says
Spin and more spin.
says
Spin and more spin.
Well-Known Member
Super Moderator
Two Blades from OSP
A couple of months ago I decided I wanted to play with an all wood blade. I had been using a Butterfly Timo Boll ZLF for almost 1 and a half years. The blade I was using still works fine. I could go back to it if I wanted to. But I had decided that I had tried one of the two composite blades that I wanted to try. And it was time to go back to an all wood blade.
I had been thinking of this for a while and wanted to try a 5 ply all wood blade that had good flex, good dwell time, good wood feeling, and helped you generate good spin. I chose the company OSP. OSP stands for Old Stiga Palatinus. Palatinus is the name of the blade maker and master woodworker: Robert Palatinus. His goal, to make handmade blades with the quality and feeling of the Old Time Stiga blades.
The first blade I got myself to try was the OSP Virtuoso Off-. I am a big fan of blades that are in this speed class that are made of all wood because these blades are very good for a controlled offensive game and they help you develop your strokes and technique. For most tournament who play at a level that is below a USATT rating level of 2100, a blade like this would actually help them improve their strokes, their technique and develop their skills. Part of the reason is that the extra feedback and wood feeling that helps you know the quality of the contact you have made, helps your brain refine your technique without you even realizing that this is happening. And a blade that is Off- (fast enough but not too fast) would also help you develop your power because you have to hit the ball very precisely to get the ball to really go. But if you do have good contact, the ball goes as fast as a ball can go.
My Virtuoso Off-, I have to say, is pretty much the perfect blade. The blade is soft. It has a really high throw angle so it is really easy to loop backspin with this blade. It has a ton of dwell time. The ball stays on for long enough to really generate a lot of spin. It felt that way to me. But people who were on the other side of the table started asking, “how are you getting so much more spin?” The flex of the blade also helps with dwell time and extra spin. It loops like a dream. And to me, this is the biggest asset, it has the best wood feel and the most sensitive wood feel I have ever played with. The delicate, sensitive wood feel is there but there are no unwanted vibrations. You can easily feel different kinds of ball contact. It is like a fine tuned instrument.
Part of this has to do with the woods being used and the thickness of the different plies. Part of this has to do with the gluing process when OSP laminated the plies.
This particular blade has the plies: Limba-Limba-Ayous-Limba-Limba. The outer ply is very thin. that also goes into why the blade gives you such an ability to feel the ball so well.
In reviews I had read this blade is supposed to be very good at close to the table. I heard it loses something as you go farther back. I found this blade to be amazing close to the table. I know my level went up because of how well this blade performs in short game and over the table. I know this is not the fastest blade I have used. Not even close. And when I switched to it I was coming from a blade that is considerably faster. So for the first few days it felt on the slow side. But once I got used to it and really felt in sync with the blade, it felt to me like it performed quite well from all distances.
This blade also a really nice sound on contact which I love. It is a nice, fairly deep, snapping sound, almost a crunching sound when you get good solid contact. It is part of the feedback of the blade, but, to me the sound is important and affects to feel. I love the sound that you get from this blade. It gives so much feedback that it did take a few days for me to get used to it though. Then I fell in love with the feedback and the sound.
With this blade OSP offers a variety of head sizes. 150mm x 157mm (small), 150mm x 158mm (medium) or 150mm x 159mm (large). The medium and large head sizes are going to give you more wood feeling, a faster pace and a larger sweet spot. They are also going to perform better for backhand centered play. But they will also cause the blade to have a bit more weight in the head. I chose the “small” head size. Although they call 150mm x 157mm a small head size, that is a very standard head size. Some blades that have that head size are Stiga Clipper, Stiga Offensive Classic, Stiga Allround Evolution, Timo Boll ALC, ZLF, ZLC, Spirit, Viscaria. The list goes on.
I chose the 150mm x 157 mm head size because I like that size blade face for my blades. It works well for me.
Another thing to know about this blade. Many of the table tennis manufacturers make blades with hollowed out handles and market this as helping the blade’s play characteristics in some way. I personally like solid handles because it helps the blade feel more solid and have better feeling with less vibrations. I am pretty sure these handles are solid and have not been hollowed out.
After playing with the Virtuoso for about 6 weeks I ordered and received a second blade to try out from OSP. This second blade was the V’King. What interested me about this blade is that the plies are Koto-Spruce-Ayous-Spruce-Koto. Koto as an outer ply is harder than Limba so Koto will make a blade faster. This is also the same wood ply combination as for such classic blades as the famous P-500 blade from Avalox, or the old Stiga Offensive Classic. The more recent Stiga Offensive Classic uses Limba-Spruce-Ayous-Sprouce-Limba, but the older versions of the blade used Koto as the top ply. Also the Hurricane King from DHS uses the Koto-Spruce-Ayous combination. So I was interested to see how OSP’s V’King felt and played.
This blade is decently fast. Much faster than most 5 ply blades. Faster than the Offensive Classic from Stiga. Faster than the Hurricane King or the P-500. It is about the same speed as my Stiga Clipper and my Timo Boll ZLF.
With the harder top ply you need very precise and delicate touch to use this blade effectively. So it takes more skill and control from the player to use. In other words, you already should be playing at a decent level before trying to use this baby. But if you are at that level, this is a beast of a blade and a beauty. My loops have a ton of pop and power and I am not losing any spin with that Koto top ply which really bites into the ball for the spin. There is a ton of feedback and a great sound with each well contacted ball. As compared to the Virtuoso, the V’King has a higher pitched snap and a harder crunch. There is also a ping from the blade that brings with it a lot of speed and power on the ball. That feels really good on the power loops.
One thing to note, the dwell time on this blade is considerably less than the Virtuoso so, again, it takes much more skill and touch to utilize the properties of the Koto top ply, but once you get a feel for this blade it is unbeatable for the balance of feedback, spin and power. I can’t think of any all wood 5 ply blade that even comes close.
This blade did take me a little while to get used to though because the throw angle on it is much lower than the throw angle on the Virtuoso and I had gotten so used to the Virtuoso’s high throw angle. Once I got used to the touch and feel of the V’King and the throw angle, I stopped noticing it and my openings on third ball and my looping backspin with the blade just starting having a lot of power.
I had a friend of mine who plays with a ZJK blade try it and he loved it because of the amazing amount of feedback, wood feel and ball feel from the blade. Added to that the fact that the ZJK blade has the same top ply and is about the same speed as this, he really liked the blade.
OSP offers this blade in 151mm x 158mm head size. I think that would be a great head size for this blade and would give even more ball feel, wood feel and feedback. But I asked to get the blade with 150mm x 157mm. I really do like that size for the blade face for me. But having the blade and feeling it, I would bet that the standard size they offer for this blade would be amazing.
One more detail, OSP offers several options for handles. They have two kinds of straight handles. One is straight-square and the other is straight-round. Their flared handle is almost exactly the same as the Stiga Master Flare. Only better. They have a handle that is called UTCan which seems to be an Anatomic handle, and a handle called Elcon which is a conical shaped handle similar to flare but conical. And I have to say, the flare handle, which is the only one I tried, is the best handle I have ever had on any blade. I also love that the logo label is made of wood and so the whole handle is wood. Somehow that feels really good to me rather than having a disk of plastic or metal near the base of the handle.
Because I like these blades so much and feel like they are something to own, collect and hold onto, rather than just something to play with until I change to the next racket, I am intending to try a few more of their blades. But for now the Virtuoso and the V’King are the two blades in my arsenal that I will stick with.
A couple of months ago I decided I wanted to play with an all wood blade. I had been using a Butterfly Timo Boll ZLF for almost 1 and a half years. The blade I was using still works fine. I could go back to it if I wanted to. But I had decided that I had tried one of the two composite blades that I wanted to try. And it was time to go back to an all wood blade.
I had been thinking of this for a while and wanted to try a 5 ply all wood blade that had good flex, good dwell time, good wood feeling, and helped you generate good spin. I chose the company OSP. OSP stands for Old Stiga Palatinus. Palatinus is the name of the blade maker and master woodworker: Robert Palatinus. His goal, to make handmade blades with the quality and feeling of the Old Time Stiga blades.
The first blade I got myself to try was the OSP Virtuoso Off-. I am a big fan of blades that are in this speed class that are made of all wood because these blades are very good for a controlled offensive game and they help you develop your strokes and technique. For most tournament who play at a level that is below a USATT rating level of 2100, a blade like this would actually help them improve their strokes, their technique and develop their skills. Part of the reason is that the extra feedback and wood feeling that helps you know the quality of the contact you have made, helps your brain refine your technique without you even realizing that this is happening. And a blade that is Off- (fast enough but not too fast) would also help you develop your power because you have to hit the ball very precisely to get the ball to really go. But if you do have good contact, the ball goes as fast as a ball can go.
My Virtuoso Off-, I have to say, is pretty much the perfect blade. The blade is soft. It has a really high throw angle so it is really easy to loop backspin with this blade. It has a ton of dwell time. The ball stays on for long enough to really generate a lot of spin. It felt that way to me. But people who were on the other side of the table started asking, “how are you getting so much more spin?” The flex of the blade also helps with dwell time and extra spin. It loops like a dream. And to me, this is the biggest asset, it has the best wood feel and the most sensitive wood feel I have ever played with. The delicate, sensitive wood feel is there but there are no unwanted vibrations. You can easily feel different kinds of ball contact. It is like a fine tuned instrument.
Part of this has to do with the woods being used and the thickness of the different plies. Part of this has to do with the gluing process when OSP laminated the plies.
This particular blade has the plies: Limba-Limba-Ayous-Limba-Limba. The outer ply is very thin. that also goes into why the blade gives you such an ability to feel the ball so well.
In reviews I had read this blade is supposed to be very good at close to the table. I heard it loses something as you go farther back. I found this blade to be amazing close to the table. I know my level went up because of how well this blade performs in short game and over the table. I know this is not the fastest blade I have used. Not even close. And when I switched to it I was coming from a blade that is considerably faster. So for the first few days it felt on the slow side. But once I got used to it and really felt in sync with the blade, it felt to me like it performed quite well from all distances.
This blade also a really nice sound on contact which I love. It is a nice, fairly deep, snapping sound, almost a crunching sound when you get good solid contact. It is part of the feedback of the blade, but, to me the sound is important and affects to feel. I love the sound that you get from this blade. It gives so much feedback that it did take a few days for me to get used to it though. Then I fell in love with the feedback and the sound.
With this blade OSP offers a variety of head sizes. 150mm x 157mm (small), 150mm x 158mm (medium) or 150mm x 159mm (large). The medium and large head sizes are going to give you more wood feeling, a faster pace and a larger sweet spot. They are also going to perform better for backhand centered play. But they will also cause the blade to have a bit more weight in the head. I chose the “small” head size. Although they call 150mm x 157mm a small head size, that is a very standard head size. Some blades that have that head size are Stiga Clipper, Stiga Offensive Classic, Stiga Allround Evolution, Timo Boll ALC, ZLF, ZLC, Spirit, Viscaria. The list goes on.
I chose the 150mm x 157 mm head size because I like that size blade face for my blades. It works well for me.
Another thing to know about this blade. Many of the table tennis manufacturers make blades with hollowed out handles and market this as helping the blade’s play characteristics in some way. I personally like solid handles because it helps the blade feel more solid and have better feeling with less vibrations. I am pretty sure these handles are solid and have not been hollowed out.
After playing with the Virtuoso for about 6 weeks I ordered and received a second blade to try out from OSP. This second blade was the V’King. What interested me about this blade is that the plies are Koto-Spruce-Ayous-Spruce-Koto. Koto as an outer ply is harder than Limba so Koto will make a blade faster. This is also the same wood ply combination as for such classic blades as the famous P-500 blade from Avalox, or the old Stiga Offensive Classic. The more recent Stiga Offensive Classic uses Limba-Spruce-Ayous-Sprouce-Limba, but the older versions of the blade used Koto as the top ply. Also the Hurricane King from DHS uses the Koto-Spruce-Ayous combination. So I was interested to see how OSP’s V’King felt and played.
This blade is decently fast. Much faster than most 5 ply blades. Faster than the Offensive Classic from Stiga. Faster than the Hurricane King or the P-500. It is about the same speed as my Stiga Clipper and my Timo Boll ZLF.
With the harder top ply you need very precise and delicate touch to use this blade effectively. So it takes more skill and control from the player to use. In other words, you already should be playing at a decent level before trying to use this baby. But if you are at that level, this is a beast of a blade and a beauty. My loops have a ton of pop and power and I am not losing any spin with that Koto top ply which really bites into the ball for the spin. There is a ton of feedback and a great sound with each well contacted ball. As compared to the Virtuoso, the V’King has a higher pitched snap and a harder crunch. There is also a ping from the blade that brings with it a lot of speed and power on the ball. That feels really good on the power loops.
One thing to note, the dwell time on this blade is considerably less than the Virtuoso so, again, it takes much more skill and touch to utilize the properties of the Koto top ply, but once you get a feel for this blade it is unbeatable for the balance of feedback, spin and power. I can’t think of any all wood 5 ply blade that even comes close.
This blade did take me a little while to get used to though because the throw angle on it is much lower than the throw angle on the Virtuoso and I had gotten so used to the Virtuoso’s high throw angle. Once I got used to the touch and feel of the V’King and the throw angle, I stopped noticing it and my openings on third ball and my looping backspin with the blade just starting having a lot of power.
I had a friend of mine who plays with a ZJK blade try it and he loved it because of the amazing amount of feedback, wood feel and ball feel from the blade. Added to that the fact that the ZJK blade has the same top ply and is about the same speed as this, he really liked the blade.
OSP offers this blade in 151mm x 158mm head size. I think that would be a great head size for this blade and would give even more ball feel, wood feel and feedback. But I asked to get the blade with 150mm x 157mm. I really do like that size for the blade face for me. But having the blade and feeling it, I would bet that the standard size they offer for this blade would be amazing.
One more detail, OSP offers several options for handles. They have two kinds of straight handles. One is straight-square and the other is straight-round. Their flared handle is almost exactly the same as the Stiga Master Flare. Only better. They have a handle that is called UTCan which seems to be an Anatomic handle, and a handle called Elcon which is a conical shaped handle similar to flare but conical. And I have to say, the flare handle, which is the only one I tried, is the best handle I have ever had on any blade. I also love that the logo label is made of wood and so the whole handle is wood. Somehow that feels really good to me rather than having a disk of plastic or metal near the base of the handle.
Because I like these blades so much and feel like they are something to own, collect and hold onto, rather than just something to play with until I change to the next racket, I am intending to try a few more of their blades. But for now the Virtuoso and the V’King are the two blades in my arsenal that I will stick with.
