OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Some of you may well remember to legendary global journey of the MKC (Modified Kreanga Carbon blade) famously documented on the MYTT website. See link:

http://mytt.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13773&PN=31#607188

Well, a new era with a new secret blade-weapon has begun. Are you ready for a new adventure?

A mighty blade has already already been selected for the ‘Fellowship of the Blade’. Hewn from the most powerful logs and forged in the vice by a mighty blade-craftsman, it will journey, blaze tables, destroy nets, chisel edges, melt rubbers and roundly defeat all opponents who stand it its way.

The only question is will you be playing with the mighty blade or will you be playing against it? The choice is yours.

To enlist in the ‘Fellowship of the blade’ you must swear an oath to protect the blade, review the blade and forward the blade!

What say you?
Who will join the band of merry TTers in this quest?

See here for more details:
http://mytabletennis.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=48929&PN=1#607290

*Well, almost free . . . it would only require shipping to the next stop.

_________________
Kong Linghui Special
Hexer
Hexer

I'm always up for a new journey:)
How many elves, hobbits, and Warriors are to be chosen?

_________________
-Teddy

Testing- Valor American Chopper FH: Juic 999 turbo 2.0 BH: Bomb talent ox
Defense- Donic Defplay senso FH: Globe 999t 38 deg BH: P1r ox (currently)
Attack - Jack Miller Custom FH: Tenergy 05 2.1 BH: octopus ox

For those who don't know me . . . I am Tommy Zai the Lord and Overseer of North America's Fellowship of the Blade journey. Seahorse is the one and only for the Australian and New Zealand empires. The journey will begin soon. We hope many will join. I can promise this . . .

The blade will be the fastest blade ever created, using mysterious plies
The blade will be the most beautiful blade the world has ever seen
The blade will have magical properties beyond your imagination
The blade will become the most famous weapon in middle earth, the underworld, and possibly in Heaven
The blade will unite all table tennis players and forums . . . in peace!

Don't miss this opportunity!

Tzai

_________________
Tommy Zai
Ross Leidy Custom Blade
FH: Mark V/2.0/Black tuned with Euci Oil
BH: A variety of LPs in Red. Any suggestions for most reversal?

All brave and honourable souls are welcome for the quest to protect middle stadium!

_________________
Kong Linghui Special
Hexer
Hexer

Three Blades for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Blade to rule them all, One Blade to find them,
One Blade to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

_________________

Weapon 1: Andro Kinetic Supreme Hinoki/Zylon OFF-; Andro Hexer HDs (FH 2.1/BH 1.9)
Weapon 2: Ross Leidy 'Smokey'; Friendship 729-5s
Club1: Daylesford - since 2010
Club2: Ballarat - since 2011
Blog: A Naked Bear

Seahorse will keep OOAK informed.
For more details visit the MYTT palace:
http://mytabletennis.net/forum/forum_po ... PID=607193

Last time, we united MYTT Forum . . .

http://mytt.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ... =31#607188

This time, we unite the entire table tennis world.

Coming soon . . .

Fellowship of the Blade

You know the man behind the wood - Ross Leidy! Do not disturb him as he is busy forging the fastest, deadliest weapon. Would you dare hold it in your hands and wield it's might against your opponent? It just may be your destiny!

_________________
Tommy Zai
Ross Leidy Custom Blade
FH: Mark V/2.0/Black tuned with Euci Oil
BH: A variety of LPs in Red. Any suggestions for most reversal?

Are you in, brother of the blade?

_________________
Kong Linghui Special
Hexer
Hexer

BOOM!

The Storms have just hit Melbourne!

_________________
Kong Linghui Special
Hexer
Hexer

With OOAK Members in . . .
The Fellowship is unstoppable!

_________________
Tommy Zai
Ross Leidy Custom Blade
FH: Mark V/2.0/Black tuned with Euci Oil
BH: A variety of LPs in Red. Any suggestions for most reversal?

T-Shirts commemorating this year's FOTB are now going up for sale.
Whether you're participating in the actual journey of these blades or not doesn't matter - we can all use some extra tees to sweat in as we play our beloved game.

—

Based on your (forum members) input, these 3 shirts got the most votes and will be made available to order:







I'll have them made on an ultra-soft, ultra-comfy premium quality T-shirt, that feels like you’ve owned it for years the moment you put it on.
A poly-Cotton blend construction with extra durable rib neckband.
The price per shirt is: $12.00 USD.

To order shirts, please do it as follows:

1. Write me an email at: FOTB (at) recou.com with your order information:

What Shirt(s) do you want:
Version 1 (Red with Light Blue Print)
Version 2 (Medium Blue with Dark Blue Print)
Version 3 (Charcoal Gray with Black Print)

What Size(s) do you want:
Small (Chest Width 18" / 46 cm - Body Length 29" / 74 cm)
Medium (Chest Width 20" / 51 cm - Body Length 30" / 76 cm)
Large (Chest Width 22" / 56 cm - Body Length 31" / 79 cm)
X-Large (Chest Width 24" / 61 cm - Body Length 32" / 81 cm)
XX-Large (Chest Width 26" / 66 cm - Body Length 33" / 84 cm)

How many do you want:
Quantity - let me know how many you want of each shirt, in each size.

Your information:
MYTT/OOAK Name:_____________________________________
First Name:_____________________________________________
Last Name:_____________________________________________

Your Shipping Address:
Street:__________________________________________________
City:____________________________________________________
Zip / Postal Code:_______________________________________
State / Province:________________________________________
Country:________________________________________________


2. Email me your order by Friday, July 27th at the latest.

3. I will then email you back with a total (including shipping) and information on how to pay.

—

Once I've received all the orders, I will have the shirts produced and then shipped out. All orders should be able to be delivered by the middle of August.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at the same email account listed for putting in orders.

Thanks,
Rene (Pondus).

For the people that haven't seen this shirt graphic before, here's an 'up-close' image of what it looks like:

Very cool! I hope more OOAK members get involved and wield the blade . . . wearing the shirt. .

_________________
Tommy Zai
Ross Leidy Custom Blade
FH: Mark V/2.0/Black tuned with Euci Oil
BH: A variety of LPs in Red. Any suggestions for most reversal?

The adventure of Fellowship of the Blades – Storm of Jupiter in East Java, Indonesia.
Part One

Thursday.
The packaged was delivered to my house but I didn’t get the chance to open it until Friday morning.

Friday morning.
The SOJ was revealed and I was quite impressed with the craftsmanship of the blade.
I took pictures of the blade and here they are:

SOJ with signatures from the maker, Ross Leidy; and the members who had tried it: Seahorse, Cstrybos, Yogi_bear, and Peter79.



Here’s the side of the blade, very nicely done and quite symmetrical in thickness on the first and second plies.



A shot of the wing section.



When it got to me the blade already bore some (using Tommy’s words) “battle scars” on it.




If you didn’t look closely before, you could roll back up and watch carefully on the wing section picture and see something wrong on the blade.

The long and hard journey around the world had started to show on the blade.
I was wary whether the mishaps would affect the performance of the blade.

Friday afternoon.
I glued up the rubbers on the SOJ.
For the test I put Hurricane 3 Provincial and Tenergy 05 FX on the blade.
I figure I would try it and see whether it would play better with Chinese and/or Japane rubbers.
Here’s a shot of the blade while being pressed-down after the glue job.



Friday night.
Went to one of the oldest and renowned table tennis club in town.
There are 7 tables on the club, 2 with air conditioning.



Saturday night.
Went to one of the city famous universities’ table tennis club.
The place is used by university’s students and also Indonesian Table Tennis Forum members.
Not too good a place and tables but still get the job done.



And as it happened, member Tobhik who mentioned earlier on mytt that he wanted to be added on the list, also present that night and tried the blade as well.
I assume that he would write his comment of the blade on his own later when he’s back on mytt.

It was during this night that the blade accumulated another battle scar.
Here’s the photo of the damage:



Sunday morning.
I went to another one of the oldest and famous table tennis club in town.
They started with just a few tables and over the year the membership grew.
They now have ten tables altogether.
Here’s the additional/newer section of five tables:



Here’s the main section of five tables.



In the afternoon I finally took the rubbers off and signed it.



I offered to fix the blade and clean it up after I used it, but was told to leave the blade alone as is.
They wanted to preserve the blade in as is condition with the battle scars and such.

For appreciation of all the hardships the blade has endured so far, I took it out to dinner.
If the maker, Ross, were to be here I would have taken him out to dinner as well.
As such, I told my wife I’m taking her out to dinner.
She was quite happy since I wasn’t around for dinner for the last two nights getting busy with SOJ.
Well, she was happy until I took out the SOJ and put it on the table and took picture of the blade with the food, at which time she wised up.



No trouble in paradise, though, because I offered to give her a massage as soon as we got home.
As it turned out, it’s a win-win all around. Yeah!

Monday.
Packed and ready to go.
Here’s a final shot at the shipping company’s counter.
Packed it in sturdy cardboard box to better safeguard it.



So long SOJ, it was a great time having you around.
I’ll be waiting for your sibling to make its way around here.
May your journey prove to be long and adventurous.
The force be with you!

_________________
Hurricane Lover

Table Tennis Directory

The adventure of Fellowship of the Blades – Storm of Jupiter in East Java, Indonesia.
Part Two

The blade is quite light at 86gr. The ST handle is very comfortable for me.
No problem whatsoever when gluing. The rubbers got firmly attached to the blade just fine.
It's a quite fast blade. I'd say in the Off range category.
I was a bit wary about the problems with the blade as noted above at first, but turned out I was worrying too much. I didn’t feel any of the condition of the blade affecting the playability of the blade.
Throw is a bit high. H3P and T05FX have a high throw but on the blade it seems even higher than usual when hitting and blocking. No problems with some adjustments, though.
It's quite hard and stiff. For some reason it quite feels like a 7 plies blade (perhaps due to it being stiffer than usual 5 ply blades) and like composite blade at times, such as HK3. The blade vibrates a bit, not as rough as dhs blades (although close to it) and not as smooth as violin/acoustic blades. While using H3P the blade vibration could be felt a bit more compared to the T05FX side.
I use H3P on the forehand and usually the speed is rather slow on 5 ply all wood blades, but on SOJ the speed got knocked up a notch. On T05FX side, it feels too bouncy. Harder to make short serves and chops. Just about all of my chops goes long, but not too worry because the under spin on it wasn't compromised. It helps when I play away from the table, the ball easily travels the distance and still has the load of spins even away from the table doing chops and sidespin lobs.
On looping, the spin is great, dwell time is still very good. Due to it being rather stiff, it favors slow loop less but still not bad. Looping is fast with lots of spin. Counter looping is great as well. Opening loops could be done with ease on both forehand and backhand.
On hitting/smashing, no complain here either. I do less hitting nowadays favoring loop on both sides and occasional smashes with the backhand. Smashing is fast as well on the T05FX. But there’s just something on smashing that didn’t seat altogether well with me. The feeling just a tad different. But this is nitpicking. Nothing to big off a deal.
In retrospect I should have had put on Hexer/Hexer HD on instead of T05FX since I play better with them. I chose the T05FX because I thought that T05FX would be a more popular choice and more people can relate to it more compared to Hexer/HD.
Overall I think this blade plays great near to medium distance from the table. As far as function, it’s still is more of a looper’s than hitting’s blade, well, at least for me, even given the rather hard and stiffer feel compared to 5 ply looper’s blades.

Here’s what I hear from several other players from the three clubs I went to commenting on the blade: very nice, great control, nice feel, spinny (good dwell time, has lots of spin), vibrates, fast. Some even asked whether it has carbon. Not one gave me a negative comment. Well, actually one did concerning the vibration of the blade being too much, but he is one of those who dislike blade vibration very much. The players were varied from beginner to advance level. Two of them being instructors, and one of frequent champion in the city’s tournaments and sometime other region’s as well.

In short here’s my summation in points.

Plus:
- Great design and finish
- Fast (enough) with great control
- Very good performance in just about all aspects

Minus: (these here are my personal preference)
- Could do with a little bit less rough vibration
- Could be a little bit softer
- Could be a little bit more flexible
- A bit pricey for playing blade

Overall I like it very much. I could settle to a blade like this and be happy. When I started playing with the blade it gave a homey feeling like I’ve been playing with it for quite some time already, thus giving me the confidence and familiarity. The great design is a big plus! Not many if at all can make such a great looking blade and have the blade to be highly functional in many aspects. Kudos to Ross!

_________________
Hurricane Lover

Table Tennis Directory