Table tennis stories

How we build a replica of his beloved Table Tennis racket for over 80-year old Tony from England

Replica of almost 50 years old table tennis blade

We received a particularly exciting request from Tony in England – Tony is almost 90 years old and is still chairman of a local table tennis club. He has been playing table tennis almost all his life and a big part of it – almost 50 years! – with one and the same racket!

“My nearly 50-year old table tennis racket is damaged. Can you rebuild it for me? I can’t play without this racket!“

Sure, of course we do! We love to do it!
So Tony took the his racket to the post office and when we opened the package a few days later, we were surprised ourselves – Oh yes, this blade has really been through a lot! I wonder how many hours he has played with it? And how many rubber changes do you think it has survived?

The table tennis blade replica

Rebuilding such a racket was a very special challenge and not at all easy. With such an old blade, it is not enough just to rebuild the veneer structure. This is because the aging process and the materials used at the time must also be recreated.

• on the one hand, a wood dries out extremely over the decades
• and the adhesives used back then naturally had completely different properties than our adhesives today

We therefore removed as much moisture as we could from the wood in our drying process. Of course, you can’t imitate drying for years in a short time, but we got pretty close.

We also experimented with different adhesives that differ in elasticity – until we found the right ratio.

The racket handle

For the playing feel, of course, the handle is crucial – the original had a plain straight handle that was rounded at the bottom. So we used the G1 grip shape on forehand and backhand, lengthened the grip a bit, and sanded off the curve at the end by hand.

The result

The replica worked well – the shape and playing characteristics of the replica table tennis bat are very close to the original.

And to ensure he has a supply for the rest of his life, Tony ordered two pieces straight away.

We thank him for the great order and wish him a lot of fun and success with the new old racket!

Would you also like to have an old table tennis racket rebuilt? Or do you have a favorite racket that is no longer manufactured?

In most cases it is not a big problem to rebuild an old table tennis bat. If no very special materials are used, we have most of them here.

Write us an email and we will be happy to help you.