OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Hello,

A while back I bought a Nittaku Goriki blade, even thought it was insanely expensive and only available with a flared handle, whereas I prefer a straight handle for my twiddling game. As I feared, it didn't really work for me. So I 3D printed some plastic inserts, and glued them to the skinny part of the handle. It worked after a fashion, but finally I decided I had no confidence in the blade, and shelved it. Then I decided to fix it once and for all, so I removed all of the handle wood from either side of the center part, noting that it was hollow. To make the new handle, I used hinoki wood from a soap tray, and thinned it with a tool that I made. The result is a complete transformation; I love my Goriki blade now, and having won its first game, it has good juju.

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Yeah, it's not rocket science - just some basic woodworking skills. Incidentally, the last time I browsed Nittaku's web page they had a custom blade department. You could basically tell them what you wanted and they'd make it for you. Since this starts out as a blade they already make, it would probably cost less than something they'd have to make from scratch. Since it's in Japan I expect it'd still be enormously expensive, though.. One wonders what "Goriki" means - "Gori" would be "gorilla" in Japanese...

Iskandar