OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Hi everyone,

I am new here. A Japanese penhold player. I'm looking in buying a new blade and rubber. Because I am in Australia, I find the selection is rather small for penhold blades. I read that hinoki is a fast offensive blade so I'm keen to buy/try one. My style of playing is chopping (defensive) and attacking whenever is possible with FH.

I narrow down to 3, darker speed 9mm , nittaku ruforal 9mm and tuttle blutenkirsche 10mm. I searched through the forum. Nittaku reforal seems to have a good review and the price is the cheapest of all 3. I also read that darker makes good quality blade as well, although I haven't read any review of its penhold blade. I am not sure about tuttle blutenskirsche. I haven't found any review online. Anyone can comment?

The OOAK shop (Based in Adelaide) has 1 ply Hinoki Jpen blades for sale. https://tabletennisshop.com.au/index.ph ... ts_id=2079
I use a shake hand darker speed 90 and it is excellent, cant comment about darker Jpen blades unfortunately. Darker as a rule make good quality blades.

Thank you. It gives me confidence on the darker blade.

Yes, OOAK shop is the only authorised retailer of darker in Australia. That's the penhold blade I have found online. I am tempting with the Nittaku reforal because it is a round shape in stock. I think OOAK shop could import me with a round one but it might take a while with the post atm. I wish i have the cash to try them all.

The mentality for the past 30 years or so is that Square Head = Drive/Loop
Round Head = Fast Attack/Short Pips
but a better way of looking at it in modern play is Round Head = Slightly faster arm speed and reaction time and arm speed has certainly been a huge factor during the 40+ ball era.
I wouldn't dismiss round head