Sponge hardness between FH and BH rubbers

[lodro]

If I am not mistaken 37 chinese scale is the hardness of the normal hurricane 3 while provincial is 38 and national had the options of 39 40 42 the rubber that ma long uses on backhand I think is not for sale.

i don't think this is quite right, because the Standard H3 can be had from 37 to 42 degrees, the softer they are the more they charge for them but only a few dollars more . And the black 37 is always sold out real quick

 

[IB66]

This?



And some info on H3-37 Soft, H8, H3-50, Skyline 3-60, with the available hardness from the 2020 official DHS catalog:

H3-37 Soft has what should be the #20 sponge at 37°, high-density/nonporous.
H8 has the #25 sponge, at 39°/40°/41°, high-density/nonporous.
H3-50 has the #50 sponge, at 35°/37°, porous.
Skyline 3-60 has the #60 sponge, at 35°/37°, porous.

yep, I see where you are coming from!!!

DHS have muddied the waters.

However below are a few H3 variations.

H3
H3 Neo
H3-50

yep same top sheet, but with different sponges that have different characteristics and have been marketed as different rubbers, a rubber being a top sheet and a sponge.

the sponges of the 3 listed versions I would think have their own specific sponge ‘recipes’

The process to make the sponge using the specific ‘recipe’ can vary the hardness of the sponge. (Bigger bubbles, smaller bubble etc)

So H3 is available with sponge hardnesses of 39/40/41 degrees and H3 has only recently been available with a 37 degree sponge.

H3-50 is a different ‘rubber’ it’s available as H3-50 and H3-50 soft but i don’t think it was marketed as specifically having a 37 degree sponge.

So the top sheet, which is called H3 has been available with softer sponges but the ‘rubber’ called H3 has not until this year!!!

Confused!!!

 

[IB66]

i don't think this is quite right, because the Standard H3 can be had from 37 to 42 degrees, the softer they are the more they charge for them but only a few dollars more . And the black 37 is always sold out real quick

I’ve never seen Std H3 being sold at 37/38/39/40/41/42 degrees, definitely not .
Maybe I haven’t been looking in the right place? I’ve seen a couple of posts that mentioned 38 and 40 degree.

Zeio,

does the DHS website mention available sponge hardnesses of 38 and 42 degrees for the Std H3?.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Again, as far as I know, versions of Skyline 3 and Hurricane 3 have been available in softer versions with 37 degree sponges since around 2014 when Ma Long started using a 37 degree sponge with a red H3 on his BH.

You may not have been aware. You may not have known how to find. But, there were versions available, as far as I remember, since about 2014.

 

[IB66]

Again, as far as I know, versions of Skyline 3 and Hurricane 3 have been available in softer versions with 37 degree sponges since around 2014 when Ma Long started using a 37 degree sponge with a red H3 on his BH.

You may not have been aware. You may not have known how to find. But, there were versions available, as far as I remember, since about 2014.

Again,

versions yes.
and as I said, the term ‘H3’ can be seen as a ‘top sheet’ ONLY and as a ‘RUBBER’ which I see as the combination of the top sheet and sponge.
There have been a number of recent reviews of the ‘NEW’ H3 37 degree RUBBER, these reviewers have been around longer and more recently than me and they have all said it’s a newly available sponge hardness version of H3 (rubber). Maybe available outside of China. Re-badged ??

 

[Tango K]

They don’t have the hardness but they have H3 and H3 hard. The hard version is less popular. I never tried to know what exactly it means.

I’ve never seen Std H3 being sold at 37/38/39/40/41/42 degrees, definitely not .
Maybe I haven’t been looking in the right place? I’ve seen a couple of posts that mentioned 38 and 40 degree.

Zeio,

does the DHS website mention available sponge hardnesses of 38 and 42 degrees for the Std H3?.

 

[zeio]

I’ve never seen Std H3 being sold at 37/38/39/40/41/42 degrees, definitely not .
Maybe I haven’t been looking in the right place? I’ve seen a couple of posts that mentioned 38 and 40 degree.

Zeio,

does the DHS website mention available sponge hardnesses of 38 and 42 degrees for the Std H3?.

Nope, the current official site makes no mention of hardness. On the old one from several years ago, it stated 39/40/41 in 2.15/2.2.

In real life, 39/40 are widely available for commercial/provincial/national H3. 37/38 in limited quantity only for provinicial H3. 41 is hard to get for all 3 tiers, let alone 42.

 

[lodro]

I’ve never seen Std H3 being sold at 37/38/39/40/41/42 degrees, definitely not .
Maybe I haven’t been looking in the right place? I’ve seen a couple of posts that mentioned 38 and 40 degree.

Well, you know what they say : just because you have never seen it, there is a river flowing on the other side of the mountain too.

The above mentioned website is one of the most respected shops on Ali.
They do advertise and sold to me standard H3 and Neo 37.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000168040304.html?spm=2114.13010708.0.0.37814c4dtWB5br

these come with the usual round sticker and the scratchy line and one can check on the DHS website to make sure this are original rubbers

the bottom line however will always be : one has to get a :
Digital Shore Durometer Sclerometer Rubber Hardness Tester Meter paragraph then one will find out just how hard the rubbers are


Other countries other customs . when i bought a Neo from the well known Estonian shop and asked them what H degrees they had on offer, they said :" soft medium and hard"" and added that in europe they never got actual hardness numbers, so NO 36 ,37 38 39 40 or 42 etc etc.

 

[John_]

On forehand you should use harder sponges in order tot involve the entire body to get the maximum power from the hard sponge. Backhand stroke is however more compact than the forehand stroke, unless you are a sort of Kalinikos Kreanga and you can hit you backhand almost as your forehand. So, in order to create maximum power with a compact stroke, you need a softer sponge than on your forehand, so you don't need to use all of your body to develop a powerful backhand.

On pro level they are phisically and technically very strong, but they still use this principle. There are some players such as Liang Jingkun that consider that the powerfull H3 National Blue Sponge is softer than the orange one, so they play with it on backhand.

But still, I repeat, they are pros, they know how to coordinate their feet and arms to obtain maximum power both on forehand and backhand.

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk

Kreanga uses tenergy 05 fx. Or at least he used it a few years ago. If it wasn't for butterfly supplying him the dignics he would still play 05 fh and 05fx bh.

He said it himself in the ttd 05fx review that he likes soft rubbers at bh, he likes control and then he puts power.

Sorry for the thread revival, but this is pretty important, it doesn't mean that just because you play strongly you need a hard rubber, it's all about feel.

Hell, Zhang jike used 39° h3 on his forehand, does it make his forehead any less weaker that the rest of the team that use 41 and custom 42? Nope.