OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Doesn't look too much like pine, but it does look a lot like spruce. I suppose if it's good quality old growth spruce it might play like Hinoki...

Iskandar

A TT blade is not exactly a big piece of wood. Other than exotics like kiso hinoki or rare hardwoods pretty much any regular wood (eg. north american cedar/cypress/spruce) can be had for that price, even if it's musical grade for that straight 1-ply grain.

Even hinoki isn't as rare as all that. Apparently, after the war, the Japanese government planted huge stands of hinoki (to replace what was used up during the war) in anticipation of need for when the economy was starting up again. But these forests were left unused because importing cheap wood from South East Asia was cheaper. (Most of this wood, in the form of plywood, was used to make frames for casting concrete..) Apparently these hinoki forests are one major source of pollen for those who suffer from hay fever in Japan!

At least this blade was cut with the annual rings in the right direction...

Iskandar

Well, the sort of old growth or perfect pitch/grain whatever they use for the high end blades is probably pretty rare. IMO not rare enough to justify ridiculous >>100usd prices, or else a plank of it would be >5k. I mean, they charge significantly more for 10mm vs 9mm blades; that's preposterous.

Yeah, to get the grain in the right direction, the log has to be quarter-sawn, and there's a lot of wastage (of pieces where the growth rings aren't exactly normal to the blade). I'm sure they sell off the "not quite right" wood for other purposes - maybe it's sliced into veneer to be used in multi-ply blades, or it gets turned into pencils or humidors or flooring.

Iskandar

I looked into this somewhat and apparently the "Satiga" blades seem to be made by this OEM. Quite funny some seem to have a hologram to verify their authenticity. All the blades listed on their ali page are just samples (it's printed right on the blade), but since they're being sold anyway I might just get the Hinoki-spruce-ayous 6mm.

In any case, all the affordable/value "cypress" blades in china (incl these guys) now seem to be some Canadian variety, prolly one of the cedars; same family as hinoki. Retail ~150rmb ($30) for perfect cuts down to 30rmb (~5usd) for slanted grain & discolored. If you're looking for spruce, their sample #111/112 are j-pen spruce 9mm; probably really fast.

Got the 31.

Supposed to be like the NCT rosewood.
Came in shrink wrap, like yinhe blades. Looks like someone just sealed the blade, instead of NCT. But again, I've never seen NCT, so take it for what it's worth. The printing is completely different; different brand, even; apparently, it's by donoco, which looks a bit like donic.

EDIT: the noise is extremely loud and high pitched, even more than the 729 hinoki dynasty carbon, for those who used it.

I suspect that the infamous HRT/Huarite "brand" uses these guys or at least someone similar. If reviews/pics of their blades are any indication, the surface layers tend to be thicker than whatever they're trying to copy and the blade somewhat thicker overall (like 6.2mm of the RW/Ebony HRT vs 5.8mm of the Stiga) so it's faster.

"donoco" looks akin to the more ubiquitous "satiga" blades which I believe are also OEM from these guys as mentioned above.

ROFL. They copycatted the NCT logo at least...

From the Stiga website:



Iskandar

Do any of you all know if it is actually NCT, or just a sealing?
I've never seen an NCT blade.

Nct is just fancy marketing language. That said this doesn't have Nct.

Hoo boy. I wonder if ANY of this stuff is for real:

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/group/T ... 082/1.html

That $14.99 Korbel - there's NINE PAGES of people who bought it. And I'll betcha I know who made these blades.... Or at least, I have one really good candidate. On page three there's a statement from the seller admitting it's fake BUT IT'S GOOD! Still, at that price, might be worth a squirt..

Iskandar

My personal take is that the counterfeits are often no more similar to the original than any other similar blade.

For example, that OEM has a sample 1-ply cypress SH in 8.5/9/10mm, and there's a "Butterfly" (may be spelled slightly off) SH that I'm pretty sure comes from the same place of same price and unknown thickness. I'd rather get the known quantity than take my chances with the latter.

Same for the fake Hurricane Hao I got ripped off on (so did few of my clubmates, they use same holograms, etc). It's not a bad blade per se, but similar Yinhe's cost less and are more of a known quantity.

The blades may be usable but based on that sheet of fake Tenergy I got the rubber's probably useless. Even for a beginner. Yeah, there's no guarantee these "Korbel" blades are anything like the real item. But they may be OK (maybe even good) blades. I'm tempted to get one but then again I don't have a real Korbel to compare it with, and those OEM blades sound more interesting.

Since I posted last night the "Korbel" has been put on sale - 15% off, it's now $12.74. Just noticed a "Primorac" - 16% off, it's now $12.59. And a "Viscaria" for $25.49 (based on the photos it really does have "carbon-arylate" layers (though who knows what it really is made of!) in the blade.

Now, if I had to choose one.. which one would I get?? What's better - a fake Korbel or a fake Primorac?

Iskandar