National H3 Blue Sponge Review (ohhgourami)

Hi everyone, I was asked to put up a review of National H3 Blue sponge.





The current sheet of H3 is 40 degree and has been tuned with a special tuner like all my other H3's.  It is of course glued on my HK655 like all the other types of H3's I've used too.

Warm up:  First thing you notice is this thing is FAST.  There is a pronounced CLICK that is louder than all the H3's.  The ball seems to release quite quickly from the blade which is nice.  If I want to add more spin, I can change the angle a bit and there's so much grip so I can brush the ball but it doesn't feel like I'm carrying the ball.  The problem with the other H3's I've used, the ball carries sometimes/stays on the sponge for too long.  The slightly bouncier blue sponge helps get it off when it needs to.

Looping: This is wear this rubber shines.  You can loop the ball in so many ways: drive loop, brush loop, and everything in between.  Using this rubber is just blissful as you can just do anything to the ball.  One complaint that I have with Commercial and Provincial is that the ball slips sometimes when I try to use the topsheet a bit more.  With National, I can let the topsheet do a bit more work and it won't fail me.  The ball won't slip!  Also this sheet seems to be more linear than the others too, but you really have to work for the high end.  If you loop correctly, it will unleash the most beastly loops you've ever seen - speed, power, spin it's all there!!! Like how a hurricane is!!!

Serves:  If you know how to serve well with lower grade H3, this thing make it sooooo easy to serve.  People fall for my pure underspin serves all the time.  It looks like I put no effort to serve, and the spin is as good or better than my "perfect" serves with lower grade.  When I try, really hard, you are rewarded even more.

The Skinny:  Once you start hitting with National, you can immediately tell it is of much better quality.  Bounce on sponge and topsheet is more consistent, so is grip.  There are no dead zones.  Unlike lower grade when you hit correctly, the ball doesn't do what you want, but this does what is it supposed to.  Does not lose grip.  The sponge is livelier and bouncier but in no way does it feel euro.  All in all, it just does what it is supposed to with no flaws as long as you have correct technique.  I have 2 brand new sheets of Provincial ready to be tuned when this sheet wears out, but I don't think it will ever get to their turn because other sheets of Nationals will cut in line.  I cannot imagine going back to provincial, at least not orange sponge.  Hands down the best sheet of forehand rubber I've ever tried and this includes other tuned sheets of high grade rubber.

And for those who think BW2 has more power and spin, Blue Sponge National puts BW2 to shame.

Thanks very much for giving the review ...certainly gives me a better perspective.

chris.b40 wrote: Thanks very much for giving the review ...certainly gives me a better perspective.

You are welcomed.

I read in a post you mentioned how wrong your initial impressions of H3 were.  What do you mean by that?

chris.b40 wrote: ohhgourami wrote: chris.b40 wrote: Thanks very much for giving the review ...certainly gives me a better perspective. You are welcomed. I read in a post you mentioned how wrong your initial impressions of H3 were.  What do you mean by that? Well about a year ago I decided to try H3 Neo. purchased the rubber from ttrubberman and after I played with it ,it was like s**t. I was so put out as I had read numerous threads about this being one of the best rubbers around.Needless to say I tried Tenergy 64 and was impressed. I went on to develop a Chinese loop and wanted to use a different Chinese rubber other than 729 so I decided to revisit H3 and I was sooo impressed with the power I extracted from the rubber.I acquired a H2 blue sponge and I decided to keep it as my main FH rubber after switching my Spin art which is IMO very close to H3 but faster and easier to extract massive spin from. H2 Blue is my main weapon and to be honest I am not interested in any more rubbers at this point.Thoroughly satisfied.

I'll disagree with you on Spinart being faster than H3 and getting more spin.  If done correctly, H3 gets way more of both.  I feel Spinart is a half-ass chinese rubber.  Well that doesn't matter now, as you have made up your mind on H2.  I'm glad you feel that way because when you stop switch things around is when you learn to thoroughly understand a rubber.  Keep at it!

mhnh007 wrote: Doesn't National H3 come in pre-tuned?  What did you tune yours with?  Without the extra tuning, can we expect to get same, or close result with what you described?   Thanks,

I don't see why National would come pre-tuned as the national team all tune their own rubber.  I did not tune my rubber myself, and nor do I know what was used.  All I know is that it is more potent than Haifu Oil.  What I think without tuning is that you'll get most of the properties except for the power aspect.  Then again, all Chinese rubber is meant to be speed glued or tuned.  I don't see any other way around it.  Sure it is playable and fantastic but won't have that extra extra power.  With good technique it is still possible to get good power, just got to try a lot harder.

Is your version the tuned or untuned version.

First off, it's a good idea to put quotes, any time you are using Hurricane and "National" in the same sentence :)

In my limited experience with a few blue sponges, (H3, Skyline2) they seem take tuner much better than the orange sponges.

But everything you described about the advantages of the National (from service, to loop variety, to how good the whole surface played instead of the sweet spot) can be attributed to tuning. Certainly if your old H3 hadn't been tuned in a while, any tuned Hurricane (regardless of Commercial, "Provincial" or "National") would feel significantly better.

On a lark, I recently tuned a year Old H3 Neo Provincial for some friendly games. It totally outperformed my much newer sheet, in exactly the ways you described the National.

That added elasticity and bounce is why people claim that H3's need tuning; the rubber becomes so much more dynamic and useful in a variety of situations from serve block to counter to loop. It becomes more forgiving, more spinny and allround better.

In the past you've mentioned that your coach "permatunes" your Hurricanes (and by doing do, effectively stretches the topsheet and sponge to create a tension effect that lasts longer than the chemical effect, which dissipates over a few weeks to a month) When it's all said and done, what I hope you have found, is a sponge/topsheet that once the chemical reaction of the tune wears off that the sponge still plays evenly and decently; the aftereffects of tuning reveal a lot about the quality (or lack thereof) in some Hurricane 3 variants.

hi i will like to know where can i get the blue sponge H3. feel like getting one to try..

that's pretty much spot on bee! once you soften up the sponge, it's plays like gold. maybe not as fast, but still pretty good.

to tell you the truth, the tuner i use looks and feels like vegetable oil. I wish i had the magical Haifu tuner. and my rubbers don't have the pips popping up like that at all.

he makes and sells tuner now? HOW MUCH

Friend of mine got two used nat version H3s with blue sponge, they were just comfortable and powerful even the tuning effect surely has worn off but still good to play with, what impressed me was the elastic, bouncy feeling that i neve got from other H3, they lost the potential and were too easy to bottom out but i can imagine how they would have been
Then by mistake he put some paraffin/lighter oil on the topsheet, it became so sticky that it could hold the ball from any direction for more than 5 mins...

stereotip wrote: So, national H3 is more euro rubber than chines, right?

Don't think so, it's more about the sponge, i didn't feel much difference from the topsheet

stereotip wrote: So, national H3 is more euro rubber than chines, right?

It's more bouncy compared to what you get with commercial but is it VERY much a Chinese rubber.  Has no euro rubber properties whatsoever.

Yep its normal depending how much you put.