Review:"NEW better" 729 F1 - Powerlooper's Dream

Where did you order them from? Also, could you post a picture of the new version?

You just made me buy another one.

I think Kiri works best when paired with denser composite, then the thickness can be decreased to increase the flex without losing too much speed. The Mizutani blade is 5.7mm and I consider that to be a pretty good kiri blade.

For all wood blades, I prefer ayous cores. I have a ayous 1 ply and that feels great. As far as I know, kiri cannot be made into a 1 ply blade. It is probably not dense enough as its in between balsa and ayous.

Interesting info on kiri:
http://www.paulowniasupply.com/paulownia_vs_balsa.htm

I ordered F2, which is thicker than F1 but all wood. Same koto outer.

Did somebody try it?


Edited by seguso - 04/18/2013 at 2:57am

Edited by vvu.tee - 04/25/2012 at 3:09am

Tabletennis only got F-1 right now but only ST handles.

gatorling wrote: Debraj, Have you had any issues with the F-1's playing characteristics changing over the time you've used it? An earlier poster mentioned that the consistency within each ply is poor..making the blade surface very inconsistent. Also where can you get an F-1? I've spent some time looking but can't find anyone that sells it! Finally, any suggestions for an alternate to the F-1 (I think I'd be okay with spending up to $50 for a test blade)?

gatorling..

- no i haven't had any inconsistency in the blade. this is my primary blade as of today.

f-1 is stocked by eacheng, fareastsports, and tabletennisonly (JZ). JZ just got back from china, check if he has picked up more f-1 stock from there.

Unfortunately tabletennisonly stopped stocking them :-(.Mother in law is in China right now, maybe I'll ask her to pick me up some F-1's and save on shipping...probably get them for dirt cheap too!

Yes, at eacheng.net

Edited by Imago - 05/18/2011 at 1:34pm

Debraj,

Have you had any issues with the F-1's playing characteristics changing over the time you've used it? An earlier poster mentioned that the consistency within each ply is poor..making the blade surface very inconsistent.

Also where can you get an F-1? I've spent some time looking but can't find anyone that sells it!

Finally, any suggestions for an alternate to the F-1 (I think I'd be okay with spending up to $50 for a test blade)?

bluebucket wrote: It takes a long to time to learn how to play with real blades after you have been using "too fast" blades for a while. You need to relearn everything. You are going to have to force yourself to hit harder for a while until your stroke adjusts

ok, but what exactly is the advantage? more control lifting backspin? more precision near the table? easier blocks?

my history: I've played with stiga OC with slow globe999 and I had to switch to faster blade because of lack of power, even though I have a big forehand swing (I am a former tennis pro). I couldn't compete with junior pros (I mean 14 year olds among the best in my country) because I didn't always have time to take a big swing. I then tried dawei gto and found I could control it just fine, and I could now beat them (I mean in the same day). Then I switched to faster wavestone and in two months I could control it. Then I switched to faster, harder rubbers like sun and moon and I still can control it well enough. The difficulty with harder rubbers was that the technique to lift backspin is different, and requires me to open the blade angle more, but now I can do it. Then I tried H3 and H3neo but I find them too hard, too little spin against slow dead balls, and opening loops are too difficult for the same reason.


Edited by seguso - 05/07/2011 at 8:30am

It takes a long to time to learn how to play with real blades after you have been using "too fast" blades for a while. You need to relearn everything. You are going to have to force yourself to hit harder for a while until your stroke adjusts

its so much fun twiddling ....  

seguso wrote: my F-1 arrived today. I'm eager to try it. Unfortunatyely I see it's already splintering: just by passing my finger on it, it splinters. And I don't have sanding sealer... I'll use copydex thinned with lots of water. another problem is I don't know what rubber to try. Maybe Moon 38 on fh and M2 37 on backhand.

beowulf wrote: debraj wrote: i doubt if all of them are good... there are some rational and some irrational blades. while someone noob can even like a irrational blade and post a great review of it (like i did for T8, 5 years back) .... those may not be mainstream blades which people will stick to eventually. earlier i used to like the new materials like aramid or zylon etc... but eventually figured a good blade design is way more important that exotic materials. @debraj,               My friend who bought this F-1 blade, wants to know which rubber is more effective on forehand of F-1 ?? H3 NEO Provincial or Thor's..? Since you have tried both, I will appreciate if you could give me you opinion about this. He is a very good forehand looper and on backhand he mostly pushes with occasional loops. He likes to powerloop a lot with his forehand and hence this question.