Why aren't combination blades more popular?

I'm curious as to why combination blades aren't more popular. Using different forehand rubbers and backhand rubbers is extremely common and seems to be more of the norm than using the same rubber on both sides generally speaking.

We use different rubbers on each side because often we have different needs, strokes, and styles on our two wings respectively. So if we recognize that and help our adaptation with different rubbers, why do we stop there and not use blades with different outer layers to better suit our preferences also?

We often prefer a harder rubber on one side and a softer rubber on one side. Sometimes an inverted rubber on one side and pips on the other. I think it might be a good idea to have more blades with the same idea. Harder wood outer plies on one side and softer wood outer plies on the other.

I recognize that there are some combination blades that exist but there are very few and I don't really care for the current offerings that I have read about.

Am I missing something? What are your opinions on this?

Knuckle Ball wrote: Precisely! I also play with rubbers of vastly different qualities, like I prefer tensors euro/jap rubbers for FH and classic spinny defensive rubbers for BH. By twiddling, switching my rubbers FH BH and vice versa I can give varying spins on similar strokes on both wings. I can twiddle and block or chop either FH or BH and go on the offensive on either wings. Wouldn't it be neat if I can find the correct plies to optimize the chop or block or flick on one side of the blade. And loop, counter and smash on the other side. Problem is I dont know what specific plies or kinds of venners to look for. The best I can do is to try many blades and find a suitable one that allows me to do all these.  Right now the Holy Grail for me is the Joola Rossi Emotion. Allows me to play push-blocker at the table, offensive looping and driving, and step back to chop and lob from mid range. If I were to use Combination Blades, I'd be very picky and hard to please. Maybe manufacturers wouldn't want to go to all that trouble for the few picky players like me.  My thoughts only whatever its worth.

I feel that a carbon blade like yours is a strange choice for your defensive game. To me it seems like you would benefit more if only one side had carbon and the opposite side did not along with softer slower wood to replace the layer of carbon.

That's another idea. playing around with carbon placement. In your case you would benefit from removing one of the carbon layers. Other players might benefit by having one carbon layer closer to the surface and on the other side have it closer to the core.

zeio wrote: From Butterfly's claim(which I read online), the problem with combination blade is that it is prone to warping.

That doesn't sound right to me. Combination blades already exist and are manufactured. If it was probe to warping I feel like they wouldn't be made by anyone. I think Butterfly thinks they just wouldn't be profitable.

mon22 wrote: Adds another set of variables that ultimately affects consistency?

Can you elaborate?