Medium Pips Rubber - Ai Fukuhara

I understand she uses Armstrong 8 medium pips rubber, hard sponge.  Do you know what thickness? Where can one buy it?

I am thinking she uses thicker than 1.5 mm--but iruiru measures the total thickness, rather than sponge alone. However, others do report her using 1.5 mm. Is her blade a fast one, do you know?

speedspin wrote: Thanks.  That pips rubber's sponge looks thicker than 1.5 mm--what do you think? I assume the red sponge is maximum thickness (such as 2.2 mm).

The fh looks to be about 1.9, she probably uses 1.9/1.7

Edited by bluebucket - 07/15/2013 at 9:42pm

If you find out the thickness of that blade, you can calculate the thickness of the sponge.
I must say i am surprised at how thick the backhand sponge is(at least 1.7), because that armstrong attack 8 is very fast and difficult to control. Is that sponge pink or grey? The pink one is the fastest and hardest.

the sponge of the backhand rubber is white....

which SUPER I  version ,   43 ,41  40 ?

Sorry, I don't know.

This is a fantastic discussion--thanks to you all.  Mitsunori Takizawa of Iruiru said she uses 53 degrees now (hardest one), but used the 43 version before.  I still don't know the exact thickness she uses.  However, my guess is that it is 1.8 mm, or thereabouts.  Does anyone out there use Armstrong 8 medium pips, super-I version? I wonder how it compares with 563 or 563-1, 1.8 mm--any thoughts? I am using 563 and 563-1, but the sponge is 35 degrees.  My feeling is that 1.8 mm is easier to control than 1.5 mm (but less funny).  Also, 1.8 mm soft sponge likely is less weird (funny) than harder sponge--your thoughts?

speedspin wrote: Do any of you know of a medium pips rubber that lasts a relatively long time, but still gives the weird, funny ball effect? I'd like to use 1.8 mm, or possibly 1.5 mm.

One of the advantages of the Armstrong attack 8 and 3 is their durability comparing with the rest of medium pips, it is very difficult to break down them

Armstrong pips's quality is very high. I used attack-3 (offensive spin-style) some months and the pips are like new. I have broken down many of others sp (pistol, leopard,...) and attack-3 are medium, they should be broken earlier.

Your description (pingpongpaddy) is excellent.  The question is what total thickness of rubber + sponge Ai Fukuhara uses for Armstrong Attack 8M rubber? Armstrong from iruiru is graded as total thickness only, either hard sponge (53 deg) or softer sponge - 45 deg?)And what is the thickness of sponge on the medium pips side? (1.8 mm? 1.5 mm?)