Anyone make a ping pong blade?

[Paul F Franklin]

BIL is a ranked pong player (in the older than dirt division). He has asked me to make him a blade from some red oak that he cut on his property and gave to me 10 or more years ago.

I told him I didn't think an oak blade would meet the regulations (maybe too heavy?), but he doesn't care, it's mostly a sentimental connection to his property and the oak, and he wouldn't use it for tournament play.

I would like to do this for him, and I will be doing research but thought I would seek advice here.

I have quite a bit of the oak left. It was kiln dried at the time of cutting and has been stored in my shop for at least 10 years. It was plain sawn and is mostly clear of knots and defects. I have pieces that are wide enough to make a blade in a single piece, by resawing a piece to appropriate thickness, but I don't know if that is the best approach.

The other approach I can imagine is a 3 ply sandwich with the middle ply cross grain. But I think each ply would have to be really thin and have no experience with really thin resawing. I have a laguna 18 BX with a good resaw blade. I do not have drum sander.

I'd appreciate any suggestions!

[Mike Kees]

Try it out and just go from there. Sometimes the best way to learn is just doing it.

[Lee Schierer]

Quarter sawed wood is pretty stable regarding warping. If you have plain sawed pieces from the whole log you should have pieces where the grain is very similar to quarter sawed wood. Even two pieces edge glued glued to get the necessary width should stay pretty flat if properly prepared and finished equally on both sides.

[Pete Staehling]

You could probably hand sand the plies pretty well with care and a large sanding block. I made thin (~0.090") sound boards for musical instruments that way before i had a thickness sander. Since the pieces are not all that large it shouldn't really be too hard. If you were really fussy you could make a jig with guide rails and a block that rode on the rails. The sanding jig could work on the same principle as the slab flattening jigs that folks use with routers. It would probably be gross overkill though and a good eye, a large sanding block, frequent checking on progress, and some care in sanding is probably all that you need.

Also have you considered that you could maybe lower the weight by using a lighter wood for the center ply? It might make the difference between being legal for tournament play and not. You'd still use some of the red oak, but meet the weight requirement.

Quarter sawn pieces might work okay and edge gluing shouldn't be a problem and may even be an advantage as far as stability stability. It will weigh what it weighs for any given thickness though.

[Rob Damon]

There are a lot of vids on YT for making one .

Good read through here on what is allowed:

https://racquetsedge.com/table-tennis/how-to-choose-best-paddle/