OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I thought the Sanwei M8 was the cheapest blade out there but I was wrong..

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32853332764.html



Guo Yuehua, by, the way, played penhold.

At the bottom of the ad you'll see a bunch of other cheap blades. I can't vouch for any other than the M8 - tempted to try one or two but the desire to try different equipment is pretty low these days.

Iskandar

Hi Iskander,

I have a few cheap composite blades from eacheng and other sources. I don't like them. To me, a quality blade needs to play evenly all around the blade face. IE: a good sweet-spot. It's difficult to find blades like this as that requires quality woods and quality gluing. Thickness also affects it but not as much as you would think. I find blades with a thinner core better than blades with a thicker core, balsa excepted. I highly recommend that you test your blades for this attribute, as this greatly affects consistency, accuracy and confidence in your play. Unfortunately it's difficult to find blades like this that aren't 10mm off+++ carbon monsters. Also I find that even the expensive big brand blades can be very poor in this area in many cases, so you often don't get what you pay for - at least going by my own criteria of what makes a good blade.

I'm done testing blades. I've found what I like (the Sanwei M8) after trying a bunch of them, and I don't feel like there's any need to try others. If I ever get around to buying any of the blades mentioned above it'll be because they cost peanuts and I'd just want to see what they feel like because they cost peanuts (the M8 also costs peanuts and I like it better than the high priced Hinoki blades I've tried and the moderately priced Stiga Allround Classic). I wouldn't put them through any extensive testing, I'd just slap some rubber on and play with them a short while. Unless I actually find one that I think feels better than the M8.

Iskandar