OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I have a customer that MUST HAVE a balsa core, light, blade with a lot of spin with the 40+ balls. I suggested Blk Limba, koto, balsa, koto, blk limba. He said that wouldn't work (have no idea why he 'knows' that) but he has not come up with a wood combo.

Do any of you know of a wood combo with a balsa core, for SPIN? (Sorry I have worked very little with balsa cores) Most of my balsa blades have had Limba or birch outers.

_________________
Ratt Factory "ghost" (oversize kiri, balsa, kiri) innova UL/ Tibhar Grass D.tecs
Ratt Factory "mouse" (mahogany, kiri, kiri, kiri, mahogany) T05/ giant dragon talon
Tibhar Furious/ juic 999/ Tibhar Grass D.Tecs
Yasaka balsa plus/ RITC 837/ RITC 755 (friendship)
Newgy 1040 robot

Just shows the customer is not always right. Balsa is not good for highest spin in my opinion as the balsa tends to be stiff along the grain direction and does not easily make a looping blade with helpful flex.
If I had to make one because of the customer's demand I would bury the balsa deep by making the balsa core quite thin and run the core balsa grain across the blade not lengthwise. This would be a seven ply with normal lengthwise grain on the outer plies.

_________________
OSP Ultimate cpen
Acuda S1 Turbo
Hallmark Phoenix ox

That is pretty much what I was thinking as far as the grain of the core. But he can't seem to come up with a wood he wants for the other plys. Open for suggestion

_________________
Ratt Factory "ghost" (oversize kiri, balsa, kiri) innova UL/ Tibhar Grass D.tecs
Ratt Factory "mouse" (mahogany, kiri, kiri, kiri, mahogany) T05/ giant dragon talon
Tibhar Furious/ juic 999/ Tibhar Grass D.Tecs
Yasaka balsa plus/ RITC 837/ RITC 755 (friendship)
Newgy 1040 robot

The first balsa blade I ever made had two layers of that 1/64" (0.4mm) 3 ply birch you can buy at model airplane stores. The core was 3/16" balsa. I didn't have access to a scroll saw or bandsaw at the time so everything was cut out with a hobby knife and it looked really crude. As I recall, it was relatively slow and had a fair amount of spin. I've been thinking of making another one and have the materials on hand.

Iskandar

Thinking about this some more. Some options:

1) Make the core and blade thin.
2) Use very thin outer plies.
3) Use fiberglass under the outer plies (like the TSP balsa blades do). This will strengthen the blade if it's thin.
4) If you're worried about "stiffness along the grain", then put the balsa core's grain sideways.
5) Or use end grain balsa like TSP does (it's not hard to find, though the thinnest you'll get is usually 1/4" thick).

Iskandar

We ended up making a balsa ply wood core. One sheet vertical and two sheets horizontal I used black Limba for the outters He is happy with it. I made the grip from kiri with a walnut outer ply so the center of the grip is a fancy brown framed wit the cream colored kiri. He is using T25 FX on it. I tried it, got great spiny servers but it was too fast for me. I needed a table that was about 6" longer...

_________________
Ratt Factory "ghost" (oversize kiri, balsa, kiri) innova UL/ Tibhar Grass D.tecs
Ratt Factory "mouse" (mahogany, kiri, kiri, kiri, mahogany) T05/ giant dragon talon
Tibhar Furious/ juic 999/ Tibhar Grass D.Tecs
Yasaka balsa plus/ RITC 837/ RITC 755 (friendship)
Newgy 1040 robot