certain he is using the earlier model, the Hugo SAL. Xiom first came up with the SAL version, the composition is the same as this one but they used the term "Arylate" for the fiber. Kevlar, "Arylate", "Axilium", are all very similar and they all belong to the Aramid family, the problem is that "Arylate" belongs to Butterfly, so they got in trouble for that and decided to change the name. They also changed the composition, the HAL version uses a Kiri core, not Ayous. This is precisely why I think Hugo is using the SAL, he's probably the hardest hitter on the circuit, and I don't think Kiri supports his playstyle, at least not in this composition, without a little more help from the fiber (and we all know he doesn't like carbon). The problem with using Ayous in this composition, is that it's very hard keeping it consistently under 90g. Of course it's possible, I did it right here, but I also had to use lower than average density layers in order to do it. This is the main reason why Limba is not present as the intermediate layer in most compositions, because of the weight, and then we also have Ayous which is heavier than Kiri. So I believe he uses the first version with an Ayous core (and a pretty heavy one probably), and they released a more "user-friendly" version to the public.

- Koto / Kevlar / Limba / Ayous core
- 87.1g
- 5.7mm
- 157x150mm
- FL (100x25.0-22.8mm)
- Balance: 3.1cm (Med)

Sir I think we need more of this 🤭

 

[Jikester]

They also changed the composition, the HAL version uses a Kiri core, not Ayous. This is precisely why I think Hugo is using the SAL, he's probably the hardest hitter on the circuit, and I don't think Kiri supports his playstyle, at least not in this composition, without a little more help from the fiber (and we all know he doesn't like carbon). The problem with using Ayous in this composition, is that it's very hard keeping it consistently under 90g.

I own a SAL with 98g, don't know if it's an outliner. As you said for the general TT market below 90g is preferable, some may like 90-95g, but over 95g like my 98g SAL is just to heavy. I read/heard that Hugo himself plays 94 or 95g.