OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I recently tried a bat which consisted of a custom blade, which I had heard off but never tried. Although the blade looked fantastic, and can even be purchased with the player's name on the handle, I did not think it played very well at all.

This got me thinking... can all wood craftsmen make good blades?

I suspect the answer is NO, because the skill and knowledge of making a blade with the right characteristics is quite seperate from the woodworking skills, and it's not a trivial skill to acquire. People that buy them often WANT to believe it's a great blade, because it looks good and it's unique, so they boast about it and tell others how great it is, but is it really?

There are new custom blade makers popping up all the time, and although I believe some make excellent blades, I also think that some make blades that just look good, but are not the best for playing, and for playability one could do much better buying a standard blade from a major brand at the faction of the price, and do a lot better.

What do you think?

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Just gluing random wood plies together won't make a good blade. On the other hand making blades isn't rocket science and most of the materials needed aren't hard to get (other than the mysterious "arylate"). And the makeup of blades isn't exactly secret. While the random woodworker might not be able to immediately make good blades​, it wouldn't take much research to begin making good blades.

Iskandar

Here we have some blade makers... Despite making them in the hundreds by now, they're not too good. Not sure what's holding them back. Probably satisfied with being good enough with not too much efforts.

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In Indonesia? Probably access to woods. If it's any indication, there are folks who make and sell model airplanes (for competition use) in Indonesia, they've been isolated for years and have come up with their own designs and competition classes. Not good by international standards (the richer province teams - JABAR in particular, but quite a few others now - import very, very expensive stuff from Ukraine to use at the PON) but makes use of what's regionally available and good enough for lower-class competitions. I suspect Indonesian blade makers are the same way - they have to use local woods, and probably don't have access to thin veneers and machinery for making their own very thin veneers. By the way, there are people who grow and cut balsa wood in Indonesia (and there are large plantations in Papua New Guinea), but they also need paulownia and obeche for cores. Importing stuff is very expensive (I'm asked to bring stuff - props, lines, rubber tubing, even filament tape - every time I go there). By the way meranti makes good face plies - that's what's on the N11. But you need to slice it down to 0.3-0.4mm. Yinhe has the equipment, small-time blademakers don't.

Iskandar

To answer your question: not all of them can. There are some very specific things to making a good blade that don’t apply to general woodworking.

As an amateur blade maker, I can attest that making a good blade is not rocket science but it's not easy either. It’s a lot of trial-and-error and lots of failures before you get better.

Another thing is that when making a blade specific for a player with a new compositions, there is no guarantee that the blade will be good in general or be good for the specific player. So the blade you tried might not be a good blade in general (appealing to a large amount of players) but might work for the specific player very well. There are so many variables that I find it hard to judge these situations objectively.

By making blades you acquire knowledge and can apply this knowledge to a certain degree, but sometimes I still get surprised (in a good or a bad way) when a blade is finished. Every new blade is a sort of ‘quest’ and sometimes you don’t reach the desired goal. My pile of test-blades hidden away somewhere in a cabinet keeps getting bigger and bigger .

About the choice between a handmade blade or a mass-produced blade:
Both processes produce good blades. For me personally handmade blades reach a higher level of quality than the mass-produced blades I have played with (but I have not spent 50 euro or more on a blade). Think of the OSP Virtuoso, still a great exemple for me. I don’t use it anymore because my own blade fits me better, but still a good exemple.

I think a good handmade blade is worth every penny. You pay for an honest product that the maker has spent a lot of time and energy on. Noone builds blade to become rich (good luck with that…) but because it’s their passion and they want to produce the best possible blade. (ofcourse I don’t know about every blade maker in the whole world, but this applies to me and I think it applies to most of them)

(For me personally, I am against expensive mass-produced blades. These blades probably cost a fraction to produce compared to the cost to produce a handmade blade, but still cost the same or even more in the shop. A big part of the budget goes to profit, transport costs, marketing, sponsored players who put their name on it but don’t actually use it, shop owners, … )


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For other people that would like to get into blade-making, the difficulty lies in different area's. The first things that pop in to mind are :
- acquiring material in usable sizes and small quantities (not every wood is available, not many sellers sell small quantities, shipping costs add up, ...)
- having the space and tools to produce a blade
- finding which process and which materials work for you (for exemple which type of glue, type of press, different woods, composites, ... )
- every little detail can matter and it's hard to compare (types of wood, type of glue, amount of pressure, composition of the blade and the handle, shape of the blade, the sound of the blade, ...)
- figuring out what the player wants and what he needs (these are not always the same…)
- funding your crazy hobby's (keeping track of all your costs is not very stimulating to keep going )
- finding something that makes your blades stand out from the rest (this is probably the hardest)

I've been making blades for a few years now (not full-time) and it's cool to see that every blade you make gets better, looks better, sounds better and gets easier to produce. But on the other hand the pile of old blades that aren't "that great anymore", bad blades or even unfinished/broken ones gets bigger and bigger.

I’m thankfull for the few people who have bought a blade and hope they are pleased with the result.

I think the ability to produce very thin veneers would be a major stumbling block to the average woodworker. Veneers are available from veneer suppliers but they're of a standard thickness, which is something like 1/20 inch, not really all that thin and not as thin as the outer plies often found on commercial blades.

Iskandar

Fantastic post MDP, thank for your input!

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Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide