OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I am a OX long pips player and started looking into what would make a good blade for frictionless anti. I love my slowish, oversized Defplay, but learned that for frictionless anti, I need a really fast, hard blade for max reversal, so while my Defplay is perfect for my FH presently and good for OX LPs, it’s a bad choice for the newer antis. After lots of research, I am close to buying an expensive combo blade, but have started wondering ...what if I just glued a thin hardwood veneer such as walnut, mahogany, rosewood, wenge, etc to one side of my Defplay?

It looks like I can get three to six 1/42” (0.6mm) sheets of some of these hardwoods off EBay for about $12-15 here in the U.S., and I have some spare hock blades and even a spare Defplay to try. I could even use one of my long pips glue sheets to apply the wood possibly, since I’m lazy and not very handy LOL!

An alternate plan might be to apply a thin coat of epoxy to the blade face on one side. This should make the side noticeably harder, however, I’m not confident I could make an even coat with it. Has anyone tried either of these options?

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Penhold Twiddler - Setups:
WRM Gokushu 2 Donic Baracuda 2.0 Sauer&Troger Monkey OX
DMS The Wall Loki Rxton 3 2.1 Tibhar Grass D.TecS OX
Tibhar Genshu L Xiom Vega Pro 1.8 Tibhar Grass D.TecS 0.5
Stiga Clipper Cybershape Yasaka Rakza 7 1.8 Spinlord Blitzschlag OX

I suppose if you're not opposed to ruining a few blades, it's just a matter of trying them out..

Iskandar

In terms of legality, attaching more veneers on blade is quite legitimate, at any rate. Same is a carnal intercourse while over 21.

The more I look into it, I’m thinking a thin carbon layer might better suit what I’m looking for. They’re about the same price from AliExpress. There seems to be two main types I see: the more flexible “carbon aramid fabric,” 0.2mm thick, various colors, or a thicker 0.5mm “3K high hardness carbon fiber sheet,” which is more like a thin board. I suspect these are both lighter than the hardwoods I was considering also. If I try one of these out, maybe attach with a thin coat of epoxy. My hope is the test blade would be a success, then build up the courage to try this out on the BH of my soft WRC American Hinoki 1-ply. Any thoughts?

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Penhold Twiddler - Setups:
WRM Gokushu 2 Donic Baracuda 2.0 Sauer&Troger Monkey OX
DMS The Wall Loki Rxton 3 2.1 Tibhar Grass D.TecS OX
Tibhar Genshu L Xiom Vega Pro 1.8 Tibhar Grass D.TecS 0.5
Stiga Clipper Cybershape Yasaka Rakza 7 1.8 Spinlord Blitzschlag OX

There's broadly two kinds of "carbon fiber" being sold. One is cloth. This is what blade builders use - it's a woven cloth, it's floppy, you brush epoxy into it (and if you're doing things properly, you then put it between two layers of wood and squeeze real hard to get all the excess epoxy out, and it you're not you just let it cure in place). Then there are cured sheets, which are rigid plates. Someone's already put the epoxy in for you and squeezed it between two surfaces while the epoxy cured (usually done in an autoclave at elevated temperatures) and then the plate was separated from the mold surfaces and trimmed to size. The second is what you're probably looking at - much easier to use in the way you're talking about.

Iskandar

Thanks Iskandar! If I go the thin cured sheet route in 0.5mm, are these easily cut through, like I’d normally cut a rubber, or do I need something heavy duty? And what glue or epoxy would you recommend to attach it to the blade? Did I mention I’m not handy?!

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Penhold Twiddler - Setups:
WRM Gokushu 2 Donic Baracuda 2.0 Sauer&Troger Monkey OX
DMS The Wall Loki Rxton 3 2.1 Tibhar Grass D.TecS OX
Tibhar Genshu L Xiom Vega Pro 1.8 Tibhar Grass D.TecS 0.5
Stiga Clipper Cybershape Yasaka Rakza 7 1.8 Spinlord Blitzschlag OX

I found a thinner cured carbon sheet in 0.2mm thickness and I’m comparing that to a walnut sheet in 0.6mm thickness (the thinnest that I can easily find) and cost is similar so that’s not really a factor. When estimating the added weight to my blade of these, it’s 8g carbon, 9g walnut (not including a glue sheet or other adhesive). Since the carbon is denser, thinner, lighter, and easier for me to apply, it seems like the clear choice.

After more thought, I’m on the fence about proceeding, since this would be adding weight to an already heavy blade that I love, but which also happens to be a backup blade at this point. Come to think of it, if I fall in love with anti then this might be an awesome experiment with my massive and light Barricade, 164mm x 163mm and 51g, since it’s apparently not intended for anti, just pips. If I do continue on, I will post an update and pictures.

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Penhold Twiddler - Setups:
WRM Gokushu 2 Donic Baracuda 2.0 Sauer&Troger Monkey OX
DMS The Wall Loki Rxton 3 2.1 Tibhar Grass D.TecS OX
Tibhar Genshu L Xiom Vega Pro 1.8 Tibhar Grass D.TecS 0.5
Stiga Clipper Cybershape Yasaka Rakza 7 1.8 Spinlord Blitzschlag OX