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So proud to show my next blade's design file, INCA.

So, what is the verdict? Where is your review?

Thanks

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In progress...

I wrote about it at MyTT forum and will write more about it when the testers have their say about it. I wanted to be only brief about it so I do not make any think a certain way before trying. I was, however, very enthusiastic about it though. This and the Calix II could replace my TBS if something ever happened to it. I don't have to change my strokes a lot using either blade.

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I'm getting interested...

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So long time since I wrote something here.

At the moment, I'm studying at the graduate school, so, I'm pretty busy during the semester.

So, my all energy is only used on blade design, and I don't wirte much.

I found out there were many messages in my box unanswered, and I feel so sorry for this.



For about one year, I've been working on a new blade production concept.

This is to make use of nexy's first wave and second wave together into the third one.

I will utilize the knowledge of wood's characters I learned from nexy's first wave blades.



And the second wave taught me how to maxmize the gap between defense and offense in one blade.

After making three blades, CALIX, CALIX II, QABOD, I'm now pretty much absorbed in the functional outcome of burnt wooden material.

When I burn some wood, I can mak it light, and also create something different feelings on it.

And I leanred how to mix the maxmized gap effect with burnt materials' structure.



But one day, I thought that why I will lose the pure character of the wooden surface material,

while I chase after the big gap between defense and offense?

I started to divide the concept of surface and the center layers.



Regarding surface, I need to focus on the feelings and touch.

Regarding the layers beneath that surface, I need to think about nexy's original concept of the second wave, deep catching and embracing acceptance, and powerful bounce off afterwards.



So, that became the third wave.



Here I show one blade's design.

This is unique one, because it will carry Tibhar's brand.

But you will find a sentence saying that "Designed by Oscar".



This will adopt two process.

One is to burn, and another one is not to burn.

I already tested this with Amazon blade, and I came to realize that could be series of new blades' production concept.



I have below named blades being tested.



OZ

Peterpan

Inca (with Tibhar)

Arirang

Yarubo

Accra



I will write more per those baldes.



Thank you.





Oscar.

Thank you for keeping us up to date nexy! I always greatly enjoy reading your ideas and thought behind new blades, and it's also very educational!

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RESEARCH for post TUVALU

These days, I'm working on the next long pimple blade's design.
I know Tuvalu is very ideal, and I'm not sure whether I can make better one or not.
But still I can make something different from that one.

Here is my basic idea.

1. Handle design.
I will make handle different.
Maybe the handle size will become longer than current one.

2. Thickness
I want to make the thickness thinner.
Not sure I can make it better when it's thinner,
but I will try it.

Except for these things, I want to know what else I need to consider.
If you have any opinon, please let me know.
This will not mean that I will make the blade as asked and written in this forum,
but your opinons will be vey much appreciated and I will study them with care.


With thanks in advace, Oscar.

Nexy donated USD 10,000 to LNKM. (http://www.lnkm.org)

LNKM is an NGO, who helps North Korean people.
We donated that money, because they needed a truck and machine for digging wells in North Korea.
We will continue to donate money for their well projects.

http://youtu.be/6brKYwnhiyg

Fantastic.
tOD

These are the right ideas. For my personal preference the handle could become a little thicker too.
Concerning the thickness: gradually decrease the core until you obtain a blade which allows an efficient defence far from the table. It is not necessary that the blade becomes a true defender's weapon however one should not be lost in such a situation as it is with the actual model. As an additional benefit the control in blocking close to the table could increase. Finally you will be able to offer a Tuvalu Off (=> the actual model) and a Tuvalu All.

NEXY's third wave (1)

Happy new year, fellow people.
It's been a really long time since I wrote something about my blade design process.
There are much, too much to tell you, and I'm now prepared to pour all out to you.

First, there is one saying that IOC is now considering whether it would be ok to keep table tennis in Olympic or not. (I don't believe this is serious though.)
And the main reason for this idea is coming from Chinese continuous winning in some part, I heard.
Yes, it's true. After J.O. Waldner's resignation from world top ranker, China seems to have become undefeatable team, and that hurt table tennis in the end, until IOC calls for this idea of expelling table tennis out of olympic.

I made up my mind to start writing some stories about China and table tennis equiment, which will evoke many different perspectives among you.
So, now I need some more time for this continuous articles.

Any way, today's topic is about NEXY's next blades.
Here are the names for those third wave blades.

INCA (Designed by me, Oscar, but this is under Tibhar's production. And the brand name is Tibhar.)

PeterPan

Arirang

OZ

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What is the First and Second wave of NEXY?

Before starting to write about nexy's third wave, I need to clarify what were the first and the second ones.
The first wave was aiming to fill the lacking part of ideal blade concept from other brands.
Here are several ideas I was trying to fulfill.

Dexter : the fastest among 5-ply hinoky surface blades, without any artificial material.
So, the difference from other 5 ply wood blades were two fold.
(1) Japanese Hinoki surface fast 5 ply blade
(2) Trying to make a very fast blade only with wooden materials.

Hannibal : smooth and well balanced hinoki carbon blades, good for short pimple out rubber attackers, too.
This blade seems quite similiar to other brands' normal hinoki surface blades.
But compared with other blades, this blade was very smooth in the center wood,

and has very good feeling, as if it were made of only wooden materials.
So, the purpose of this blade was to make a Kiso Hinoki surface blade with carbon layer, as many other brands produce, but with very natural wooden feeling on it.

Oscar : well balanced, and very natural feeling, computerized blocking- very well organized arylate carbon blade.
This was aiming at feeling. In most other cases, arylate carbon blades have dull feeling,

but this one has to show good feeling and natural touch.

Color : moderated 5-ply hinoki surface blade from Dexter. beautiful hamony in all things.


When you see these blades, you can find also that many of them are using Hinoki wood on the surface, which was very common and popular surface wood for Korean people, but a little new to other country players, because Kiso Hinoki is now possible to get outside of Japan.
So, making blades with Kiso Hinoki surface was another big thing in the first wave blades.
Kiso Hinoki has a feeling of stickiness. When you play with it, you will feel different angle when you attack with it, specially when you try to make top spin and block.


After releasing many blades with 1st wave, Nexy started to show a little bit different trend from the 1st generation, which was called the second wave.
This second wave was aiming at big difference between defensive and offensive play.
When you hit the ball with power, then the ball has to feel the impact well and repelled with big power, but when you block the ball with care, the ball has to absorb the power, and fly with less power, and slowly.
So, the aim was to enlarge the gap between offensive play and defensive play.
I will not repeat all the details about it.
Any way, while I try to make this second wave blade, I came to know that burnt blade has good results matching the aim.
So, Calix, Calix 2 and Qabod came as burnt.

Regarding the second wave, here I'd like to rewrite the contents I wrote before.
If you already read this, you can skip the below.

--- What was written about the second wave -----------
Nexy's second wave started from the idea that ideal blades need to have big gap between the speed when it is used for blocking and the speed when it is making big powerful and spinny shots.
So, I tried many different blade compositions to get this goal done.
Among blades designed on the basis of this second wave goal (Lissom, Spear, Calix, Spartacus), Calix was a really amazing blade.
With Calix, you can feel the balls' deep touch inside the wooden surface through it's rubber, when you try to make a powerful shot.
On the contrary, when you block your opponent's powerful shot, then calix's 5mm thin blade absorb the impact of the opponent's ball.
This quality is coming from it's thin thickness and hard character together.
But if some other brand tries to make a blade very thin and hard, then it definately will have small spin, and bouncy feelings.
So, there must be a reason for Calix's conspicuous feature, how it can exert this big speed gap within it's 5mm thin thickness.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

To sum up, the first wave was a trail to make NEXY better from other brands, and the second wave was to make NEXY different from other brands.
So, with the first wave, NEXY started to stand out, but in the same place where other brands are standing, but with the second wave, NEXY rose up high in the very remote place, where other brands did not even try to get access, even though players will not feel that difference this big.

Any way, after finishing Calix II and Qabod, I found out that NEXY has to start something new again.
The answer was clear.
I knew what to do more.
The hint came from "AMAZON", which used materials burnt and not burnt together.

When I designed 'AMAZON' blade, I used "burnt" ayous in the center wood.
Ayous is good material, but I did not like it much as a center wood.
Because Ayous is not light, and the feeling is little bit dull and artificial.
So, I tried many different thickness of Ayous wood, when I used that as a core layer for the second wave blades.
I prepared many different thickness, and found out it has to be 0.5 ~ 0.7mm thick, when I want to make the effect as a second wave blades, and also they have to be used for the second layer material.

Ayous is very interesting wood.
When it's thick, the feeling is like a thick bread. It absorbs the impact inwardly.
And when it repells the ball, the feeling is not coming from the whole space, but from one point, where ball got struck.
Therefore, I did not think I need to use thick ayous for the second layer, when I want to maxmise the gap between offense and defense plays.

And when I designed AMAZON blade, I started to think like, what else if I use burnt ayous?



When a wooden layers are burnt, then they become very different in many ways.
Of course they are lighter, and also their feeling is very different.
When I use burnt wood, I expect them to vibrate less, and the thickness become thinner.
You might think when a wood layer is burnt, then they vibrate more than before, but generally, wood layer become shrank, thus lose vibration.
And I loved this result.

So, I tested burnt ayous for Amazon blade.
I used it 1.5mm thick, which is almost double than the other second wave blades' ayous layers.
So, I can say I tried to maxmize the thickness of Ayous as a second layer I can use.
If I used 1.5mm thick Ayous without burning it, then the feeling would have become very dull, and speed would have been much slower, but AMAZON's final speed and feeling were good, due to the burnt ayous.

And AMAZON was very good blade.
I don't know what to say about it, with my limited vocabulary, but I would say that AMAZON is just like what I wanted.
It has steady and stable feeling, with the thick ayous layer on it's second layer, and gives very good feeling.

And little by little, I came to wonder, what about using "THICK AYOUS" on the center wood?

Actually, many brands are using Ayous as their center wood, but I did not like tha idea.
But I thought I could try one, if I use them after burning process.
So, that was the moment I came to think about "nexy's third wave".

(I will write more later.)

second article about "the third wave"


What people don't know about blade design will be the main role of the surface layer.

Each year, many brands are trying to show something new, and fancy surface.

Because they know that changing the outlook is powerful weapon to attract people.



But the actual functional change does not lie on the surface much, in many cases.

There are certain differences.

But what I want to say is that many brands who are changing their blades' surfaces per each year don't rely on the surface a lot.

There are several group of surface woods, which are very similiar to each others.



For an example, mahogani, walnut, white ach, koto, ebony, rose wood.... you name it.

All those hard wood layers are not very different from each other.

Their main purpose is related with protection and artistic value.



All those hard wooden surfaces are good to protect the blade, and good to manufature,

because they are hard enough to cut very thin.



If we cut soft wood very thin, then it would be too much fragile, so we can not cut them very thin.

But those hard wood can be cut very thin, still strong enough to cover the blade with stabitlity.

And also those woods have good outlook.



But there are some problems.

When we use them thick, such as thicker than 0.7mm, then most blades will become dull and slow.



I remember one person tried to advise me not to pretend that white ash is good wood material for a blade.

And I could not agree with him.

I could not agree with him, because it's not 100% true.

But still he was some percentage true.



If I used white ash thick on the blade surface, such as Amazon and Lissom, then those blades would have become very dull and slow.

Because those hard wood absobs all the effect I tried to get under it's cover.



Thick hard wood covers not only the surface, but also the fuction attained beneath.



But I'm not saying that hard wood have no difference at all.



They do differ when they are cut thin.

When they are cut thin, then they differ from each other.

But the difference is not very big when I compare soft wood materila, such as Limba and Hinoki.



For an example, many brands are releasing blades covered by American Hinoki, saying that they are similiar to the Japanese Kiso Hinoki.

But they are not the same.

The gap between American one and Kiso one is too wide to say they are similar.



What about the gap between Limba and Hinoki?

They are too different, so we can not say that they share some common feature as two soft wood blades.



Hinoki does not embrace the ball.

It hits the ball as a point.

But that point is very sticky.

But Limba works as a board.

The whole board feels like corresponding to the impact of the ball.



So those two materials are too different.



And what I want to get in the "third wave" was this factor.

I want to maxmize the surface wood's effect on the blade.



I used thick soft wood for the surface.

Specially, Japanese Kiso hinoki has to be thicker than Limba.

Limba needs to be thicker then 0.5mm, but thinner than 1.0mm, if I want to make use of that embracing feeling.

But hard wood layers should not be thicker than 0.5mm.

They have to be 0.5mm, or thinner than that, if I want to use them.



So, I took great care about surface wood for the thrid wave blades.

I examined what I earned from the first and second wave's blade productions, and those data were used to create more effective match between the surface wood and the burnt center wood.

The role of each ply in traditional 5 ply blade

As a Stiga's sole distributor in Korean market, I've been together with a Stiga's blade designer many times.
And I could learn a little how they work some how.
For this article, I would not try to make use of those recently acquired information from Stiga, because I'm supposed to protect the informations.
So, I would share some informations which could be widely known already if you are seeking those things, and I would start those with traditional 5 ply blade, such as all round classis or offensive classic in Stiga.

There happened a major change in the function of the surface material, when ITTF started to push water glue in the market.
Here is the story.

By ITTF regulation, all the surface material has to be pure wood, so we can easily consider soft wood, which would be easy to cut thin.
It's also good for surface, because soft wood usually grow in wide width, which will help a blade be covered by one piece, that makes better outlook and durabiblity in all. Soft wood comes from normally warm weather area, where tree grows fast, and they have wide trunk, wich allows us to cover the blade with only one piece of it, and also it's quite easy to conclude that those wood can be cheap too.
But with all these factors, I still guess the major reason for this soft wooden surface might have come from their easy access, too.

Any way, at that time, blade manufactors were not supposed to consider water glue's strong stickiness.
I heard until the year of 1969, when Tibhar started to sell a blade separate from a rubber, players had to buy a blade glued tight with given rubbers, so blade surface would have been consealed under glued rubbers.
So, we can easily consider that all manufactuerers did not have to consider beautiful surface, either.

But now, with water glue, we have to invent a new way to protect the wooden surface aginst sticky water glue.
Regarding surface artwork, I think Stiga did not care much before they started to release a series of shinny surfaced blades, which could have been made for protection against water glue. But when they started to sell those shiny barnished blades, they really started to think how they could make a blade more beautiful, I guess.
On the other hand, when they started to sell vanished surface blades, and that harmed a little bit on the image of Stiga's wooden blade's fame. Those shinny blades felt a little bit away off from the traditional Stiga's blades, which have been focusing on natual wooden feeling.
After a while, Stiga started to adopt harder woods for their surfaces, ebony, rosewood, maple wood and so on, instead of artificial thick barnished surface blades.

So, in the current moment, stiga is leading the blade market from several different reasons.
They are releasing new surface blades each year, which stopped copy blades from Chinese market, together with their policy to run the market on their own after establishing their own branch company in Beijing.
By showing new surface materials, they could get an image that they are studing blades a lot, and they can always outwit all other copy blade manufacturers in China, even though they follow Stiga normally one year later on.

Secondly, they found a new way to deal with sticky water glue problem, not by barnishing process, but by finding a new woods, which could be possible only by big factory only. So, that opened a new door for Stiga, because they are always the first to release new surface for now.
And they can still keep the image of themselves that they tend to keep the feeling of natural wooden blades.

If we look at other brands, we can still see many of them are using barnishing process to deal with this water glue problems. I do that, too.
But as a brand manager, I realised that this is one factor I can consider in my blade production, which will generate some new challenge, so I'm still studying what material with what glue and barnish, I can deal with water glue problems.
But I would not follow Stiga's hard surface wood material as some other brands do.
Actually, there are many brands just adopting Ebony to follow Stiga's big success of ebenholz blades, while they don't understand the reason for that surface.
In many cases, those Ebony surface blades are not very good, because they manufacture them without knowing the reason.

As I told in the before articles, when we use hard wood for the surface, we need to take heeds about the harmony between the surface wood and the second wood.
In many copy blades, thick hard surface does not work well.
Mainly because they use the hard wood surface thicker than original Stiga blade's.
Even when some of them cut the surface wood layer thin, if they back them with hard second wood, they would become dull, too.
So, it's quite obvious, that we need to use thin hard wood for the surface, supported by rather soft second layer.
That's why Stiga's current blades have that much thin surface.
You can check how thin they are.

Several japanese blade manufacturers are now trying to use the Kiso Hinoki wood, after doing compression process, because they want to protect the surface better than with natural hinoki surface. But I don't think that's very good idea. When we compress the wooden material, then the character changes. I think the core function of Kiso Hinoki is to keep the sticky feeling when we play with it. The ball seems to follow the blade, and we need to draw the line of blade movement very different from other surface marterial blades, because the ball seems glued on the blade surface, and that's the attraction of Kiso Hinoki, which I don't want to lose at all.

So, I think Kiso Hinoki blades have to face this problem now. They are weak. And that's their strong point, and also weak point, too.

In my "Nexy's Third Wave", I try to use blade surface without "being burnt", which allows the surface stay very natural with it's fuction and feelings. In some way, they are stronger than burnt ones, because when burnt, blade surface is more fragile.
And I jointed that natual wood surface with burnt centre layer, because I wanted something different from natural wood for the center wood layer. I will write more about center wood later.

By the way, in the traditional 5 ply blade, second layer was supposed to work together with the surface wood.
Stiga used "sprus" for the second layer for offensive classic blade, and that became a huge success. I think that's quite possible, because soft Limba surface would have been supported by the hard and resilient sprus layer, which would make ideal harmony in many ways in those days. And that idea was adopted by DHS, after many years later on, when they release Hurricane King. (I think that was only a copy blade from offensive classic, even though they changed in some monir detail.)

So, we can think of the role of second layer corresponding to the character of the surface wood.
But all those things can not be always true, because each wood has different character, and finding a universal theory for the structure and character between two wooden layers with specific thickness are not easy to predict.
For an example, I used thin white ash layer together with ayous, a little bit thick, with my design for LISSOM, and the result was great.
I thought this kind of structure would be good for continuous looping, and I selected the second layer material "ayous" in order to give the deep touch of the ball, but I could not explain why I thought that way.
It came to my mind that "ayous" layers cut from 5mm to 7mm would do good work to deepen the feeling of impact of the ball, and that idea might have come to me because I examined lots of other blades using those two materials, but I cannot explain what really made me think that way. I just got a feeling that way, and that structure became a series of continuous new blades design concept for the second wave of nexy.
As for me, blade design is time consuming experiments, which starts from a idea, and got fulfilled after long months of experiments.
But I don't know where that first idea really come.

Maybe that's why I used "instinct" for explaining my brand "nexy".
I made up two phrases, "instictive creationg", and "creative instint" for the brand image of nexy, and I plan to use both words for my brand design. And the reason for these two words were because I could not explain why I got the idea for the blade design in many cases.
I can explain some part for my basic intention and how I developed that idea into a real blade, but in the same time, I still can not give the sure reason for my final blades.

Very informative post, thank you nexy!

You mentioned "barnishing process " a few times, did you mean "varnishing" or does barnish have a special meaning?

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Nexy , I would suggest you try a walnut top ply with 1mm ayous second ply and an ayous core of differing thickness for each speed blade you want. Its s very good combination that stiga have not figured out yet.

Haggisv I assumed burnish?

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