What is blade Lacquering in table tennis?

Published on 17 January 2023 3 minutes 3 minutes

Probably you might be purchasing a custom table tennis equipment and while making the purchase, you might have seen an additional low cost/free option called as blade lacquering or sealing of blade. Let’s dig into this art called blade lacquering, what’s really in this small detail available at the time of purchase and how does it really affect your racket?

SEE ALSO: How to Clean Table Tennis Racket

What is Blade Lacquering?

Blade Lacquering or sometimes used as blade sealing is a pretty standard techniques that is offered by sellers to add a thin layer of varnish on the table tennis blades before assembling rubbers. Ofcourse the layers can be added thick also but that drastically changes the property of the blade. It is a good technique that is used to protect the blade from splintering of wood while removing rubber for the blade.

What is the benefit of Blade Lacquering?

As you might have judged, if you change your rubbers regularly then using this sealing technique wll make your blade less vulnerable to splitting of wood in smaller pieces because of the added layer of varnish on your blade. Also the strength of your racket wood will be increased using varnish and the glue adhesive won’t be able to penetrate in the wood at molecular levels. This doesn’t mean that you racket is completely saved from any wood splintering, only thing is it will increase the possibility of saving your blade.

The higher the layer of varnish, the higher is the protection of wood with higher changes in blade characteristics.

What is the downside of Blade Lacquering?

Well, the hard fact is that blade lacquering changes the properties of your blade. You can seal the blade but it will make the racket faster and that’s not a big downside unless you are concerned with minor details of playing characteristics of the blade.

Should you seal your blade yourself?

Blade sealing is a tedious process, personally I will recommend you to get it done from a professional as this requires to be done in a careful way and their is a lot of mess as the varnish get’s spilled. Unlike rubbers, you will need to even seal the edges of the blade and accidentally you might add more amount of varnish than you initially thought of adding. I personally order blades which I change rubber frequently with blade lacquering.

Conclusion

Blade Lacquering is a good sealing technique of table tennis blade that can help protect your table tennis blade and increase overall life of your blade. This allows you to change rubbers multiple times without worrying much about the damage on the blade. The only downside is that it affects the original properties of the wood and makes the racket faster. Our recommendation -

If you change your rubbers every day/week, than we recommend getting blade lacquering.
If you don’t change your blade every day/week/month, than we don’t recommend getting blade lacquering.

It is down to personal choice, some people take precautions and some people take small measures to prevent their equipment. It’s up to you what really is your objective.

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