OOAK Table Tennis Forum

How much better is a REALLY expensive blade than a cheaper one?

I've seen some blades for £200 - £300
How much better would such a blade be than a lower end blade costing less than £35, say?

Just wondering (not thinking of buying the expensive one!)

Thanks


OM

As long as the cheaper blade is of reasonable quality (eg a £35 blade would usually fit into that category) the expensive blade is not 'better' at all - they just cost more. Once you practice a lot and your game starts to take shape then you can choose which blade suits your game. Most top players I know don't have ridiculously expensive blades.

Beware the words of the EJ boogeyman

He's not totally wrong, but it does come down to the feel you like, the particular blade you like and to some degree your style. You can't just lump expensive blades and cheaper blades all in a box each and say one box is like this and one box is like that. Each blade needs to be taken on its own merits. More expensive blades tend to have better quality materials in them (along with a good helping of better quality marketing which helps get the price up ). But you can't define how good a blade is simply by price.

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I think the point is start cheap and by the time you have some idea of what 'feels' right you'd have spent a small fortune, anyway. I think we all have our stories of why we 'ended' up with the bat we're currently using and, for me, it started with a A$30 pre-made bat (Donic 600) to my current A$200+ Andro Hinoki/Zylon with Hexer HDs. And in between I've probably spent about A$300. So, where I stand now I've spent almost A$600 on bats, but I don't regret any of that money spent.

So, my advice is start reasonaly cheap. 35 pounds sounds about right for something decent.

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lol - I did stress 'of reasonable quality' and that 'Once you practice a lot and your game starts to take shape then you can choose which blade suits your game'. Don't make the EJ boogyman's job any harder Reb!

I've bought a lot of blades. A lot of duplicate blades too, though I think geko is ahead of me here.
(Less than a few here though, I suspect they are well into the 5 figure mark... speedy/hookshot...)

Two things strike me.

1) Expensive blades aren't more consistent from blade to blade.

2) There is a reason why cheap blades are cheap.

I've seen expensive blades that vary by 10g. I've seen expensive blades that were very light and very hard, very heavy and very soft and everything in between. I've even seen expensive blades with dodgy plies that have a nice gradient - 0.4mm on one side, 0.6mm on the other (Butterfly...). I've seen expensive blades that feel great... and the next one felt terrible.

I've also see all of the above on cheap blades.

One thing I've never had on an expensive blade though, is the neck fall apart from a table impact. I've seen these on numerous cheap blades. I've seen cheap blades have their plies delaminate and separate after a hit (I've seen this one an expensive blade too, but that was more of a design fault than anything). I've even seen cheap blades of the same model with different wood.

My 2nd favourite blade is a cheap $15 blade.

My favourite? Well, that one was $150.

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I think what the more expensive blades usually have better quality materials and better quality control. The higher quality materials you might not appareciate until you become a high level player. The quality control means there is less variation between blades, so yours will be very similar to someone else who bought one, or very similar to the next one you buy. The properties will be well defined. If there is poor quality control, which is more commonly found among the cheaper blades (fair enough as quality control costs real money), there could be large variation from one bat to another.

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thanks for all the replies
i am not an expert in blades (hence all my questions)
but surely there *must* be magic dust ingredients that are present in the £300 blades that are missing in the £35 ones?


well tell us all what this is then...?

question: is there a table that shows what the top ten players use for their own blades?

actually another thing, something that would be useful for new buyers: should you *avoid* endorsed blades?
my thinking is that there will be an *exact* same model, not endorsed that is the *same*?
does that apply with ALL makes and models? or do the manufacturers make specific ones per endorsement?? surely not?

I'm not in the 5-figure range of blade purchases yet, but certainly well past 4-figures!

In my limited experience, it seems that more expensive blades seem to have a little better craftsmanship. That is, the edges are cut more cleanly, the handle is well made, and on some (depending on the company) the sharp edges around the handle have been sanded smooth. But none of that can be said to always be true across all manufacturers.

However, the biggest difference I see with more expensive blades has to do with marketing and packaging! Some of the manufacturers like Xiom and Andro probably spend more on the boxes than the total cost of a cheaper Chinese blade which, if lucky, comes in a plastic form-molded container at best.

 

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Endorsed blades,,,,,Chances are, the handle will be the same but the blade itself might be made specifically for the player. The top players know exactly what they want and if a manufacturer can get someone to endorse one of thier blades, they are not past making a "Special" blade that "looks" like thier model.

A mixture of better craftsmanship, material, QC, marketing, and player endorsement. So, in general, a Zylon or Carbon blade costs more than an all-wood. A Butterfly blade costs more than a Yasaka. A Timo Boll blade costs more than a Stiga-something blade. These are the general rules, but there are exceptions: the Yasaka Ma Lin Extra Offensive, for example, despite being fairly cheap is one of the best all-wood blades ever made, and is (arguably) better than any all-wood made by Butterfly.

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ok i have spent a lot of money on blades this year

BTY
Cypress-S JPen
Mitzutani ZLC
TB ZLC
IF ZLF
Senkoh 90

Xiom
Athena Platinum RSM Special
Zetro Quad
V1 Quad
Strato
Axelo
Offensive S
Allround S

Avalox
P500
P700
BT550

Nittaku
Tenor
Violin

OSP
Expert ALL+
Virtuoso+

Killerspin Diamond CQ

there are many more that i have. feel free to ask if you would like to purchase.

the ones i like are:
BTY Cypress-S JPen
Xiom RSM Special JPen

BTY TB ZLC
BTY MJ ZLC
BTY Senkoh 90
Xiom Zetro Quad

i have found that the expensive blades are better in general but not necessarily. my Zetro Quad costed half the price of my ZLCs and plays better for my game, so it does come down to personal preference.
i find it more rewarding to spend my money on coaching and table fees and spend less time on equipment. i have finally stopped EJing.

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Butterfly Cypress-S
RSM Special Platinum
Senkoh 90
Spin Art, T05, T64, Grip-S, Neo H3, Rakza 7, Nittaku & Xiom rubbers

Galaxy 961. I think it's now called N11 or something.
I eventually snapped it at the throat. Only done that to two blades so far, the other was a Stiga.





Depends on who they are I guess. A quick perusal of bty jpn shows that half of them use custom made blades.

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whats 'bty jpn'?
custom made blades? i.e. blades that you can go and buy?
so does that mean the other half use endorsed blades?
for example timo boll use ma lin endorsed blade?
he probably used his own endorsed blades i assume?
how about players out of the top 20 - do any of them use higher ranking player endorsed blades?

Convenient list of what the pros use linked to in this thread: viewtopic.php?t=17289

I don't think you should get too worked about this - you will learn about equipment organically as your skill level improves. The Timo Boll series of blades made by Butterfly ('bty jpn' is Butterfly Japan), for example, is undoubtedly the most popular series of blades in the world. Many professionals use a Timo Boll blade.

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