soft but stiff blade

Balsa core blades.

Harder outer layers with softer inner plies. As speedy said the balsa core blades are a prime example where the core of the blade is so soft that you can indent it with a finger nail but the outer plies are stiff. Balsa is also a very light wood too!

LethalForehand wrote: I think balsa core + harder outer will give a hard feel. harder core and soft outer ply (like limba) gives a very soft feel. dhs pg7 is stiff but has a really soft feel.

Darker Speed 90.

Hardness is a static property, so it can be measured in Janka. While flexibility is a dynamic property of the fibres and changes with the impact power applied.

Viscaria has fairly soft feel (because lots of fairly soft wood and because of Arylate)  but is pretty stiff overall (since it is composite with carbon).  Something like a TB-ZLC feels much more "crisp" when you hit the ball (harder) but neither the Viscaria or the TB-ALC have a lot of flex compared to, say, a Korbel.

When a ball strikes a blade it produces vibrations at many frequencies.  Low frequency vibrations are "flex" and a blade can minimize that while still having a relatively soft surface. 

Assiduous is right that the neck structure has a lot to do with this.  The wings of the Viscaria come pretty low, so that contributes to overall stiffness.

Photino.

most arylate blades are stiff but soft. innerforce al and alc are good examples.

Imago wrote: Who said that stiff is a contradictory opposite to soft? Stiff is opposed to flex, hard to soft. These are complementary pairs of opposites. Not differentiating between them is a sign of elementary lack of discrimination.

I think you guys are taking this a bit too far.
for me a blade either feels hard or soft.
that's all.
just to keep things simple.

if you wanted expand the list of adjectives you use to describe a blade you could also add
-nervous
-gifted
-sparkling
-disturbed
-wicked
-upset

just to name a few....

Skyline wrote: puppy412 wrote: Imago wrote: Who said that stiff is a contradictory opposite to soft? Stiff is opposed to flex, hard to soft. These are complementary pairs of opposites. Not differentiating between them is a sign of elementary lack of discrimination. I think you guys are taking this a bit too far. for me a blade either feels hard or soft. that's all. just to keep things simple. if you wanted expand the list of adjectives you use to describe a blade you could also add -nervous -gifted -sparkling -disturbed -wicked -upset just to name a few....   so you don't have a preference for a more flexible or a stiffer blade?

I know this is not quantum physics level...
but to simplify, describe better and be able to share information with others it's better to do
hard = stiff
soft = flexible

puppy412 wrote: just to keep things simple.

The idea that flexibility and hardness are not the same thing is not actually very complicated. The idea that the mechanical properties of a blade would need to be described with more than one number cannot be that big of a strain on the imagination.  Is it really hard to accept that you need at least two (like with rubber where we need to talk about speed and spin, at least)?

Try this.  Imagine two blades.  Make them of exactly the same materials.  Give them the same weight.   Give them a different shape.  One has a very narrow neck.  Wings are high.  It has a longer and somewhat narrow head.  Give the other one a wide neck with wings that drop pretty low.  Smaller head overall.  More weight in the handle.  Will they play the same way?   

to give you a few examples.

viscaria:
for me -> hard
for mytt -> soft but stiff

primorac carbon:
for me -> soft
for mytt -> soft but stiff

actually if you go to brand's websites, for example butterfly, you see "feel: hard" or "feel: soft", nothing else.
in donic they'll say "elasticity: stiff", "elasticity: soft".

that's why I say you are kind of taking it too far, when your explanations go beyond what blade producers themselves specify


Edited by puppy412 - 02/02/2014 at 1:32pm

Imago wrote: "elasticity: soft" reminds me of "juicy bricks"   ... To be precise, the semantic fields of hard and stiff are criss-crossing each other but do not coincide.

Xiom Zetro Quad. Thick, stiff as hell, yet with Viscaria-like softness.