Does a blade need to be changed regularly?

Yes

I seal all my blades;xiom katana platinum special,xiom athena ryu spec platinum,yasaka ma lin max carbon,yinhe n9,yinhe t4, darker s90 with xiom I - sure ( water based protector ) before I put on rubbers the first time and I note I do not have this splinter problem.

<<Hinoki top ply must not be protected.>>  From Revolution No 3 sealer description.  So...they rec not sealing Hinoki?  Anyone know why?

AND...have you ever felt, after sealing handle, anything weird on your hand?  Like any sort of residue whatsoever?  Or is it absolutely indistinguishable from a non-sealed handle?

*_strataras_* wrote: Wood is an alive material. It hets mushy with our sweat and from a lot of regluing. Of course it needs to be changed if your level is really high. I know the guy who is the butterfly distributor here in Greece and also I know many many Greek pro players who have signed with companies such as yasaka, tibhar and butterfly. Everyone has told me that after some months (1 year more or less) the blade needs change. And this is cause they change rubbers after 2 weeks so they glue really often and also they use their blades about 6-8 hours everyday.

Vladi Samsonov has used his old Btfy Mazunov for about 15 years until it broke or smth around 2007. I think his current blade is at least 2-3 years old.

I know many dozens of players from 1800 to 2400 level - they are sticking with same blade for years.

As long as it is in good shape why change? if you sealed it, if you use thick edge tape etc, it could last you many many years.

bschap wrote: AND...have you ever felt, after sealing handle, anything weird on your hand?  Like any sort of residue whatsoever?  Or is it absolutely indistinguishable from a non-sealed handle?

LUCKYLOOP wrote: I have played with my main blade over 20 years. It went through the regluing era. I played with it last week for 3 hours. I have never used edge tape on it.

Some blades are soft. Example, many Btfly ALC blades will look like your dog chewewd them if you don't use edge tape.

anubhav1984 wrote: jonyer1980 wrote: There's no need to seal hinoki since it isn't a porous wood I have had hinoki wood (not very expensive ones though) splinter very badly. I owned a Yinhe T2 and it has some sort of hinoki top ply and it just got ripped off very very badly by LKT water based glue. It might actually be a good idea to seal hinoki. I have also had similar problem with the Nexy Hannibal that I used to own. Even Hannibal splintered a little when I took off rubbers glued with Haifu WBG.

I also had 5 jonyer Hinoki at the speed glue Era and just only one of them had splinters issues. I keep the others in great condition after a few years of use& reglue but never felt the need of seal them. Same thing happened with Primorac Carbon o Darker Speed 90. However acoustic is highly recommended to seal, it's not a matter of quality but also a type of wood/veneers

Edited by jonyer1980 - 10/18/2016 at 9:29am

bschap wrote: AND...have you ever felt, after sealing handle, anything weird on your hand?  Like any sort of residue whatsoever?  Or is it absolutely indistinguishable from a non-sealed handle?

Edited by wturber - 10/19/2016 at 2:03pm

actually
it's depended to the player...
do not forget... the highest level player need a "STANDARD" blade in their standard

i'm agree that some blades can be better overtime but.. it is also not match for their standard

for example indonesian player... they will change the blade about 3 months... and i heard that CNT will change the blade about 1 per month... but i can't prove it

suds79 wrote: Consider me skeptical on the thought of regularly changing blades. For a top pro who plays 5 days a week 8 hours a day like a job and regularly gets sent product to replace, sure. I guess. I mean where you're at level where everybody is so good and a 1-2% difference can give you an edge, you take it.  But for the 99.9% of everybody else here who isn't a pro is it worth wrecking your muscle memory & feel you've developed for a blade over years just to get a new one? I suppose be my guess but I'm imagining the difference would be negligible at best. To the OP, i'd just stick with your equipment. My training partner is better & more consistent than I am because he's been playing with the exact same setup for the last 3+ years while I've switch equipment far more often. Consistency is key.