OOAK Table Tennis Forum

so this blade is made up of 11 plies of wood. the composition goes like this:
birch
birch
birch
anigre
anigre
balsa
anigre
anigre
birch
birch
birch

and the thickness is about 6.2mm.

the handle is made of balsa, and is slightly hollowed out DONIC senso-style to increase feel. its head heavy.

it feels solid when playing, and it has a good spring effect due to the balsa core but it also has good speed due to the hard outer birch layers. id say this is good for a mid distance game with a lot of spin. im gonna use it for defence.

the handle is square, like the gergely.

the head is oversize, alightly larger than the joo blade, about the same. its also squareish.

right now i have it clothed in 802-40 OX red and 729 2.1 black, white sponge.

some pics...















that should do it.

_________________
SPW/Solo

Nicely done!

PS I edited your post, and finally managed to embed you picture.

_________________
OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

Is the birch/birch/birch the plywood you get from hobby shops? If so, what thickness did you use? 1/32, 1/64 or 1/16 inch?

hookshot, yeah. the overall thickness is about .8mm, and its made up of three layers. i got it at a local arts'n'crafts store. the anigre i got from one of my dads friends in oakland, or somewhere.

thanks haggisv, but you missed one pic of the end of the handle.

_________________
SPW/Solo

That is 1/32" ply. I have built dozens of blades using 1/64", 1/32", and 1/16" ply.
What kind of glue did you use?

If you build a combi blade using water based glue, it is VERY importent to remove the moisture before removing from the press. Otherwise, it will warp. I have a method to do this. The press itself, (the platens) hold the moisture in.

If you build an oversize blade, try making the handle heavier. Even though the total weight is greater, it may actually "feel" lighter because it is not head heavy.

For balsa center plys, I have used 1/16" to 1/2". The 1/2" makes a FAST blade depending on the outer plys. Try "Competition Grade balsa". Much much lighter but also more expensive. That is the type used in most combination blades. You probably have to ask for that in hobby shops or order it.

A 1/64" ply over balsa gives a unique feel, hard surface over soft wood. Might be something OX defenders would like.

You can also get thin fiberglas cloth in car repair stores to experiment with.
Have fun.

im thinking of making a balsa R*1 clone, with anigre outer plies and a core made up of two 7.4 thick balsa layers.

update on the blade: fishing has never been so easy. its like i just stick out my paddle and swing, and the ball goes wherever i want it to go. my fishes include sidespin too, and i get alot of that. powerlooping is very chineseish, if im using that right. the ball flies forward, and just as it seems like its gonna go off the table the ball arcs down and jumps forward, biting the table with its spin.
chopping gives a crisp feeling of placement, but this is probably due to the fact that im using OX SP, not OX LP. anyways chopping close to the table is fine as long as you use a compact, Li-Qian style stroke. blocking is good. speed is good. control is good. when i move to a different blade, if i do at all, im considering sending this blade to someone else, so that they can confirm if my speculations are BS or not. remember, im a beginner with an inconsistent style so dont take my speculations very seriously. i used to think that all rubbers had to be tacky, and that if the rubber wasnt tacky it was crap or antispin.

_________________
SPW/Solo

Just some of the glues you can use;
Epoxy, slow dry is better than fast dry, carpenters glue, (Elmers) hide glue, Gorrilla glue, silicon adhesives, even contact cement. The glue used will change the feel of a blade and the press pressure used also changes it. My favorite glue is a "Veneer glue" specially made for glueing veneer. It drys VERY hard.

blade performance update.

the blade has a good lively, bouncy feel to it. the really thin contact brush loops are hard to do, but the loop if you dig into the sponge a bit has great speed and spin. the senso handle provides a good feel. if you make the blade flex too much (in this case, not much) the blade catapults the ball very fast. but the blade has the gears for passive shots. punch blocks are excellent, the blade acts like a sheet of very hard metal, and rebounds the ball fast. chopping is a tedious but rewarding practice. if you chop too hard the ball will fly out, and definitely not hit the table. i plan to reduce the size of the blade by a lot (standard SH style) so the weight is reduced a lot. (a bit too heavy) but the weight is good, in my standard. (I grew up inTT using heavier blades than the joo se hyuk.) the closest springy blade i imagine this blade is closest to is the 729 bomb. (i have some cork sheets @ home. i can make a clone!)

_________________
SPW/Solo