OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Hi.

Im seeking a blade that is SLOW and hard/stiff at the same time. I dont like vibration, so no flexible blades

Im a LP ox player

What can you recommend?

Kind regards
Evander

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RE-IMPACT BARATH
SpinLord Stachelfeuer OX
Andro HD 2,0
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Both hardness and stiffness add rebound to the ball. One of the few ways to make a stiff blade slow is to make the outer surface softer.
It's possible you might look for blades that have a super thin hard wood layer on the outside and then something very soft just below it. There are a few blades made with cork layers under the surface which slow things down but they are not hard blades, Kokutaku Blocker RX comes to mind, it has very soft outer, seems to be willow with cork below that.

Hate to say, but what you look for is nearly impossible, like asking for a hot ice cube.

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OSP Ultimate cpen
Acuda S1 Turbo
Hallmark Phoenix ox

Yes I know its hard to find but I think that S&T Firestarter wood is pretty hard and stiff and somewhat slow

And mabye some thin balsa woods also. Does anyone know some?

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RE-IMPACT BARATH
SpinLord Stachelfeuer OX
Andro HD 2,0
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TSP balsa 3mm? Or was it 3.5mm? These use end-grain balsa and fibreglass. Talk about lightweight, though, if you put OX pips on one...

Iskandar

Well, you're using the Re-Impact Barath... I think thats about as good as you can do, although I've not used it.

Like Fleetwood said, there is always a give/take between speed and hardness/stiffness. You need to ultimately find the speed you want and be happy with the throw and reversal it produces. Some of the best pushblockers/chopblockers in the world use less-stiff blades, but their strokes are tuned to the angle changes needed to produce the balls they want.

But I too find it hard to always find that middle ground between speed/throw/reversal/braking effect . In my experience slower almost always means higher throw and more dwell. Faster almost always means stiffer, lower throw, but less braking effect.

And balsa, I dislike how they are not linear, but I'm starting to see why people have compromised with this attribute when using them for pushing/blocking/chop blocking.

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Blog: "Holy Chtchet!" ⇝

Projects: Player Equipment Grid ⇝ Comprehensive Thin Inverted Chopping Rubbers Grid ⇝ Please send me corrections or new submissions

One thing I am about to try is the cheap 309 chop blade.

It's 9ply but slower than most 9ply blades. I feel like it's softish on the outer later, but the blade itself is stiff...the overall result in pushing is low/medium throw. It's meant as a chopping blade (hence the name) but because of the 9 plys, it works well for OX blocking.

Might be a nice compromise, and it's very linear. I'm thinking slippery pips might counteract any added dwell due to the soft-ish outer plies ("Soft" relative to other outers, but certainly not soft).

I've always felt it was a dampening blade. So in a future experiment, I'm going to try a LP/MP setup on this, which will be Saviga V OX on the BH and 569 2.0mm MPs on the FH.

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Blog: "Holy Chtchet!" ⇝

Projects: Player Equipment Grid ⇝ Comprehensive Thin Inverted Chopping Rubbers Grid ⇝ Please send me corrections or new submissions

+1 to the TSP advice above. One additional option to consider is the TSP Classic Defense (the only TSP i have first hand knowledge about). It is stiff and hard and fairly slow but not SLOW.

It is rated DEF+ like my Friendship W-1. A lot less vibration from the TSP. In playing they were fairly similar on passive strokes, but the TSP was faster than the W-1 on active strokes, perhaps due to the balsa core (or perhaps the softer rubbers on the racket I tried).

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My blog of failures, etc., also containing equipment list at "resurrection" (referred to in a few of my early posts), and my current lineup
Rating in the middle/low range in the region.
Moderating the LP Attacking subforum in the Technique section.

Oh good grief... there's even a 2.5mm! I'd worry about breaking them. Anyhow, on Tabletennis11 there's a choice of 4 blades:

Black Balsa 3.0mm
http://www.tabletennis11.com/other_eng/ ... -balsa-3-0

Balsa 3.5mm
http://www.tabletennis11.com/other_eng/tsp-balsa-3-5

Balsa 2.5mm
http://www.tabletennis11.com/other_eng/tsp-balsa-2-5

Balsa Fitter 2.5mm
http://www.tabletennis11.com/other_eng/ ... fitter-2-5

NO idea how they compare, since I've never laid eyes on one, let alone played with one.. All for the same low price..




Iskandar

I have both the 3.5 Balsa Plus and the 8.5 Balsa Plus.
The outer plies are sort of medium hard wood.
The 3.5 is pretty slow, too light for my liking at only 67 grams, but fairly smooth on vibration.
The 8.5 is about as vibration free as you can find, but very fast.

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OSP Ultimate cpen
Acuda S1 Turbo
Hallmark Phoenix ox

those thinner TSP balsa blades really bend when the ball hits them,I`m using Black balsa 3.0 and I can actually feel it bending when I`m looping and it becomes slightly unpredictable.I also find too much rebound sometimes when blocking and pushing with the ox lp and I`m looking for an alternative for next season

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Tsp Black Balsa 3.0 Tenergy 05 1.9 388d ox black

Try Andro Fibercomp DEF

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My whole set-up costs less than a sheet of Butterfly Dignics

I've never used a fibercomp, but have heard good things.
I have used the s&t firestarter. A very good blade, imo.
Felt very smooth and good. I didn't notice any vibrations when playing.
Both the straight and flared handles are very comfortable.
I've moved on to the faster dominate blade, I needed the attacking power.

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"When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk."

I suppose it's worth mentioning that there's three or more thicknesses in between 3.5 and 8.5 (i.e. 4.5, 5, 5.5, 6.5, etc.).. And I think there's an even thicker one, if that is what you desire. I suppose the idea is that if you any particular blade too fast/slow there's always one slightly thicker/thinner for you to choose from.

I've also seen choppers (in particular, Richard Hicks) play with VERY thick (9-10mm) balsa blades.

Iskandar

Hallmark Aurora

It is worth noting that the number on those TSP blades does not specify the total blade thickness (2.5mm would be ridiculous, and 2.5 inches also. I had a very good blade - now stolen - which was almost 2.5 cm, but that is also very unusual...).

Still, the thinnest of them are among the thinnest I have seen (around 4-4.5mm, I think), so I'd also worry about possible damage.