OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Think think will be legal?:
https://www.sciencealert.com/new-super- ... than-steel

Unfortunately it says the wood is compressed "80%". So your typical 6mm thick blade will end up weighing 280 grams.

Iskandar

I don't see why not. There's already varnished wood, heat treated wood, and i'm sure some are resin impregnated wood. No reason why compacted/pressure treated would not be allowed.

If the wood is compressed - the cells collapsed - then the playing characteristics of the material will be significantly changed. It's the structure of the cells in wood which allow it to resonate, bend, vibrate, etc. Compress it and game over.

There is a rule that disallows reconstituted wood like chipboard.. I don't think this stuff is counts as reconstituted, if it's not it would be legal to use. But, as I said, a blade of normal thickness made of this stuff would be way too heavy. Maybe if they used it for thin face plies, or made a blade 2mm thick, it might work. Maybe we could have blades that actually DO flex rather than blades that only feel like they do..

Iskandar

I provided reasonable and easy to follow arguments. It was hopeless.

Actually, this reminds me.. Daiso was selling bamboo cutting boards, about 8mm thick, and about the right size for a bat. I was thinking of cutting a blade out of it and adding handles - until I weighed it.

Iskandar

Thank you so much. I appreciate the effort you've gone to - all the time and hard work, not to mention research, money and other resources. However, just as a matter of interest, what the hell are you talking about?

Oh, now I see why my post bothered you. I'm sorry.
Sorry, I was replying to iskandar taib who, just above my post, said:
He is referring to the old argument always simmering below the surface here about whether or not blades flex, and if they do flex whether or not it is enough to matter, and if they do flex enough to matter, what is the effect.

If you haven't heard about that lately it might be because everyone gave up. So, that emoji above is, let's say, brilliantly mischievous, and my reply to him meant: "Sorry, I'm done with that".

Process works to partially remove lignin and hemicellulose from the material.
So weight is not the same as simply compressing untreated wood. Since it is
12 times stronger than natural wood you would only need a thin light layer.
Either thin core of superwood with softer outer plys or soft inner layer with hard superwood outer.
Question is since 85% of the blade by thickness must be of natural wood, would
blade made only of superwood be legal? Am thinking probably not.

Am sure Butterfly will find a way to take advantage of this supercheap material.

I don't think just the superwood would be legal, but there's no reason it can't make up some of the layers... not sure if it would offer advantages over other composite materials though.

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What usually happens when something new comes out is that everyone gets excited over it. People start making blades, people post stuff, eventually it "sticks" or it doesn't. Carbon, zylon and vectran stuck, Kevlar (aramid) and basalt fibers did not. Glass fiber is sort of still used, but very few blades use it. Remember how much posting there was about basalt? People were waxing poetic over it. There's one or two custom makers that still use it (I think), and Yinhe might still make those five and seven ply blades everyone was so excited about a few years ago. But I'll bet few remember what was so great about basalt fibers today. The only fiber reinforcement that seems to have escaped this was UHMWPE/Spectra/Dyneema (the stuff you find in Spiderwire fishing line) - not sure why, perhaps because it might not be available as layup-friendly cloth (IIRC it repels resins - you have to treat it specially with a plasma to get stuff to stick to it). One of the big uses for Spectra (and aramids, and zylon for a short while was bulletproof vests, so woven cloth does exist. The problem, I think, is a lot of these reinforcing fibers pretty much do the same thing when used in table tennis blades - there probably isn't much difference in characteristics between aramid, vectran (arylate) and zylon when it comes to what they do to/in table tennis blades, though there may be quite a few differences in other uses.

So this "superwood" will likely find it's way into some commercial blades, whether it actually proves useful is another matter.

Iskandar