buying a custom blade

Here are some thoughts, tips, etc. for those of you thinking about buying a custom blade.

1- You can't just order anything.
custom blade sellers in general don't have trees and chopping machines.
they buy their wood from providers.
Their providers have standard thicknesses for different types of wood.
So for example you want limba, they probably have only in 0.5mm,
you want ayous, then they have in 1.2, 1.5 and 2.5 for example.
So you have to fit what the seller has.
It's not like you can think any particular blade and it can be built.

2- Don't be too picky on the measurements of the blade.
Blades don't always come in the exact measurements you asked.
This is not stiga or butterfly, sometimes it's just a guy doing everything by hand.

3- Once you have an idea on what you want to build, just contact the blade makers.
Here's a list of most of them.

borko56@cox.net
info@soulspin.tt
Tricky1blades@yahoo.com
prosales@ospblades.com
bladesbycharlie@gmail.com
vodak-dreva@centrum.cz
info@tt-piet.de (peter from germany)
kontakt@retturn.pl (retturn)
info@tischtennis-manufaktur.de
ross@rossleidy.com

4- Prices depend on who you buy from.
In general the more popular ones charge more, while the least known charge less.
But to give an example a 5 ply can cost 30, 40, 50 euros.
More plies, materials like carbon, they all add to the price.

5- Personally I bought from "peter from germany" and "retturn".

"Peter from germany" is one of the cheapest ones I think.
His blades are still very good, material is good.

With "retturn" I had a bit of a strange experience.
I email asking "can you do a blade with these characteristics?".
They answer "yes we can do this."
I send them another message saying "ok, this is what I need exactly, please let me know if you want to do it because I'm also in contact with other person who wants to do it."
2 weeks pass, no message, nothing.
In the meantime I agree with "peter" to make the blade.
so after two weeks I get a message from "retturn".
your blade is ready, please deposit the money in this account.
I'm thinking like "we never agreed on making this in the end".
But well they did it anyway so I bought it.

I think retturn maybe have a higher production.
The blade even has a logo with their name, it seems cut by machine, seems more like a normal blade you'd get from andro for example.
The blade from Peter is more like craft work.
The  handle is shaped by him using his hands, etc.

I was also in contact with ross leidy, soulspin, bladesbycharlie, stefan elsner....
But for one reason or another it just didn't happen.
For me it was just an experiment, so I wanted to keep it low profile and low cost.
This is not what some of the sellers have in mind, they see their blades as better than buying a stiga or a donic.
So it's good that there are many alternatives for different public.

pattex glue

Try not to use this glue.
At first sight it looks good because it's pretty liquid, it's rubber cement.....
but it's very very strong glue.
chances are when you remove the rubber from the blade you'll destroy it.
Also if the blade has not been sealed it will also be destroyed.
So really for me just avoid this glue.
I guess it's good for gluing a carpet to the floor, stuff like that.

glue that works

you can use this one safely, you can get it in taobao and aliexpress.
it's almost like old speed glue but it doesn't have the same effect.
but the way you apply it, the viscosity, the way the rubber looks after being glued.
they are all the same.
compared to tt glues it's not very expensive, I'd say the same price.
also good thing about these glues is after you applied once you can start just gluing the blade and use the remains in the rubber.
with water based glue many times after you remove your rubber you need to remove the glue from it as well and reglue the rubber again.

butterfly tenergy 25

what's up with tenergy 25?
why nobody uses it?
looking at the 2016 catalog they have  a drawing with the trajectory of 05, 80 and 64.
25?they don't even show it.

25 is great for pushing, flat hitting and blocking.
ball travels in a straight line.
it's really bad when you get away from the table and have to loop or counter loop a ball that's already past the net height.
because of the same reason.
the ball just won't go up and make a curve and then go down again like with 05.
it wants to travel in a straight line.
that's why it's really a rubber for staying close to the table.

pro players dont' do this in general, they start backing away from the table and they start counterlooping.
even when they are close to the table they want to counterloop.
which means they need the arc that 05, 80 gives them.
25 gives them no arc so they can't really use it.
amateur players copy pro players.
pros don't use it -> amateurs don't use it.

also in terms of speed and spin I always noticed it lacked both when compared to 05 and 64.
I guess you could say this gives it more control and it's true, but most players are looking for that arc for looping, for the speed for counterlooping.
that's why it's the left aside tenergy.

dianchi glue

I don't recommend this product.
why not?
the glue dries way too fast.
as you are spreading it over the sponge or wood it starts drying and making little balls.
when you stick together blade and rubber these balls make little mountains and it doesn't look good.

also you get the bottle and a couple of sponges.
if you want to use your finger to spread it's difficult because too much glue comes out of the bottle.

butterfly free chack II has a bottle that only allows little drops to come out.
I think this is much more convenient.
but well, free chack II is more expensive.

fake blades quick review

fake viscaria:

the one I tried is called woerao viscaria.
compared to the real viscaria the head is a little bigger, maybe 1cm, and the core is a bit thicker, 0.3mm maybe.
also the handle is a bit thicker.
other than that they look the same.
in play I'd say they are very similar, the butterfly blade is a bit bouncier and has more power.
woerao compensates this with more control.
also I think woerao feels a bit softer in general.
the composite could be alc or not, the color of it is the same as butterfly's alc so not sure.

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fake zhang jike super zlc:

I can't compare this blade to the real zhang jike super zlc because I never owned that blade.
but compared to a viscaria I'd say number one, the head dimensions are similar.
the handle is also similar.
one thing that stood out for me about this blade is that it's not faster than the real viscaria. it's quite slower.
you can say this will give you more control in the short game and similar situations, and it's true.
but in longer distance it definitely feels less powerful than viscaria.
also to me it felt quite harder than viscaria or michael maze or even zjk t5000.
the two layers after the composite are a bit thicker than viscaria.
and the core is a bit thinner.
overall the thickness is the same.
the composite I'm not sure what it is. it's definitely not superzlc like the butterfly blades.
if anything it could be regular zlc of a not very good quality.

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fake mizutani super zlc:



this one has exactly the same composite as the zhang jike super zlc.
as I already said, I'm pretty sure it's not super zlc, at least not the one butterfly uses.
thickness is the same as zhang jike super zlc.
again layers after the composite are a bit thicker than in butterfly blades and the core is a bit thinner.
speed is noticeably less than butterfly viscaria and at the same time control improves.
feel in hardness is similar I'd say to viscaria.
overall it's very similar to fake zjk szlc except the limba outer layers give it a bit more touch and softer feel.
I like this one a bit more than the zjk szlc.
oh the head is similar to the zjk szlc which is similar to the real viscaria.

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fake amultart:






the first thing that stood out here was the weight.
the blade I tried is like 105g.
another difference with the real amultart is the real one has 5 plies (hinoki - zlc - kiri - zlc - hinoki).
the fake one has hinoki - hinoki - xxx - kiri - xxx - hinoki - hinoki.
I guess the fake makers can't get hold of thick hinoki so they use two thinner layers.
in terms of playing characteristics I'd say the fake one is slower by a good margin.
it's more like a regular off in speed.
also the feel is still soft but a little sharper than the real amultart.

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butterfly blade chart 2016

hrt ebenholz vii review

quality of construction:
very good, similar to yinhe, stiga, donic, tibhar.


handle:
nice and comfortable, not too small

head:
I think around 157x150
nothing too crazy like dhs style.

weight:
mine was around 90g

speed:
around off, not too fast.

control:
very good, similar to clipper and that style of blade.

feel:
a bit harder than clipper or korbel or most all wood blades really.
but still feels like wood which is essentially soft.
feels much softer than for example viscaria.

spin:
similar to clipper, I think blades like viscaria and mizutani have more spin though.

power:
enough but not too much.

conclusion:
essentially a bit slower and harder than stiga clipper.
still maintains similar characteristics.

is it worth it?
if you want all wood off blade it's definitely a good option.

stiga calibra tour h - update

speed:

the speed went down like hell.

I had to really hit forward for the ball to pass the net with a simple flat stroke from middle distance.

when looping it still keeps good speed, but in flat strokes it went down.

spin:

it's not that bad in this department.

it's not tenergy 05 but you still get decent spin.

so basically the biggest difference I noticed was a decrease in rebound speed.

also played a defensive player and noticed it's not very predictable when trying to loop really hard.

I mean the trajectory of the rubber is not very predictable when doing a forward loop without much spin.

it was pretty good for pushing, almost all pushes go in.

later in matches I noticed this problem of looping being not reliable when you really want to give the ball power, specially against defensive players.

against offensive players the old problem of speed was most noticeable.

sometimes I would block and the ball would not pass the net.

Sometimes I was afraid there would not be enough speed and I hit forward and the ball just goes too long.

So it's always a doubt with that.

As for looping, sometimes the ball would not land on the other side because it was not carrying enough curve, but not most times.

Overall, it feels like a typical tensor now.

I think the new tensors like mx-p and rasant powergrip are superior because they have more spin.
mx-p in particular seems to keep the speed a little longer, while rasant power grip is more or less the same in terms of speed.

stiga calibra tour review

this review is done with a new rubber, so playing characteristics might change a bit over time, I'll keep this updated.

price:
I got it for 37 USD so it's not a bad price.
it's around the same price as tensors but I already know tensors so I wanted to test something different (this is my first stiga rubber ever).

topsheet:
everybody mentions the topsheet of calibra tour and it's true, it's maybe the strangest topsheet you will ever find.
you can perfectly slide your fingers across the rubber and at no point they get stuck or slow down.

sponge:
it doesn't look like a tensor sponge nor like a tenergy sponge.
it's more like a sriver or mark v type of sponge.
really solid with no pores.

speed:
it's quite fast, maybe a bit faster than tenergy, but not too much.
also it depends, if you grab it well with a top spin perfect timing it's super fast, clearly faster than tenergy.
then you do a more passive stroke like just putting the racket there and the ball doesn't even pass the net.
in this way it behaves like tensors, I always noticed they have this problem when comparing them to a tenergy.

spin:
clearly less spin than tenergy.
also less spin than donic bluefire, tibhar evolution and andro rasant.
also I'd say less spin than andro hexer.
maybe similar spin to a used donic acuda.

control:
I didn't find it too easy getting used to it honestly.
this characteristic that sometimes it's very fast and sometimes not fast enough to pass the net makes you hesitant.
also the lack of topsheet grip sometimes makes things harder, because you are not really sure the ball is going where you want it to.

specific shots--->
serves:
there won't be tons of spin but it's ok, it's controllable and you can get some basic spin.

pushes:
it's difficult to get much spin out of pushes and sometimes the fall flies off a bit.
the lack of topsheet grip together with a bouncy sponge is what produces this.

topspin:
spin is acceptable, speed is pretty good too.

blocking:
it's not so affected by incoming spin.
problem is sometimes if you are not too close to the table and you want to make more active block or just a mixture between lob and block then sometimes you'll judge incorrectly the bouncing speed of the rubber.

counter topspin:
a few times I found it hard to do this shot because the topsheet doesn't grab the ball sometimes so it just bounces against the sponge and goes out in a straight trajectory.
if this happens the trajectory is totally unpredictable.
otherwise it's a normal shot, with good speed and some spin.

final thoughts:
I think this is a good rubber for novice players with a more speed flat type of game.
it could also help them learn to deal with spin.
but I wouldn't recommend it to someone who's main weapon is spin variation.

stiga rubber chart 2016

fang bo equipment wttc 2016