TT Blade - Surface Layer Wood Analysis

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   (NOTE: The credit goes to "BOTAK" or "BOTAKTT", a Singaporean TT player.  Deep insight and good knowledge! The text is pretty much in its original writing - be aware that some words are SMS style abbreviations)

surface layer wood types and their characteristics

basically,
 surface layer wood type is the one that determines the so-called, 
"hand-feeling" for the blade, especially for the soft touches... 

diff wood types have different characteristics, hence the feelnig for 
each of them would be very different. even if the same blade, made by 
the same company has the same speed/speed/control ratings, having 
different surface layer wood would make the blade entirely different due
 to the difference in feeling.... 

which indeed, this surface layer wood is the 1st layer of wood to come 
into contact with the ball, the wood directly attacked to the rubber, 
and also directly in contact with your fingers and the handle-wood piece 
which of course, directly means affects your feeling.... 

note that in this post, we only look at surface layer wood types and not
 the 2nd layer, or the core layer of wood.... cuz the surface layers are
 the ones most easily distinguished with the naked eye, and the biggest 
determinant for all aspects of hand-feeling, especially for the soft 
touches. for eg, the inner core layer would involve the blade's 
stability feeling, and the power feeling when a powerful shot is 
executed. (plus i haven't go deep enuf into it yet...) so let's just 
keep things bit simple now 1st.... 

basically, some of the more popular ones we've come across are.... 
1) limba
2) koto
3) hinoki 

with each of them having their own unique characteristics, hence 
playstyle that suits them accordingly, and combination with other wood 
layers to make the best out of the blade. 

juz keeping things simple, here's some key characteristics of each of 
them. nowadays brain very dead, cannot write long, detailed and 
elaborate description.. paiseh ah....... 

1) limba. 
long dwell time in the wood, great spin generated for players who 
prefers to spin with the rubber's sponge instead of the topsheet. poor 
speed due to the long dwell time, which is prob due to the loosely 
connected wood fibres of the wood type (which is also the reason why it 
splinters off easily). 
suitable for players who prefers to hold the ball longer in his own 
grip, who prefers to generate the power shots by himself. gd example 
would be vladimir samsanov, jun mizutani, petr korbel (i'm toking abt 
the players here!!) 
therefore, suitable combination of wood would be hard core layers of 
wood, 2nd layer probably somewhere in between.... 
typical good examples, Butterfly Petr Korbel, Stiga Clipper, Butterfly 
Jun Mizutani, etc etc.... 

2) koto. 
short dwell time in the wood, good spin generated for players who 
prefers to spin with rubber's topsheet instead of sponge. good speed for
 smashes due to short dwell time. fibres are quite densely connected, 
hence doesn't splinter off easily. 
suitable for players who likes to "rebound" the ball back for the soft 
touches, doesn't like the ball to stay in the blade too long until he 
has to "push it out" himself... definitely for the close table 
attackers. 
hence, suitable wood combinations would be a harder 2nd layer of wood 
(cannot be carbon, see hinoki) n a relatively softer core layer. 
typical good examples, Donic Persson Power Play, Butterfly Timo Boll 
series, and many typical chinese blades designed for traditional 
close-table attacking chinese style eg Butterfly Chinese Real. 

special mention to a special example here, even though DHS hurricane hao
 has a koto surface layer, due to it's special wood selection and 
engineering it has one of the best grip for all blades. it's damn gd 
feeling is actually due to the OTHER layers at work, when we're at the 
soft touches feeling, the ball actually doesn't stay inside for that 
long. only when the loops and drives starts to come out, the ball stays 
inside damn damn shiok.... 

3) hinoki. 
good dwell time in wood, but gd rebound off the wood too. it feels like 
it "grips and springs" out of the wood so perfectly the feeling is damn 
shiok damn shiok... which is why hinoki is the top choice for pure 
ecstasy feeling. best at control, lacks in power or spin though. 
as a result, it is pretty much the only surface wood that works well 
with no-feeling carbon blades cuz all the power can be supplied by 
carbon, all the feel from the hinoki. center layer would have to be a 
thick, stable layer of wood, bit more on the hard side. 
typical good examples, TSP hino-carbon, Butterfly primorac carbon, 
schlager carbon, sardius, blah blah blah. not to forget all the one-ply 
hinoki where the power comes entirely from the thickness. 

these are the 3 most common surface blades in TT blades.... although, 
i'd to specially mention 2 more.... walnut, and ebony. 

walnut, present in Yasaka Extra Offensive and Donic Ovtcharov, has a 
harder characteristics than koto. however, the rebound speed doesn't 
seem to be as "stiff" and "reboundy" as koto (i might be wrong...), and 
the feeling seems to come more from the center layers. which indeed, in 
both the 2 mentioned blades, the core layers makes it having a "springy"
 feel in the center layers. the surface walnut layer does feel hard, but
 apparantly the dwell time is long enuf for the core layers of "spring" 
to take effect before further catapulting the ball with greater power. 
so far there hasn't been many blades with walnut as surface layer, so my
 observations are limited only to these 2 blades. therefore, good wood 
combination would be with "springy core layers" as with YEO and donic 
ovtcharov. 

ebony, present in stiga's Ebenholz series. definitely the hardest of all
 so far. and so very dense!! however, it doesn't feel as reboundy and 
rigid as koto, and it doesn't feel like it works well with springy-cores
 like walnut.... but prob it feels like somewhere in between, but has 
the best of both worlds... hard to comment more on it, cuz my use of 
ebony is quite limited... (aso cuz by now brain really dead liao)

note that my use of ebony is entirely with ebenholz NCT V, there it's 
internal wood structure is much like YEO, and Hurricane king. hence my 
comparisons of koto, walnut and ebony are based on these few blades. 

another special mention, abt Stiga blades and it's numerous technologies
 designed to "increase rebound speed". stiga blades mostly have limba as
 their surface layer, prob so it grips well in the europeans' mid-far 
table shots for the arc generation. however many ppl started realising 
the balls are actually quite slow, hence stiga tries many technologies 
to increase rebound speed, and here comes CR, optimum series (crystal 
surface), carbo, NCT. the CR treatment, essentially makes it feel bit 
more like koto, decent will with faster rebound sped. Crystal on the 
other hand, makes the wood doesn't feel like wood... tat's juz my 
personal feel. but apparantly the optimum sync and optimum plus are very
 successful in local players, prob cuz the inner layers can generate gd 
grip and feeling while the outer layer gives good rebound speed (much 
like DHS hurricane hao mentioned above). for carbo and NCT, it feels 
like the excessive vibrations BETWEEN WOOD PLIES are very much reduced, 
giving a stiffer feeling without loss of energy internally in the blade.
 compare clipper and carbo 7.6 and hybrid wood, and you'll get what i 
mean... 

so some might ask..... since limba + CR/crystal makes it more like koto,
 why dun use koto right from the start? frankly speaking, i aso 
dunno..... anyone noes? but then, not very impt lah hor... 

hopefully these information will give the reader better insight in 
choosing a blade for yourself, what kind of feel you like, and what kind 
of feel you'd require for your idea playstyle. as mentioned b4, the best
 equipment choice for a player is a combination of "suitability" and 
"comfort'. you must be comfortable with what the blade gives you, and if
 the blade is suitable for your own distinct playstyle... 

which speaking abt choosing of blades, looking at the surface layer wood
 would be one of the most impt, if not THE most impt factor to consider 
when you change your old blade to a new one. 

personally i've seen many, i
 really mean many players, who somehow chose a new blade with a totally 
different surface layer, end up his hand-feel was totally screwed up, 
from very good to just.... different. 

for eg, naresh manoj is one gd example. recently i observed he changed 
to a new blade, very different feel, his talent was like.... where is 
his talent? ethan poh was another eg, changing from a limba surface 
layer to koto surface layer. for a period of time his hand feel was 
pretty messed up too. but thanks to his own talent and for the sake of 
future development, his current koto blade has higher potential for him.

so as much as possible, if the player's old bat has a limba topsheet, 
try to stick to the same blade with limba surface layer, the hand feel 
is more similar, and if the player is looking for more power only, juz 
choose one with a higher power rating... 

for eg.... for limba blades, in ascending order of power.... 
donic appelgren allround,
stiga offensive classic,
butterfly petr korbel,
donic persson power speed,
stiga clipper,
juz to put in some of the more common blades we see ard singapore.... 

for koto blades..... 
butterfly oh sang eun,
DHS KBH,
donic persson power play,
DHS H-WL,
butterfly timo-boll series,
juz to name a few too..... 

but IF the player is having some problems with his hand feeling, but the
 power is quite ok, then perhaps changing a blade with a different 
surface wood layer might be considerable. for eg, dylan ban was having 
quite some problems with his michael maze, for long time he just looks, 
uncomfortable... but after he chances to timoboll zlf, woah the ball 
quality different liao.... the hand feel works very well too. another 
example, ethan poh has quite some issues with his new koto blade too, 
particularly in the short control game and defence game, but as long as 
he noes, or someone can guide him on how to adjust his hand-feel for the
 koto feel, that should be ok... 

for this, needs a sharp eye to see if the hand feeling got problem or 
not, and a strong knowledge to noe what to recommend accordingly.... 

note that even if 2 blades have the same "blade technology", same 
"composite material", as long as their surface layer is different, the 
feeling will still be significantly different....
for eg... butterfly's Arylate-carbon technology...... 
michael maze (limba), timo boll (koto) and kong linghui (hinoki) all 
have different feel, particularly in the soft touches, the rubbing 
grip/feel...