OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Dear Forumers,

Greetings from Korea.
I'm running NEXY brand, and I design many blades.
I tried to post some articles about how I design my blades, but this space was not allowed for commercial use, so I stayed outside of this space.

But I came to know that if I write only about informative things, then I can join this place.
So, from today on, I think I will try to come by if I have a thing to share.

There are several things I already wrote in other places, and now I will start to show those already written articles first.
And then, I will come with more new articles later.

Thank you, and come by often, and you will get something new, I think.

Materials for the blade surface :
Hinoki, Limba and Koto.


This topic will be very intersting ones for every one here in this forum.
I'm not sure how much agreeable for you this analysis will be, because it's not about mechanic calculation only.
In some ways, this part should be considering each player's different style.
For an example, how the swing goes, what angle is comfortable for back hand & fore hand stroke and loopings, how long the ball stays on the blade when he makes spinny shot, what's the impact of the swing movement when he make powerful top spin, how he rubs the ball when he wants to make a pimple out rubbers' effect to the maximum.......and so on.

So, this article will be general one, and I hope you don't expect me to be a fortune teller for table tennis blades.


Ok, let's start with the "staying moment".

This term "staying moment" is what I made to explain what I think about surface material.

When you make a top spin shot, you can see some people keep the ball on the blade for certain moment, enough to see how he makes big spin on the ball. Normally, this movement goes little bit round way, but linear or straight.
The blade draws big circle around.

But when you become faster and more powerful, then you easily moves into quicker movement.
Some players use their wrist when they make top spin shot, from back to forward, not only from down to up.
If this movement happens in a very short impact moment, then you can feel the looping becomes a lot more powerful.

If you have a chance to play against top players, then you will know that their ball is more powerful than you see and guess.
You need to keep your blade tight, and be stable when you block, because the flying ball seems to push away your blade back.
And you will be thinking why my top spin is not that fast?
How I can make my top spin that fast?
And some of you might have tried to make faster swing movement.
But only to find that faster movement is not the practical answer.
As I told you, some times it's about writst movement, or arm folding....or....

But I can say one sure thing. It's about impact.

When you hit the ball with your blade, the blade was at the highest speed, and the ball needs to be smashed both ways, from down to up, and also from back to forth.
It't too simple answer, so you will think it's not that special.
But then again, please, think about what will happen to the ball and rubbers when you make that powerful shot.

In that moment, the ball goes into the rubber, from top sheet into sponge, and finally into wooden surface.
For powerful loopers, this impact happens all the time.
They know how to make the ball touches deep even into wood.
So, when you make this powerful shot, even though you are doing looping, still you can hear the big sound of the ball's impact on the wooden surface of the blade.

If you don't hear the sound which normally happens when you smash without spinny movement when you do looping, then it menas that you are not doing those top player's shot.

Any way, it's not all the important factor in table tennis.
As far as I know, there are some good players who can not make this "bang" sound when they loop, but still they are really powerful.


By the way, whenever I make a blade, I discriminate the "staying moment" for general swing movement from this "bang" looping movement.
Some blades can be good for general swing, but not good for "bang impact".

I don't want to degrade Chinese blades, but lots of chinese blades are not good for this "bang impact" shot.
They tend to focus on the feeling and power onto the table movement, which should be about small but quick swing.
So, they don't think whey a blade has to be powerful with that "bang impact" shot.

If you have "bang impact" shot, and if you use that shot onto the table, then your opponent can not even see the ball. The ball just disapears.
The impact generated by this "bang impact" shot distorts the top sheet of the rubber, and also distorts the sponge upon to the blade surface, making big "bang" sound.



Ok, now let's get to the point.

So, now you know there are two different loopings, from my category.
Now I will show the general differaces of three materials.


1. General hardness
Hinoki is normally very soft. It becomes damaged easily, so you need to be careful about it.
Limba is still soft, but harder than Hinoki.
Koto is hard. This one is very hard and solid.

2. Feeling
I don't know how to express this part. But I will try it.
Hinoki feels sticky. When you loop, the ball seems to follow the movement of Hinoki.
Limba feels embracing the ball into it. But this depends on how thick limba you use. Generally, most blade uses thin limba less than 0.7mm, and you will feel they are holding the ball into the center.
Koto is hard, and normally we use thin ply for the surface. Koto is hard and also heavy, so we don't use it into the middle ply.
Generally, designers believed that hard surface will not be good for making big spin. But recently, they are using Koto in many blades, because with Koto, they can make use of full effect of rubber.

If you use Koto on the surface, it should be very thin, if not, too solid. But if this is thin, then Koto works like a metal plate, with which you can have good effect of rubber.



Ok, now we have two factors.

Hardness and Feeling.

But this can not be mechanically simple.
For an example, lots of blades are using KOTO on their surfaces, but most of them use very thin koto, and in that case, koto becomes like a very thin metal plate, which affects on the ball directly, but also help the ball goes into the second or center ply.
So, the feeling about those blades come generally from the second ply, not only from the koto surface.

I heard that some one told here in this forum that KOTO is soft material, and I think it's because of this reason.

For Limba, it's general feeling is embracing, but when I used it thick or doubled http://nexy.com/shop/step1.php?number=716 the feeling was not much embracing.

And also Hinoki, when I used very soft ones, the unique feeling became weak, and the second ply affected on the ball more directly.
So, it also depends on the thickness of the material.

Any way, if you ask what will be the moderate thickness for them, I think for Hinoki, it will be from 0.8mm to 1.4mm, and for Limba, it will be from 0.3mm~0.7mm, and for Koto, it will be 0.3~0.5mm.
But that's only what I concluded.


Ok, let's move on further.

When I design my hinoki surface blades, I used high quality Japanese Hinoki.
Hinoki has many grades.
If you look into the surface of Hinoki, you will see there are lines.
One line means one season change, I mean one year.
So, if you want to use Hinoki for a blade, then it has to be older than 200 years.
If not, the width is not enough to cover one blade.
And generally, people don't like the blade with several hinoki fragments.
Any way, if the line is wide, there could be two possibilities.
That wood is not good. If the mather tree was young, then the lines would be wider, because they are new.
And the feeling is soft and speed is not very fast.
Another possibility is that the material has come from the core part of a big old tree.
In that case, it's also soft and speed is not very fast.
But the price of those two material is widely different.
If the material is from the core part of several hundred years old tree, it's exteremly expensive.

Any way, I use soft Hinoki for all the blades.
And I prefer to use thick ones.
Geneally, many hinoki blades' surface is 0.5mm thick. But I use normally thicker than that.
When you use hard hinoki, then maybe 0.5mm will be ok, but if you prefer to use soft hinoki, then it has to be thicker.
If not, the ball will be affected by second ply much, not by hinoki only, therefore you can not get the full effect from Hinoki surface.

Let me give a practical example.

Here are two blades, one is Dexter and the other one is Hannibal.




For Dexter, my purpose was quite simple.

I wanted to make a 5-ply blade, which is faster than normal carbon blade.
So, I had to make the center ply thick, and use fast sprus on the second.
But if I make the blade too fast, then I was worried it could be too much bouncy.
So, I had to find some material which makes the ball spinny, even though the "staying moment" of a ball is very short.
In that case, Hinoki will be the best answer.

This blade is like an anouncement for me.
Nexy is different. It's very bold brand.
And I wanted to prove it by showing the fastest 5-ply blade, Dexter.

But for Hannibal, my purpose was quite the other way.




So far, carbon seems to be quite attractive material.
But the problem of it is, it feels too much aritificial.
So, some european makers tried to use it in the third position, or to use very thin carbon.
Some brands even did not use it, while they say they use it.
They mixed the carbon powder into the glue, and the said it's light carbon blade.
But in that case, that carbon glue ply becomes little by little shaken, and eventually changes the chracter of the blade.

So, some makers tried to use only one line carbon, which means they don't use carbon as one ply.
And some makers started to mix carbon layer with other artificial materials.

Any way, I thought carbon layer is very attractive material, with all that problems.
As for me, the biggest problem is not about feeling only. I was a lot more interested in how I can make it effective for "bang impact" swing.

As you might have experienced, lots of carbon blades are good when you practice basic skills, but in a match, they don't have good spin and feeling, and they are not that much powerful, even though they are fast.

So, I started to think, how I can prolong "staying moment" for a fast "bang impact" swing.

And I found out the solution.
I used very light and reslient wood for the center ply.
And I chose very soft hinoki, but thicker than most other blades.
So, it's around 1.3mm thick.

With these two new factors, now I could get very good "staying moment" needed for "bang impact" shot for Hannibal.


Some one asked me what blade can be good for short pimple out players, and I think this Hannibal can be good for that style.
This blade has very powerful smash, but also it has enough"staying moment" needed for a person who wants to make use of pimple out effect in it's full coverage.


Regarding Koto, I have one Koto blade, Ikarus.
And I'm going to release another Koto blade, Labyrinthos.

The reason I use Koto for those blades is I want to make the pimple out's effect bigger.

Actually, there could be several different styls regarding pimple out players.
And if I use soft material, then the "staying moment" can be longer than koto.
But in that case, pimple out's effect is affected by that softness also.
Most push blockers prefer OX, because they have bigger effect, then you can understand why I use hard and solid Koto on the srface.
If I use soft surface, it will be like I add thin sponge onto OX rubber.

Regarding MUSIRO and MILARGE, I used Limba, because I wanted to add more control than other normal blades, by which you can become more stable, even though you use long pimple out rubber.
On the contrary, I use Koto for Ikarus and Labyrinthos, because I want to maximise the pimple out's effect onto it.



Ok, it was not a short story, but I think most people would have got something from this passage.
Some of my expanation will not be exact with the blade you have, because it's not that simple.
If you use the same material, but still the effect can vary depending on weight of each material and also on composition together.

So, I don't expect you to take my writing into a certain decisive conclusion, but rather as a way to understand your blade better.


Thank you for reading this long article through.

< CARBON >

This is fantastic material for table tennis blade.
Most people now think they know this quite well.
And also most table tennis blade designers think that way too.
But I don't think so.
I think I have vast ocean to swim through to find still something new, veiled, hidden in the deep water.

Carbon ply was found by butterfly brand, and later on lots of European brand trid to follow it.
But the first carbon blades shown by Butterfly did not attract European market a lot.
European market thought carbon blade is too much bouncy.

So, Donic, Stiga.... started to make soft thin carbon blade.
And some blades were using carbon layer deeper than second layer.
They thought they can neutralize the carbon's too much bouncy character by keeping it deeper.
But that was little bit dull idea I think.
They didn't have to neutralize; if they really want to newtraize, then why they use it?
Rather they had to find how to harmonize it better.

Some brand used balsa to make it light.
But balsa has a kind of hollow feeling, so when you joint it with some other material, then you need to think about how to make up for that hollow feeling.
For normal long pimple our rubber blades, balsa was good material, because they need that hollow feeling. But for others, I think it should be careful.

Carbon is the most attractive material, among all the artificial materials for blades, I think.
It's solid and hard, very good for adding more power onto the ball, plus not very heavy as you might think.
If this can be matched with good wood, then it's perfect.
It can have good vibration, solid feeling, and also pleasant touch.
That's how I made my blade Hannibal.

I think I will try this material with my next version blade.
I will prove how attractvie a carbon layer can be, with my next blade.

Please, European players, don't think little of Carbon layer.
When it is in good harmony, like in hannibal, it can be really good.
You will see.


(Before closing this passage, for an example, I will ask you to picture one blade, with two carbon 9-ply blade. I think with this composition, I can make 5mm, fast and very spinnyy blade. Don't you agreewith me? That blade will be flexible, even though it has two carbon layers. I want to test it as soon as possible.)

HINOKI - deeper study


I feel sorry for the people who waited to meet the next article sooner than today.
But I decided to keep on writing maybe one time in a week, becaue this writing needs lots of energy and time.

Today, I'm gonna write more about Hinoki material, because I found out this material is the least known wood for players outside of Korean and Japan.
Recently, I received a mail asking about Hinoki one-ply blade, and he was not satisfied with the price I gave to him.
And I explained why the price is so high, and he replied with apologies.
So, I thought maybe I need to give one more writing about Hinoki material, to help people outside of Korean market to understand it better.




1. Character

When hinoki is used for the surface of a blade, as Iwrote in the before article, it makes the player feel that the ball sticks to the blade. If your swing movement is fast, then you will feel that the ball will follow the whole arch of the blade's trajectory.

Hinoki feels different from other material in that point. So, you can make a effective top spin shot even thought you hit the ball very light. The ball follows the blade, and it goes very slowly, but with big spin, and it looks that really flies too slow to be visible.

Many Koreans can do this kiond of slow but spinny looping, because they have been playing with Hinoki for many decades, and we call it "fake loop", because sometimes the ball comes after the blade, due to it's slow speed. If your arm moves very fast, and the ball is hit very slightly, then the ball flies after the blade has finished the whole swing, and everybody can see the ball flies slowly after the blade. It’s very awesome moment, because it takes away the expected timing for the opponent, and sometimes even the opponent block the ball with right timing, still the ball is too slow and weak, the ball doesn’t react to the usual way, and it creeps onto the rubber of the opponent’s blade, and goes high making the other player struck by unusual surprise.

So, this is one factor I like hinoki material. It’s good to make the ball follow the blade.
But on the contrary, it’s also harmful for a player to learn fast and powerful looping skill.
In Korea, it was not hard to see people making only “fake loop” instead of normal powerful loop, because it’s fantastic to feel how it works. But sooner or later, that kind of style will be defeated by a higher level player with big disappointment and purplexity. If the other player knows well when to block with what angle, that kind of style can not win against him. So, it’s not good if a player wants to upgrade his level.

Anyway, I think there could be some people interested in this kind of “fake loop”.
I used to do it, when I played with one-ply hinoki, but now I lost it.
I hope I can show it some day with movie clip, if possible.

There is another distinction you can easily feel when you use Hinoki on the surface.
If you block the ball with Hinoki surface, it’s really good to control the length of the ball.
If you push down your blade with good angle loosening the power, then the ball will go very short.
It’s very sensitive moment to enjoy. You can feel how the ball touches your hinoki surface, and to go back with stable trajectory.
The blocked ball moves in a very stable way, because the trajectory is higher and in good control.
It will not be very aggressive, but you can feel comfortable, and you will feel the you hold the control of the returning ball.

I think this is very fascinating factor, and that’s the true merit of Hinoki surface.
This factor also comes from the first factor that hinoki feels sticky.





2. demerits of hinoki

Yes, there are lots of demerits in Hinoki. It’s not a magic material.

The first thing is, once you are accustomed to this material, you will not be comfortable with other materials any longer, because Hinoki has it’s distictive swing trajectory.
When you are good with Hinoki, then it changes little by little your swing movement as it wants.
You happen to fold your upper arm faster, and will get better speed and impact, but the angle of the blade can be little bit different from others.
You might become faster, but you lose some general movement, which goes all right to most other players.
I can say this way, because I’ve gone through the same, while I study what’s the difference between hinoki and other material.

And another demerits will be price.
Hinoki material is extremely expensive.

Let’s start with the brief history of one-ply hinoki blade with Japanese penholder grip.
Most Korean and Japanese players used to play with Japanese penholder grip.
And that style is totally different from normal shake hand users.

Most popular blades were one-ply hinoki, and if a player wants to have enough speed, it should be around 10mm thick.
So, one-ply thick hinoki plate is needed for production.
But if you use that hinoki plate, then it needs to come from one hinoki trunk. It can not be glued from different pieces.

If you look at hinoki material, there are vertical lines.
Each line comes from one year, because it is made according to the speed of growth.
When it’s warm, it grows fast, but in winter, it’s speed is slow.
So, when it grows slow, it gives darker color, which results in darker line we can notify.

Normally, one blade needs a width which takes up around 150~200 lines.
If a tree is 100 old, then it will have 200 lines; 100 lines from center to each other end.
So, we can say that if we want to make a blade without jointing pieces, then the mother tree at least need to be older than 100 years.
But it’s not only about width.
If a tree is 100 years old, then the blade will be only soft, not very speedy.
Young part is softer and weaker.
And old part is harder and more solid.

If a blade is made from big old tree, around 300~400 years old, then we can cut one blade from out part, and another in the middle, and the best one in the center.
So, it depends on the width of a tree how we can get the hinoki plate of which we make a blade.

By the way, all those old and big trees are getting smaller and smaller in their numbers, so recently the price of raw material is growing up high seedily.

When we see the blade, hinoki blades can be categorized by several factors.


( 1) Are they soft and weak? Or hard?

If they are soft, then they are from young tree or from the inside of old tree. If they are from young tree, then their price can be cheaper, but if they are from old tree’s center part, their price is priceless. But in fact, they are not very different. Actually, a blade made of the inner part of a big and old tree is almost the same from the one from young tree.

Recently, the price of the blade from that old tree’s center part is two or three times higher than several years’ ago. But I think the difference is not very wide from the one cut from young tree, if we are making a several plies’ shake hand blades. And mostly I use that soft part for my blades. But still that material’s price is very expensive compared with other surface material, and that’s one reason I can not sell my hinoki surface blades cheaper.
There are several brands using American or Taiwanese hinoki, but those are not expensive at all, and the character is very different. Taiwanese hinoki is heavier than Japanese Kiso Hinoki, and the function is very different, and I don’t think it’s good surface material.


(2) Do they have vertical lines with constant distance, or else lines are getting wider into one direction?

If a material is cut exactly on the center, then the lines will get wider into both directions. If not, it should get wider from one side to the other end. Normally, it’s not easy to find all the lines keep the same distance, because young parts close to the outer are wider and also the part headed to south gets more wider than the part headed to north. So, normally, a blade can not keep the same width over the whole lines on the blade.
For long years, many Korean people have known that narrower lines mean better blade, but I found that it’s not always correct. If lines are narrow, then it means they are hard, which is not good for all round play. If a player wants to have a big “bang impact”, then it has to keep modest softness, if not, the ball does not stay some due moments needed for that “bang impact”.


(3) Are they heavy or light?

Now I think you already know the answer. If the material from inner part or from younger tree, they tend to be light. Any way, that’s why expensive blades are light. Most expensive blades are cut from the inner part of an old tree, and they are soft and light, so some brands are making them 10.5mm thick, not 10.0, because they need to cover that lightness by thicker material.


(4) Are they brown or white?

Hinoki has it's typical color.
Some are very whilte, and in that case, most blades are from inner part. If a blade is brown, it normally means that are from outer part of a big tree, which is more expensive than the part from young tree.
Any way, you can picture the fuction by their color also.




3. How I designed Nexy’s Hinoki surface blades.


Ok, up to here, I’ve been reporting general information about Hinoki blades.
But more important thing for me is how I designed my nexy blades.
I used expensive and qualified Japanese Hinoki materials on my several blades.
So, I will explain one by one, how I intended to make them.



DEXTER


HANNIBAL


OSCAR


COLOR




Regarding all those Hinoki surface blades, I prefer to use soft material.
If I use hard surface, then the total character will be different.
But with my brand NEXY, specially with all these Hinoki blades, I decided to show what’s NEXY’s character.
It should be harmonized, and well balanced.

With this soft material, I needed to use little bit thicker outer ply, than other general hinoki surface blades.
In many cases, Hinoki surface is around or thinner than 0.5mm, by which it’s not easy to get “bang impact” effect.
If that thin Hinoki surface is possible to make speedy top spin shot, then it will not guarantee enough “staying moment” needed for “bang impact”.

So, I chose to use soft hinoki, but thicker than 0.5mm.
And I calculated in each blades how to harmonize that thickness with other plies.

Among those 4 blades, specially Hannibal and Oscar’s hinoki is softer.
I use very soft material for both blade, because I need to empower better feelings onto that blades, which are mixed with artificial materials.

If you look at generally well known hinoki carbon blades, they are using 0.5mm or 1.0mm hinoki surface.
But if it’s 0.5mm, the ball is too bouncy, and if it’s 1.0mm, you don’t have good feeling onto your hand.
But I solved these seemingly incompatible problems with soft, but thicker hinoki, matching with light and bouncy center ply(which I don’t want to tell).

So, when you play with Hannibal, you will be surprised to know that this blade is very soft and it grabs the ball inwardly deep as well as very soft and light.
With this softness, you can feel the balance between fast carbon layer and soft touch of Hinoki out ply.

With Oscar, I spent the whole year and a half only for extreme natural feelings, which was not seemed to be attainable with arylate carbon ply.
I studied every possible chances mixing different thickness for surface, and that was the time when I was sure that I decided to consummate the constitution of Oscar as it is now.
I used not too thick but thick enough to carry good feeling and power needed for this well balanced blade.


Regarding Dexter, I thought I would open my new brand by something surprising and outstanding, too different from all other 5-ply blades to overlook. So the result is most speedy 5 ply hinoki blade, DEXTER.
If I used other material for Dexter, then the blade will not be catching the ball enough to make spinny shots.
But I chose Hinoki for the surface, by which, you can make spinny shots when you make a good impact on it.

By the way, I think if your swing movement is not speedy as normal Asian players, then you will not be able to think that this blade has good spin, though.
So, I thought I had to make another one, with better spin and good balance, and that became the reason for my next blade “COLOR”, which became a big attractive item for many players as you can see here.

http://www.mytabletennis.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=30446&title=nexy-reviews-the-color-blade-fl

Ok, I think there could be a lot more to say, but it will be too much for me to write more.
So, I will write if I find some more in the next article.

Please, write anything unclear for you.
I will try my best to answer, if you have questions.

Thank you for reading all through.
It was not short today again.

HEAD SIZE

I'm quite sure lots of people don't think much of this.
It was the same for me.
Whenever I buy a blade, I checked the thickness, and handle.
If the handle is not comfortable, then it's a big problem.
And if a blade is too think, it vibrates a lot.
And too thick, it has less feeling.

So, size of the head was the last thing I counted.
But as a blade designer, I found out it's extremely imortant factor.
You can do experiment on your own, with the blade you don't use.

Just cut some part, like in one blade, each side, and in the other blade, the top part, and also you can cut the whole head.
If you just cut one mm, then the total feeling will be very different.

You will not feel it's the same as before.



Recently, I saw several blades made from a new brand.
They are well known global brand, and they were really great in all details, let alone good designs in all things.
But regarding blades, I could not say that they would be successful.
Because they cut the head size only as they wanted to show.
It looks nice, very comfortable handle, and fashionable.
But the feeling of that blade was not so promising.
I could tell it only by looking at the head size.

Lots of European brand thinks of head size as a brand identity.
They stick to their own head size and style.
They try to keep that size as their character.
But in the end..... most of promising blades are becoming short term fad.
They can not survive in the long term.
I'm really sorry for this.
I do want to say that blade's head size is not abour brand identity at all.
It should be related with each blade's function and character.

Ok, here I will give some basic rule you can easily agree on.



1. Smaller head results it....

(1) bigger vibration.

(2) hard and focusing feeling

(3) more agilgity

(4) good for close-to-the- table shots

(5) bad play away from the table

(6) unstability with big and slow movement

(7) good for short and fast movement (still not much stable)



2. Bigger head results in....

(Normally, there are few blades with bigger head size, except for defensive blades.
So, I don't think I need to write about this.
But I will just try to give some information.
Any way, lots of Chinese blades are bigger than normal other country's blades.)

(1) hollow feeling in a bad way

(2) bigger vibration than modest blade, (but less than smaller head size, I guess)

(3) uncomfortable swing movement

(4) easy control and stability, but not agile


Actually, I know lots of Chinese companies, and most companis are making their blades the same size of Stiga blade. But they can not be the same. Because when they draw the head size of Stiga blade by using pencil on the paper, they naturally make most part slightly bigger than original one, specially round part, where pencil automatically moves in the bigger circle than the original blade.

If they had cut the same size as Stiga's one, then still they have some problem left. Because the handle size can not be the same with the orignal blade, so still they have some part uncomfortable.

Any way, I think there still exist wide gap between the original one and copied one, due to the sensitive character of blades.
Very small variation makes people feel widely different, that's table tennis.


By the way, from my experience, now I'm focusing on balance of each blade, whenever I design.
The balance means,

(1) weight between head and handle

(2) modest vibration

(3) good feeling

(4) overall weight balance, which is related with sweet spot


All those things are related with balance.

Due to these factors, I think most of Nexy blades are well balanced.
I've never heard of any criticism about wrong balance related with Nexy blades, and I think I will keep on doing this way.

the Second Wave for NEXY blade design.


If I can use he term "wave" for the designing work of Nexy, then I can categorize my nexy blades into two different waves.

The first wave's core topic was Hinoki surface.

I found out that Hinoki had lots of attractions, but most other brands did not know it how to maximize that good attraction harmonized with other traditional blade compositions.
If we select one traditional 5-ply or carbon contruction, and only change the surface from Limba or Koto to hinoki, then we can not make full use of Hinoki's good character.

So, I thought there could be some room that I can show how Nexy can be diferent from other brands.

It took 3 years to complete that study.

I released many kinds of Hinoki surface blades, and I loved all of them.
They are very characteristic in their own ways in all things.

Dexter : the fastest among 5-ply hinoky surface blades, without any artificial material.

Hannibal : smooth and well balanced hinoki carbon blades, good for short pimple out rubber attackers, too.

Oscar : well balanced, and very natural feeling, computerized blocking- very well organized arylate carbon blade.

Color : moderated 5-ply hinoki surface blade from Dexter. beautiful hamony in all things.

Iskandar, Temujin : Hinoki one-ply J-pens.



After releasing these hinoki surface blades...

I found out that I have to try something new.

And I started to move somewhere else.
That direction goes the other end of the road, where most other brands did not try.

After speed gluing banned, most global brands thought that they had to find out some blades faster and stronger.
So, they tried to find some material harder for the surface, and they made the blades thicker.
Or else, they release lots of new blades inserted with fast artificial layers.


But for me, I did not think that way.
If a blade become faster, it loses something in the other hand.
That could be spin or control.

Sepcially regarding spin, if we can energite more spin, it becomes more power and speed.
So, once we can make bigger spin on the ball, then the initial speed of a blade can not be mettered much.

Here comes the factor which changed my blade design concept from Hinoki material into some other direction.
That's how the second wave of nexy blade desing occur.



If I want to make more spin, then what will be the needed chracter of a blade?
It was quite simple.
Two factors.

The next generation blade should promise two things.

1. longer staying moment (guaranteeing good "bang impact")

2. embracing the ball into the blade (I will call it "embracing feeling")


Number 1 is simple factor. So you don't need more explanation.
But number 2 is not easy to understand. I'm not sure how to express that character in Englsih, either.

By the way, if I explain it by examples, then you can compare Koto surface and Limba surface.
Koto does not embrace the ball compared with Limba.
But most limba blades feel that they embrace the ball deep into their chest.

This feeling is very diferent from Hinoki surface.
Hinoki feeling does not relate to the inside of a blade.
It's sticky feeling stays only on the surface.
But embracing feeling means that blade seems to embrace the ball into it.

So, I tried to find the way to make bigger embracing feeling and longer staying moment.

The first result came out as SPEAR.
And my second result is about to come out as "LISSOM".


Lots of good players tested Lissom in Korea.

Their first response is being amazed by that embracing feeling, just like SPEAR.
And their second response is how this blade is that light.
It's because they are only 5.7mm.


Any way... I can not tell you all the secerts about LISSOM here.
But I think you will know what is the result of that second wave sooner or later.

Blade Structure and possible hitting area.

I think each blade has it's own character.
Every blade is different.
And it's not easy to say what character will be ideal for all the people.
So, I can not say that my specific blade is good for all the people.
But I can discriminate my blades that which is different from some other blades in what point.

Here it is.



If you look at the picture I drew in the upper space, you can see what's the difference between when you are close to the table and away from the table.
From this simple comparison, the difference seems not very wide.

But if I add some other factor, the angle of blade, then the difference becomes pretty wider.




If you look at the second picture, you will be fascinated.
if only you can come close to the table, and if only you can make wider angle with your wrinkle and blade, then the course of your ball can be extremly wider.

But there lies one trick.

If you want to make the ball goes that close to the net on the opponent's table, then the ball has to make a very high curve.
I mean if the ball goes only straight with big speed, then you can not make use of this attractive close to the net space, deadly weapon, because it passes through not touching the table, due to it's high speed.

So, I councluded that spinny but slow, with high curve ball has definately big power.
If the ball has high curve, then the ball goes high enough to go over the net, even though the shot was done close to the table, or even on the table, and if the ball has big spin and not very speedy, then the ball goes downward rapidly, making deadly painful attack onto the opponents' space.

Therefore, I always think how I can make that effect on some blades, and for some other blades how I can make longer trajectory, by which we can make the opponent stay away little by little, until he loses one point.

Bsically, these two good factors are not possible to be attainable in one blade.


I mean if a blade wants to have a powerful long trajectory, usually ball goes very high with steady height, and it's not possible to make a close to the net landing.

In the other hand, if a blade has so good spin and control, that we should make deadly short landing close to the net on the opponent's table, then it must not have very powerful long looping.

Therefore, people decide what they like.

Some people choose ALL blades.
Some others choose OFF blades.


For an example, among my blades, DEXTER has very long and powerful trajctory.
But color has very versatile ways.
Those two blades can be examplary for this theory.


By the way, I started to think that why these two factors can not be compatible?
Why do we have to choose one and discard the other?

That was the point I started to think about my "SECOND WAVE".

In the recent writing, I explained what is 'second wave' for nexy.
But it's not only about how to make a blade has embracing feelings.

I thought that I can separate the blade's function extremely different when we want to hit the ball with full power, from when we want to make it slow but spinny.
If must depend on the surface feelings.

If you hit the ball with full power, the ball goes deep into the bone of the blade, therefore, if I want to make the returning ball very powerful, then I had to prepare something very powerful inside.

On the contrary, if I want to make a ball very spinny, slow and controllable, when we hit the ball with care, then the blade has to keep very soft and embracing feeling on to the surface.



This is the core factor I kept until today, why I try to start "the second wave".

Now I'm waiting how people response to this chracter, which I maximized with Lissom.
I tried to make use of this character also with SPEAR, but spear seems little bit more honest.
But Lissom is very cunning.
It's mysterious chracter will make you laugh, or at least smile.

Please, check how you feel, and leave a reveiw!!

How I developed LABYRINTHOS


This is a production note of "Labyrinthos".
I wrote it in Korean first, so here I will try to translate it into Enlgish.
I hope this kind of translation will help your understanding of the whole concept about Labyrinthos, without losing any small part I wrote in Korean report.

I made up my mind to write something about Labyrinthos, for I think this blade deserves it quite a lot.

I think much about what NEXY means, and what it must mean.
If it's only about making something good, then it would not inevitably mean that it has to be NEXY.
Nexy has to keep somthing NEXY, and only then NEXY will survive as it is in the market, and also in the people's understandings, which is the only way to make it successful as a unique brand.

Besides it has to outgrow what is generally accepted "OK" in the global market, then I can make people believe that something good in Korean market can be also good in the international market.

Nexy must not copy or follow other brands in any form, even it's only about shape, and must not appeal for people with cheaper price only. As a beggining new brand, NEXY has to study all past products, but can not stay there, and has to exceed what others could not attain easily. It can only be unique and new, if it really wants to go further than somewhere others reached.

In this point, LABYRINTHOS remains very unique and ceative in many aspects.
In the beginning, it starts with unique location of a carbon layer.
I, as a nexy designer, tried to locate one carbon layer one third of the blade, and this is the fifth blade ever done as such with this one third location.
I will show other four blades in the below.

When I first designed this kind of OX blade, it was my main concern how to differentiate fore hand side from back hand side.
But this kind of structure is really hard to make. Here are the reasons.


1. Uncompatibilty on both sides : If we mix layers different on both sides, it's very likely to start to break off. I don't know the reason clearly, but it's not easy to make a blade with different structure on both sides. It easily start to take off in the middle.

2. Gluing durability : It's extremely difficult to glue and joint balsa wood together with carbon layer.
Balsa is very weak material, and if we try to glue and press, then it becomes dent and broken. So, this must be very sensitive and careful process to glue and joint balsa wood with carbon layer.


With these problems, I dared to try two blades. One is made by Tibhar, named "Musiro" and the other one is made by "Hallmark" and named "Sopoong".


<MUSIRO>





Due to it's difficulties to produce, I think other brand did not try to make something similiar to them, even though those blades were really big success in Korean market.
I think other brand would not succeed in gluing balsa wood on one thin carbon layer.
Actually, from those Musiro and Sopoong, some blades became defect due to those factors.

Any way, after those two blades, still I thought I need to make up for some more power. And that's how I made MILARGE by Tibhar.

MILARGE added one more Limba layers on both sides of MUSIRO. And it has been know as good powerful OX blade in Korea until now. I think if I had made this blade with one Limba on back hand side, then it would have been more successful in the market, but that would be almost the same blade as today's Labyrinthos.

<MILARGE>





After these three blades released in the market, there happened a big change in OX market.
ITTF expelled too much slippery rubbers, (which rubbers are coated with plastic sealings) and OX players could not much rely on OX's variations as they did.

As the change makes OX players lose big shaking effects from their OX rubbers, I thought it would be great if I could make faster but more attacking OX blade timely.
That's how I designed Nexy's first OX blade, IKARUS.

IKARUS has the same location of one carbon layer as other 3 blades; one third in the middle, but is focuses on quick and easier movement. I don't think it has a big market, because OX attackers are not easy to meet everyday, but I knew that many people will try to become more attacking with their OX blades, due to the change.


<LIKARUS>




Owing to it's attacking character, many customers asked me to produce CS handle for Ikarus.
Normally, CS players prefer thin blade, because the blade comes into fingers, but people wanted to play with Ikarus CS, whether it's thick or not. So, I cut it more adaptable for CS players, and made a new head shape and handle design. This CS blade is still poplular in Korean market until today.

<IKARUS CS>






While I made these 4 different blades, the final concern staying in me was how to differentiate fore hand side from back hand side, enough. It's not only about speed. It has to consider different function on both sides. On back hand side, I have to give big OX effect, but on the fore hand side, I need to give big power and spin. It's about how to maxmize it's attacking ability.

That's how I designed this labyrinthos' structure.
The location of one carbon layer is the same as before; one third in the middle.
But the balsa layer's thickness next to forehand side is thinner than for IKARUS, and you can feel the power of carbon layer more directly.
And the biggest difference is different materials for both sides.





As you can see from the above pictures, I used two layers of Limba on fore hand side, and one thin koto on back hand side.

I need to say some more about this koto surface. I found out that some people believe that KOTO is very soft material, but that's not true. KOTO is stiff and hard wood, but it can feel soft when we use it thin and mixed with soft structure. But it's not very soft in it's own character.

When I design OX blade, I think the best material for OX side must be hard wood. If not, then the impact of the ball can be absorbed into wood. The wooden layer needs to react to rubber column directly, and the whole cushion of the ball will fall on the column, then we can maximise the OX effect.

In it's aspect, I think next time I might use TEAK for OX blade's back hand side.

Any way, I used KOTO for back hand side of Labyrinthos for this reason. I use think KOTO, by which I can make the feeling smooth, and give more stability on blocking, while I keep big effect on OX rubber side. And it's also very important to modulate an OX blade bigger, because bigger size give more stability for blocking and heavier weight which is also needed for comfortable blocking.

Regarding fore hand side, I used two LIMBA layers. I tested and studied LIMBA deeply when I designed SPEAR. Limba is generally known for it's embrasing feeling, but I tried to make it powerful spin generator when I designed SPEAR.

For an example, you can see that STIGA used LIMBA for it's offensive classic, because they thought it has good atttacking character, but I treid to give more power on SPEAR, by changing the basic idea about a blade from STIGA's offensive classic.

Any way, SPEAR is not OX blade, so I will not go further about it.



Any how, I came to realise that LIMBA can be different when we mix it with different wood structure than generally accepted form. I tested it when I designed MILARGE, and I was sure that two layers of LIMBA can be very good for powerful attacking, specially when I joint them with balsa wood.

It does not look special, but still I can not find any other blade using two LIMBA layers for the surface. Maybe this can be used for another blade concept next time for Nexy.


Let's say some more about blade shape and design.

(You are not bored yet, are you?)

I tried many different shapes before. If you look at Musiro and Milarge, you will know that they seem to be little more rectangle than Labyrinthos' roundish face. I thought this rectangle face can gaurantee better control for blocking. But it can not be effective for playing close to the net.

When you play low with your wrist down, then you can touch the table surface with your blade's edge easily and also it can be dull in some way for the play on the table.

But also I can not make small size head, just the same as normal attacking blade, because then I will lose stability needed for an OX blade.


Therefore, for this general OX players' balde, Labyrinthos, I had to design on the shape with much special care. After many tests, I decided not to change the blade shape much different from normal blade, but just to make it bigger.
The generally accepted shape has been being tested by time, and I think this egg shape head is very ideal for most blades. But I had to make it bigger than normal attacking blade.


And that's how I decided it as 155 x 165mm.

This size guarantees decent combination of attacking and blocking. It's also the same size for LISSOM special version. I studied much about size when I designed that LISSOM special version, too.

Regarding handles, I treid to make people very comfortable when they grip it deep.
So, it will be good for you to hit the ball with better and direct feeling, when you grip the blade deeper.



By the way, naming was also very funny work. I tired to make it very representative of it's uniqueness, and also be humourous. At least, people will like it when they really want to let the other player feel lost in the "labyrinthos".



Now I finish the production note for Nexy's Labyrinthos.

Let me add just one thing. In order to celebrate this new blade, now I'm giving one CHAOS rubber for free, when you buy a Labyrinthos. (http://nexy.com/shop/step1.php?number=1199)
"Chaos" was released only with 0.5mm sponge first time, but recently, I released OX version, too.







These sponges used for 0.5mm and 1.0mm are non-elastic sponges. They absorb the impact of the ball, and I hope you can make the returning ball short, close to the net on your opponent's table.

And if you want to attack with that side, then the ball goes deep onto the surface wood, so you will not lose any power from non- elastic function.

CHAOS ox version is also good rubber. I think it's not perfect for all players, but there could be some people who would like it very much. So, please, test it with Labyrinthos.

I believe this Labyrinthos will be selling as long as NEXY survives the market.

Test it, and you will love it.

This is a movie clip done by Korean tester using LABYRINTHOS.
I hope you can see how Labyrinthos works.
He used Tenergy 05 on his forehand side, and Feint 2 on his back hand side.

Congratulations, Nexy, you've found your way into this forum. There may be a fine line separating information from advertising, but if there is, you've certainly turned it into a zigzag. No problem as far as I'm concerned. I've been reading your posts above, and want to read them again. For one thing, I like them, not just because they are very informing as to woods and construction, but there is poetry in them, at least to my ear. Lots of feeling, lots of love. I'm a romantic. Still, there's also an unmistakable echo of lots of money - to be made. Being a romantic, I'm not sufficiently a realist to appreciate this in the same way, though I will of course acknowledge a manufacturer has to make a living off what he is manufacturing. But what finally took me in was the way you write about making - and shaping - blades with a player's specific needs in mind. That is rare and, to me at least, extremely sympathetic. It is also extremely shrewd, I guess, for marketing semi-custom-made blades is probably the only way to break into the existing market of mass-produced blades. Fascinating stuff. Please, do go on...

_________________
Without opponent, no match.

I agree completely! It's great and fascinating to read this.

Note that we (mods) recommended that nexy post this material in the blades section (as opposed to the retailer section), so that more people will see it, as I think it's highly informative for our members.

If you enjoy reading this material, I'd encourage you to post here and say so, which will hopefully encourage nexy to continue writing

_________________
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
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Kees,

Thank you very much.
I'm relieved now to know that there are people welcoming my writings here.

Whenever I write something here, I'm afriad of my poor English's possible disrupting expressions.
I keep writing even though I'm not sure if my writing makes sense or not, but this always makes me unsure about my writings.
So, your comment makes me really feel complimented.

I will try more to share more about what I do.

Thank you again.

Long time no writing.

I feel sorry for not coming here often to write.
Any way, it does not mean that I'm not working.

Here I attach one image file.
This is a new blade called "calix"
This will be 5.5mm thick carbon blade.
I will continue to equip this blade with deep embracing touch, even though thin (and also with carbon layer) blade is not easy to get that deep impact feeling.

And I will try to make the feeling of returning ball heavy.
In many cases, if a blade is think and light, the returning ball is not much powerful, even though it can be fast.
But I think if I continue to equip this blade with deep impact feeling, then the returning ball can be fast and also heavy.

My test will be finished around next month...but the whole process will take more than 3 months.
So, Calix will come out many months later.
But I wish I could be lucky, then I will be able to find the best composition and size sooner than that 3 months.

I will report more later.

Regarding Calix, I'm now checking TEAK wood for the surface. But Teak seems not easy to use. It's very oily, and not easy to cut nice.

I'm thinking I need to test another wood.
I have two woods in my mind. One is African Mahogany, and the other one is Aromatic coder.
Mahogany has been used for other blades, but Aromatic coder is very new.

I will give more details about these surface woods later on.

WHAT happens when we make a big looping shot on our racket?

This is the topic I planned to write quite a long time ago, but I could not start until today.
I'm not a professional player, but I've been playing more than 20 years, and also I sometimes play with top players in Korea.
Besides, I had several chances to participate in Junior players training camps in Germany and Hungary, and I could have many chances to see how many players are playing in their own ways.

Basically, Korean players are always asked to make powerful shots.
They are not allowed to send back their ball with clumsy but steady way.
Even though they can lose one point, still they are expected to return it with big power and speed.
And from Korean players, I could learn how to make "Bang Impact".


("Bang Impact" is the term I made up with, in order to explain more about blade and rubbers. When you make "Bang Impact", the ball goes into the very wood through the rubber, and you can hear the sound coming from the impact on that wooden surface. It needs quick swing movement together with good angle and deep touch of the ball into the racket.)


And from European players, I could learn how they can handle their rackets that many ways, and how they can be steadily in all strokes.

I think some time later, I can write another report about the differances between Korea and Europe, and some useful information about Chinese training system.


By the way, regarding today's topic....

Many people believe that when we hit a ball with our racket, and if we want to make a good top-spin shot (looping), then we need to make a ball roll on the rubber as much longer as possible.
We might picture that the ball is rolling on the rubber, and we try to make it the moment of rolling longer as much as we can.





This is the way most begginners and even some good players believe how we can make looping.
But just think more about it.
When we swing the racket, this racket is meeting the ball coming into itselt.
And the racket has a rubber and blade which are made to hit the ball with big speed.
So, the idea that the ball can roll on the rubber is really not possible.
If it stays in the rubber, that can not be rolling.
That can be a moment when the ball goes deep into the rubber, and get bounced off, and leave the rubber with quick movement.

So, I can say this way.
The ball does not roll on the rubber.
The ball is rather stabbed into the rubber reaching as much deep as it can , and then get kicked out by rubbers big energy which focus on it's original shape.

Here is another picture by which you can understand better what I meant.








Actually, this bang impact is not only for some professional players.
Most loopings are happenning as the picture shows. But top players can make the ball goes deeper, even to the wooden surface.

If you start to understand these two pictures, then you would know why I focus on this "bang impact".
My blades' general purpose is to give you bigger chances for this bang impact.


I think many people will have some questions about these two pictures.
I'm not sure I can give right answer to all those questions, but I will wait for those questions.
And I will write more about this relating to my next blades, if I find some more topics from those questions.