OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I'm also wondering the same thing. I sealed both my Defplay blades, but if the VKM isn't prone to splintering I may skip sealing to keep the soft feel.

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Blade: Victas Koji Matsushita FL
FH: Xiom Vega Japan Max
BH: TSP P1-R 1.0mm
USATT Rating: 2013

I sealed my VKM with TSP racket coating (as I do with all my blades) before using it. I have never had any problems with splintering, damaged wood, and so on, which I think could occur more easily with soft blades than with hard blades. I can assure you that VKM still felt soft enough after the sealing, I don't think sealing changes the hardness feel of wood drastically (if at all). Just out of curiosity, what rubbers are you going to mount on it?

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I agree... just a single thin layer is not going to affect the feel at all.

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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

Thanks, I'll give it a single coat then. FLII 0.5 will be on the pips side and for the fh I might try Rhyzm as I'm pretty familiar with that on the ALL+ blades I've used as a looper.

I was playing on BH Re-Impact Barrath blade earlier with Vic 402 DE on . I liked the feel of this rubber on this blade. Very lively, whether blocking, pushing or looping and hitting. The combination produced the power that was not too catapulting, and I had that nice comfortable feeling.

On reading about VKM, I ordered this blade and transferred my favorite Vic 402 DE to it. FH is still Giant Dragon Talon. Result is quite different. Not that I can't play with it, rather I still play decent games. But it gives a "dead" feel especially on the Vic rubber. The blade was thinly sealed by the supplier.

Please, experienced VKM players, do enlighten me the reason for about this dead feel. thank you.

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Spin Lord First Strike: FH G Dtec ox, BH Golden Arch 8, 2.15mm

Of course the result is different. Those blades are day and night. Barath is a very thick and very light blade with a Balsa core. Such a blade will indeed be very lively at larger impact (hitting, driving) but at the same time slow on slower shots. If you like that kind of blades, it will be perfect for (disturbing) blocks with OX and hitting with INV. VKM is a thin large-sized defensive allround blade with normal wood layers. Can be a nice blade for chopping and looping. So, I guess you will have to spend a lot of time to adjust. But why did you want to change in the first place?

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Probably this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugi

Yeah, they're related - both cause hay fever! Lots of both planted after WWII, to be used as lumber, but they lost out to cheaper imported wood so there are lots of mature forests now, adding to the hay fever...

Lots of conifers have the same look when reduced to quarter-cut veneer, since they all have high density, dark annual rings.

Iskandar

Eh? I thought it was the other way around. I've heard others say on this forum that balsa blades are very lively at low impact but lose power (due to "short dwell time" - whatever that means...) when used back from the table, where I assume you'd be hitting the ball harder.

Iskandar

Pipsy wrote:

1. Of course the result is different. Those blades are day and night. Barath is a very thick and very light blade with a Balsa core. Such a blade will indeed be very lively at larger impact (hitting, driving) but at the same time slow on slower shots. If you like that kind of blades, it will be perfect for (disturbing) blocks with OX and hitting with INV.

Yes you are Absolutely right. That is what I thought so, just want to know if there is different opinion from those with good understanding of VKM.

2. But why did you want to change in the first place?

Well, I am in the path of learning the defender game. But I never try any chopping blade, so playing with VKM(almost bought a Donic Defplay senso) is both a lesson and adventuring to me.

Thank you for your good reply.

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Spin Lord First Strike: FH G Dtec ox, BH Golden Arch 8, 2.15mm

I spent 45 minutes tonight hitting with the VKM. Mine is 92g and I put on one coat of minwax wipe-on polyurethane to seal the blade yesterday. The bh rubber was a new sheet of FLII 0.5 while the fh was an old sheet of Stiga Airoc soft 1.9 (about two months old I think).

Disclaimer: I'm new to chopping and defending in general but have been playing tt seriously for 10 years and for an adult beginner reached a modest level (usatt 1400, intermediate roughly) as an offensive looper.

First impressions: yes it's soft and pretty dead and numb feeling. Really quite slow, much slower than the ALL+ blade I was using as a looper (BBC Ramin Cross). The Xiom Aigis I had been using for the past month or so was I think a bit slower. Moderately flexible, less so than the Aigis though. The handle is wide but narrow so compared to the Aigis it felt a little small but nothing I couldn't get used to. The total weight of the set up was 173g, so on the light side, but it felt quite head heavy.

The 45 minutes was spent with a local pen hold player who has pretty spinny and strong loops. Blocking was very easy, not a problem to keep blocks low and to redirect them even against very spinny loops. Looping/counter looping is not the strength of this blade so naturally it wasn't very good but it wasn't terrible. I felt the Aigis was actually a bit worse in terms of looping. The thing that really amazed me though was the feel on chops, it was really incredible. The control over chops was amazing. I just started chopping with lps a few months ago and I think even in casual training my rate of landing chops on the table is about 50%. Tonight I was around 80 or 90% and I felt much more confident chopping with the pips than I did with the Aigis (also with FLII). Overall I was pretty impressed with it, I wish I could have stayed longer and kept chopping but tragically had a work obligation tonight!

Well that's it, I'm pretty happy with it overall just have to find a good fh rubber now.

SOunds like it's working well for you David.Bernstein, thank you sharing!

Yes you might just need a faster & more lively forehand rubber to compensate for the slower blade. I know people use Tenergy or German Tensors with success...I guess it depends on how much you which to chop with your forehand and the control you need.

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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

I was going to try pretty much the identical combination, only using dtecs OX instead of Talon, so I'm very interested to hear your experience. If the 402 feels rather dead, the 401 will probably feel even more dead.
I think Pipsy pretty much nailed it to answer your question.

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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

Yes Pipsy did answer or rather confirmed my doubt. My question was actually a probing stone into the pond seeking for some ripple that would enlighten me more.

That dead feel of VKM had caused me to stay with the Re-Impact Barract during my short one month stay in Adelaide last October. It was a good stay, as I participated in the Spring competition in a East Adelaide Club, winning all except one match throughout the stay. And beaten the same player that I lost in the competition twice, later outside the competition.

Only regret I did not have the opportunity of meeting up and play with an VIP in this forum

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Spin Lord First Strike: FH G Dtec ox, BH Golden Arch 8, 2.15mm

Had a longer session last night with the VKM. Same impressions as originally but I did also feel (as someone earlier on this thread mentioned) that it seems faster and spinner on brush loops than on flat hits. The sheet of Airoc I have on it now is old, I'll try it with a new sheet of Rhyzm later this week and see how that goes.

Finally was able to try out Rhyzm on the VKM last night, max thickness, regular version. The combo was certainly fast and spinny enough for all types of fh attacking. I didn't chop with it so can't comment on that. Quite heavy though. If it works out I might try the 2.0 thickness to see if that cuts down the weight a little.