OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Carbon effect without carbon?

Well, that's yet to be seen, but that was the idea behind this blade. A friend wanted to see if I could achieve the rigidity and speed of carbon in an all-wood blade. Using the same small blade shape as the one above, this one is a straight handle 5-ply of alaskan yellow cedar - ipe - balsa - ipe - alaskan yellow cedar. The handle is pacific yew. Ipe is one of the hardest woods on earth (janka 3680) and it's incredibly rigid, but it is quite heavy. However, this blade came in at a svelte 82g.

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Ross
Handcrafted Table Tennis Blades

i think ive finally got a name for the blade i received from Ross, its a toss up between "Pocket Rocket" , " Trampoline" and Gauss( Cannon), and just for the fun of it "Red Devil"( United Fan) because both rubbers are red

( it would have been more of a red devil if the blade was red allround or perhaps a red dyed balsa core )

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my youtube channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/decoyla?feature=mhum

Main: / secondary / LP
Blade: DHS Hurricane hao/ Blade- Hurricane Hao 2
FH: Skyline 3(Blue Sponge)/ FH- Nittaku H3 pro
BH: Omega Asia/ BH- Calibra Tour H

Great suggestions, and given my engineering background, Gauss sounds great to me. So, Gauss it is! Thanks, my friend.

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Ross
Handcrafted Table Tennis Blades

Looks like you found a use for some of the leftover veneer (and looks like the same template too! ) I'd say once you get to Bloodwood and up on the janka scale, the speed and rigidity definitely rival carbon.

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Custom Blade 'Hard Justice' w/ Yasaka Cobalt a
Tatco Hornet w/ ATP Leland Era

The shape was designed from scratch. It is slightly larger than your Tibhar blade. But, dude, you let the cat out of the bag for the observant!

[Edit: Actually, it probably is close in size to your Tibhar. When I compared the two templates, I had forgotten that I had reduced the Tibhar-based one to account for the edge banding, which I didn't use on these last two blades.]

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Ross
Handcrafted Table Tennis Blades

What, with that leftover Alaskan Yellow Cedar you said you had lying around?

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Custom Blade 'Hard Justice' w/ Yasaka Cobalt a
Tatco Hornet w/ ATP Leland Era

Oh..., yes, exactly.

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Ross
Handcrafted Table Tennis Blades

When will you know if you have succeeded? Have you bounced a ball or two? Initial impressions? Come on, don't hold out on us here. We want to know!

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"So long, and thanks for all the fish
So sad that it should come to this" Sung by the dolphins in The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy

I just finished sealing the blade yesterday, and my impatient friend who commissioned it picked it up later that evening. He was going to give it a try sometime today, but no word yet. A quick bounce test with no rubbers against his Bty Mizutani Jun seemed to indicate that it would be a bit slower, but the non-linear response of the balsa core may bring it up some in aggressive play. That is, if he hit through to the balsa with that dang ipe in the way. Both blades had about the same balance, but the Mizutani had about 8g on my blade. I hope to get a report tomorrow.

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Ross
Handcrafted Table Tennis Blades

Hi all,
I'm the happy recipient of Ross's new blade.

I have a chance to play with the Butterfly Mizutani Jun and was quite impressed by the blade. The playing characteristic of this blade is the soft feel with explosive speed. I was playing with Tenergy 05FX on the backhand and Tenergy 05 on the forehand. I have no problem looping against backspin. Counter forehand loop at mid-range is effortless.

After playing with this great blade, I discussed with Ross to see if he can make a blade similar in the feel and speed of the Mizutani.

In 3 days, he came up with the blade using his new prototype shape. The handle, the blade size and the balance is very
close to the Mizutani. Of course the composition is very much different. To make a comparison, I put the same tenergy rubber on the new blade.

I have played with this new blade for about 10 hours in 3 practice sessions and I'm very impressed with it. My coach even tried it and he has nothing but praise.

It has the same soft feel as the Mizutani as well as the speed. This blade is even better suited for me than the Mizutani because in terms of speed, as this blade is a little slower than Mizutani (still a fast blade). I'm able to block more consistently and my loop against backspin is even better. I do have to generate more blade speed myself if I'm off the table at mid-range.

Overall I'm happy with this blade.

Anthony

Yeah, I think those really hard woods do resemble carbon as much as wood can; none of them are quite as stiff and all are quite a bit heavier, but that balsa core offset the heaviness for you without too much of a speed trade-off it sounds. It's about as close as you can get to carbon effect without the carbon I bet (unless trying a different non-wood material!).

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Custom Blade 'Hard Justice' w/ Yasaka Cobalt a
Tatco Hornet w/ ATP Leland Era

Hi, Ross, after reading all 4 pages of this thread, there is not even a single one about a J-pen. Perhaps it is time to give it a consideration ?

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Expert II crwi C-Pen
Red Acuda P1

ive bought one off Ross , and its BEAST . Full review viewtopic.php?f=43&t=15011

pictures scroll down past the half way mark viewtopic.php?f=43&t=11969&start=90 it is now called "Gauss"

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my youtube channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/decoyla?feature=mhum

Main: / secondary / LP
Blade: DHS Hurricane hao/ Blade- Hurricane Hao 2
FH: Skyline 3(Blue Sponge)/ FH- Nittaku H3 pro
BH: Omega Asia/ BH- Calibra Tour H

ive bought one off Ross , and its BEAST . Full review viewtopic.php?f=43&t=15011

pictures scroll down past the half way mark viewtopic.php?f=43&t=11969&start=90 it is now called "Gauss"

_________________
my youtube channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/decoyla?feature=mhum

Main: / secondary / LP
Blade: DHS Hurricane hao/ Blade- Hurricane Hao 2
FH: Skyline 3(Blue Sponge)/ FH- Nittaku H3 pro
BH: Omega Asia/ BH- Calibra Tour H

Congrats Anthony, Looks like Ross has hit another one out of the park.
Thomas