Alex Table Tennis - MyTableTennis.NET Homepage
  New Posts New Posts RSS Feed - Review of 3 Custom Blades
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Events   Register Register  Login Login

Review of 3 Custom Blades

 Post Reply Post Reply
Author
Robin.w View Drop Down
Gold Member
Gold Member
Avatar

Joined: 12/02/2017
Location: USA
Status: Offline
Points: 1343
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Robin.w Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Review of 3 Custom Blades
    Posted: 02/06/2019 at 12:55pm
I just started the blades test play among our MYTT family members and hope to collect reviews and suggestion here. Any idea, suggestion even complain will help me to improve our blades design and custom process. Please post anything you like to share here ! Thanks in advance!
Here is the pics:
Blades details
A:W968/Vis construction: FH limba toply and yellow ALC inner near core ply

B:Vis construction with ST handle(instead of the vis st,it will be a ZJK ST)

C:N301/VIS constrction: FH Dyed koto and yellow ALC inner near core ply

Back to Top
Sponsored Links


Back to Top
JimT View Drop Down
Premier Member
Premier Member
Avatar

Joined: 10/26/2007
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 14602
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote JimT Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02/09/2019 at 10:38pm
Robin, could you post their weights and relative speed/spin/control numbers (or some general descriptions)? Thanks!
Single Ply Hinoki Club, Founding Member

Say "no!" to expensive table tennis equipment. Please...
Back to Top
anubhav1984 View Drop Down
Gold Member
Gold Member
Avatar

Joined: 05/08/2009
Location: Snoqualmie, WA
Status: Offline
Points: 1214
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote anubhav1984 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02/09/2019 at 11:17pm
So I received the Blade A in post yesterday and picked it up today. Thank you so much Robin.w for giving us the opportunity to test these amazing blades. 

What happens if I like this piece too much WinkWinkWink? Do I keep it and not let slevin get a chance to test it too.

Posting some pictures here. There is a snowstorm in the Seattle area thus I may not be able to get to play with it for a few more days but I thought that I should at least start with the review process.

The package came in without a box but there were three layers of bubble wrapping throughout that kept the blade extremely safe. 

I am not a blade construction or wood expert but I can tell that these are fine quality top plies here. The overall construction is very nice and it feels solid in quality. The handle colors could have been more vivid but then again, this is a custom ply that we are talking about here. You can choose your own damn handle Smile

The blade does seem to have different carbon layers on each side placed at varying depths from the surface. 

Both the sides do seem to have some sort of fishscales on them and one of them does seem to have some sort of lacquer on it.

Pics of the first side - This one does not have lacquer on it or it doesn't seem like so.








This is the other side - this looks like it has some lacquer on it. It also came with a sticker that read the weight of the blade and as you would see in the following pics, the weight is spot on. Smile



As I said, the colors on the handle could have been deeper but why am I still complaining about that. LOLLOLLOL


Look at the two carbon layers here. One of them looks like a composite and the other one just looks like pure carbon. The composite one is closer to the core whereas the other one is closer to the top ply.





Here is the weight, as measured on my scale.









Edited by anubhav1984 - 02/09/2019 at 11:31pm
Butterfly Viscaria FL
FH - Undecided
BH - Undecided
Back to Top
Robin.w View Drop Down
Gold Member
Gold Member
Avatar

Joined: 12/02/2017
Location: USA
Status: Offline
Points: 1343
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Robin.w Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02/10/2019 at 12:27am
Regarding the ALC layer,Inner one is yellow ALC used by DHS bring more power but not as fast as the outer one which is blue ALC used by BTF.
Enjoy!!
Back to Top
anubhav1984 View Drop Down
Gold Member
Gold Member
Avatar

Joined: 05/08/2009
Location: Snoqualmie, WA
Status: Offline
Points: 1214
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote anubhav1984 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02/10/2019 at 12:35am
Originally posted by Robin.w Robin.w wrote:

Regarding the ALC layer,Inner one is yellow ALC used by DHS bring more power but not as fast as the outer one which is blue ALC used by BTF.
Enjoy!!

That makes a lot of sense. So I am expecting a mix of W968/HL5 and Viscaria here. Now the description makes a lot of sense. 
Can you share the exact construction of this one as well?

Also, the outer carbon seems a little different than the layer on my Viscaria (Viscaria's is more alternating between Dark and Light blue and this one is more just Dark blue and black throughout) and the top ply is slightly thinner than the one on Viscaria. 


Edited by anubhav1984 - 02/10/2019 at 12:36am
Butterfly Viscaria FL
FH - Undecided
BH - Undecided
Back to Top
Robin.w View Drop Down
Gold Member
Gold Member
Avatar

Joined: 12/02/2017
Location: USA
Status: Offline
Points: 1343
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Robin.w Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02/10/2019 at 12:49am
Limba-Ayous+yellow ALC+special treated Kiri+ayou+blue ALC+Koto
Back to Top
anubhav1984 View Drop Down
Gold Member
Gold Member
Avatar

Joined: 05/08/2009
Location: Snoqualmie, WA
Status: Offline
Points: 1214
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote anubhav1984 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02/10/2019 at 1:40am
Originally posted by Robin.w Robin.w wrote:

Limba-Ayous+yellow ALC+special treated Kiri+ayou+blue ALC+Koto

Thank you so much for clarifying! This really helps! 
Butterfly Viscaria FL
FH - Undecided
BH - Undecided
Back to Top
anubhav1984 View Drop Down
Gold Member
Gold Member
Avatar

Joined: 05/08/2009
Location: Snoqualmie, WA
Status: Offline
Points: 1214
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote anubhav1984 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02/19/2019 at 5:16pm
Blade A Review

I have been playing with the Blade A for about a week and a half now (with different rubbers) and I think I have a good feel of the blade now to write a comprehensive review.

For context, I used the following rubbers on the blade -
Forehand (Viscaria side) - DHS H3 Neo Provincial BS 40 (unboosted), Joola Rakza 7 (boosted with 2 layers of FTL), Tenergy 80 Max
Backhand (W968 side) - Barracuda Big Slam Max, Rozena Max, Rasanter R47

I will be comparing this blade to the following -
1. Viscaria 90 gms FL 
2. DHS Hurricane King III 91 gms FL 
3. Hurricane Long V 91 gms ST (of my practice partner)

Build Quality Impressions -
As I had noted in my earlier post, the build quality is really good for such a custom made blade, given the price. The only thing that I was a little uncomfortable with was the wings of the blade. The wings are too sharp for my liking and as this was a tester, I couldn't even sand it down. Also, the wings are a bit broader than my DHS Hurricane King III.

First Pass -
The first set of rubbers that I glued on this blade was - DHS H3 Neo P BS and Barracuda Big Slam. The feeling on the Viscaria side of the blade definitely remains very close to the feeling that I get on my Viscaria with the same rubbers, even though this blade is a good 4 gms lighter than my Viscaria. 
The top layer seems a little thinner than Viscaria and that adds a bit to the touch difference as the Blade A is definitely more stiffer and crisp to the touch. 
The treated core definitely adds more kick to the blade than a 90 gms Viscaria. The blade is definitely a notch faster than Viscaria (in the same weight range). 
The throw angle on this blade is a little lower than the Viscaria and in higher impact shots, the hardness and the relative closeness of the carbon layer to the surface causes the rubbers to bottom out and the shots to land in the net. 
This feeling takes me back to my Innerforce ZLC in this attribute. Similar to the IF ZLC, the higher speed contact does require a slightly more open racket face angle, if one does not want the ball to catch the net. 
Shots with slower impact speed seem to propel with a higher throw and land with an slightly more power than imparted in the stroke.
This is where it stands apart from Viscaria as Viscaria is usually more linear in this department. 
The Control is a bit lesser than Viscaria as well here. Even with slower rubbers (barracuda isn't that fast really), controlling strong topspins requires proper touch.

Backhand side plays very similar to my friend's Hurricane Long V. The difference in speed is not very noticeable here, perhaps Blade A is just slightly faster than my friend's Hurricane Long V. 
The throw angle is consistent with forehand and higher impact shots tend to land in net unlike Hurricane Long V.
This is really GREAT if you can harness the power that this provides one with. Similar to how pros handle a ZLC, higher impact shots become more deadlier as compared to a regular ALC blade like TB ALC or Viscaria. The downside is that this obviously requires very precise timing and technique.
I was able to leverage this after adjusting a bit but my friend kept landing his power topspins in the net almost 40% of time. 

Second Pass -
The second set of rubbers that I glued on this blade was Rakza 7 and Rozena.
Again, the lower throw of the blade was still evident in higher impact strokes as both Rozena and Rakza 7 are high throw rubbers, yet consistenly landing a high impact shot over the net was a bit difficult with them. Same conclusion as the first pass here.

Third Pass -
The third set of rubbers I glued were Tenergy 80 and Rasanter R47. Tenergy 80 was a bad forehand choice to begin with due to its low throw. Combining it with the lower throw forehand side of this blade made it even worse. Even counter balls scratched the net a few times with T80 and thus I would recommend people to stay away from bringing this blade and T80 together. 
R47 worked like a charm on the backhand. There is something about the throw of the Rasanter R47 that just made it adapt very well with the W968 side of the blade. I loved the combination. I switched it over to forehand and the sheer ability to land a deadly forehand kill shot with the W968 side with a R47 was mesmerizing. 

Conclusion -
Here is how this blade stacks against the other blades in consideration -

Legend -
DHS Hurricane King III =  HK3
DHS Hurricane Long V = HL5
Viscaria = Vis
Blade A = BA

Forehand Side (Viscaria construction)

Throw Angle (low impact shots) - HK3 > HL5 >= Vis = BA
Throw Angle (high impact shots) - HK3 >= HL5 > Vis >> BA
Speed - BA >> Vis >= HL5 > HK3
Spin potential - HK3 > HL5 > Vis > BA
Control - HL5 > Vis >= HK3 > BA

Backhand Side (W968 construction)
Throw Angle (low impact shots) - HK3 > HL5 = BA >= Vis 
Throw Angle (high impact shots) - HK3 >= HL5 = BA = Vis
Speed - Vis = BA >= HL5 > HK3
Spin potential - HK3 > BA = HL5 > Vis 
Control - HL5 > BA > Vis >= HK3  

Overall, I really liked this blade (despite the slight discomfort with the wing, which is easily fixable and not a big deal at all). The only downside for me was the change in throw angle on high impact shots. I guess it's the difference in hardness of the core and the relative positioning of the composite layers that is causing changes to the throw. 
This blade will definitely suit two winged loopers with good fundamentals who are looking for a slightly lighter (if you end up using a 90 gm blade like I do) , more powerful upgrade from their Viscaria or W968 and are potentially looking to combine them together. For me, the W968 backhand worked better than my own Viscaria's backhand and I really liked that about this blade. 
Butterfly Viscaria FL
FH - Undecided
BH - Undecided
Back to Top
Robin.w View Drop Down
Gold Member
Gold Member
Avatar

Joined: 12/02/2017
Location: USA
Status: Offline
Points: 1343
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Robin.w Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02/19/2019 at 11:38pm
Thanks for the review!!
Thou the blade is design to use w968 side as FH and vis side as BH then you will have malong's FH and Zhang Jike's BH
Back to Top
anubhav1984 View Drop Down
Gold Member
Gold Member
Avatar

Joined: 05/08/2009
Location: Snoqualmie, WA
Status: Offline
Points: 1214
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote anubhav1984 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02/19/2019 at 11:57pm
Originally posted by Robin.w Robin.w wrote:

Thanks for the review!!
Thou the blade is design to use w968 side as FH and vis side as BH then you will have malong's FH and Zhang Jike's BH

Oh I so wish SmileSmileSmile

I did try the W968 side on forehand too. Just did not try it with a H3 Neo as I knew how it would perform. Also, the Viscaria side had its throw a bit too low for my liking to be on my backhand side. Tongue
Butterfly Viscaria FL
FH - Undecided
BH - Undecided
Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply
  Share Topic   

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down

Forum Software by Web Wiz Forums® version 12.01
Copyright ©2001-2018 Web Wiz Ltd.

This page was generated in 0.518 seconds.

Become a Fan on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Web Wiz News
Forum Home | Go to the Forums | Forum Help | Disclaimer

MyTableTennis.NET is the trading name of Alex Table Tennis Ltd.

Copyright ©2003-2024 Alex Table Tennis Ltd. All rights reserved.