OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Do you think that a knot on the outer ply of a blade is acceptable?
See below in the picture. It's not a bad knot, but do you think it will affect play?

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I doubt it will affect play but doesn't show great quality control, would expect better from Stiga.

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If it was in the middle, I'd be more concerned. Still an interesting question. Maybe one of our blade builders can weigh in on how a wood ply with a knot compares to a normal, consistent, knotless ply.

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I know that in premade bats knots are very common, so they obviously use a lower grade of wood.

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Building my own blade, I would not use that piece of wood. I would be disappointed if I paid for a blade with a knot. From a lot of carving and wood working, I know most knots are harder than the rest of the wood.

The position of that knot would rarely be hit but it would probably be something I would keep thinking about. I doubt you could tell if it hit the knot area but why pay for it when 99% of blades don't have knots?

The wood of the knot is harder and may come loose over time making that area somewhat inconsistent. On the other hand, the location is definitely out of the area you ususally would cover while playing so it wouldn't affect the usual character of the blade and you'll hardly notice a difference between a perfect blade and this one.
Is it acceptable? For a blade in the lower price range yes, in my opinion, but you still should ask for some rebate. Major brand with prices of $40 and up to the moon, no, at least not without a huuuge rebate.

Another issue I am thinking of is, if they allow a knot on the visible area, how's the quality on the invisible (while hidden) layers?
On the other hand, there's no guarantee that a perfect looking blade doesn't have issues on the inner layers. But the eyes are easy to trick anyway, the ears are better quality-metres, even a few hertz difference will be noticed.

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While all of the above probably is true, I have never noticed any difference in play between wood with knots, skewed grains, fish scales, ...

You know, after looking at quite a few photos of TSP Regalis mounted on rackets, I'm amused by how unconcerned we are about the HUGE area taken up by the ID strip on the rubber sheets we use, yet are worried about that tiny knot... I personally would have no reservations using that blade, though I too would want a discount... On the other hand.. if it happened that that particular blade was 79 grams and the others in stock were 85, I'd take it without hesitation, discount or no discount. Can't say I can recall seeing a knot on any of my Chinese blades (though I really should go over all those M8s with a fine-toothed comb just to be sure.. The M8 is the epitomy of cheap blades, and I would expect defects - I do see quite a bit of variation in thickness and weight.).

Iskandar