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    BITZER KIRSCHBAUM DIRECTIONAL GRIP RACQUET 1984 ERA RARE

    Excellent patent sleuthing as usual, @Sanglier ! According to their website bumf, Pankonin Snr and Jnr are now only working in the medium of promotional shirts, bags, and small accessories. For some reason (???!!!) they no longer deal in tennis racquets… Perhaps they couldn’t get a grip on the...
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    BITZER KIRSCHBAUM DIRECTIONAL GRIP RACQUET 1984 ERA RARE

    Seems like a strange crutch for flaws in technique that would make other strokes even more compromised! If all one hits is forehands, perfect. Or backhands, perfect. But both, plus serves? Oh my
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    REALLY Ancient History

    Hmm, @Sanglier , I think I understand the point you’re making, and generally agree, however with a nod to a possible caveat of the variability of natural materials… grain, density, etc… which could, even in a homogeneous (ie milled) frame made from one piece of lumber, still be subject to...
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    REALLY Ancient History

    Well, wood lamination has been a “thing” since around 3,500 B.C. (Before Cherry?!), with archeologists discovering something akin to plywood in pharaohic tombs in Egypt. It was rediscovered as a technology in the mid-1850’s by Immanuel Nobel in Sweden, the father of Alfred Nobel (of explosives...
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    REALLY Ancient History

    The thought of it being a sovereign double-entendre entered my mind, too. I believe you’re remembering the helpful Snauwaert butt caps.
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    Best items you found at thrift stores (Goodwill)?

    Yes, the Kneissl models from late 1986 through 1989 or so featured a number in the model name (i.e. Masters 10, Aeramic 25, Spark 35 etc.) which was meant to indicate the percentage larger than a traditional standard-sized head the racquet had. Donnay and Rossignol did similar things with their...
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    REALLY Ancient History

    If I recall correctly, “Ich Dien” figures in the heraldic seal of the Prince of Wales. So perhaps this Slazenger is a cheeky, unofficial royal Autograph model? Or an obliquely obscure element of élan?
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    Head (Prestige) mid history

    Yes, the “Pre-Prestige” was from the same box beam mold as the 1986-1988 Graphite Pro(fessional) and Composite Pro(fessional), and a bevy of other models from said mold (Team Pro, Club Pro, etc.), and was available in Europe in 1985, never in North America or elsewhere, as far as I know. The...
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    My Dad's collection: A half-century in 19 woodies

    Hold this Italian-made frame to hit forehands with a Western grip, and the shot can be considered a “Spaghetti Western!”
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    My Dad's collection: 50 years of metal racquets

    Somehow, I can imagine Torben’s young son in a state of impish creativity, finding and then dismantling his Dad’s old Dunlop, taking the two chrome rods of steel, one in each hand, and hitting things with them…
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    My Dad's collection: 50 years of metal racquets

    I’m not sure what other metal frame information might be helpful. Is there a Midland STR in the collection, by chance? That’s my favourite metal frame of the era of wacky engineering ideas.
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    My Dad's collection: 50 years of metal racquets

    Dunlop must have sacked the golf club designer who came up with the abysmally-performing Mono Shaft, and shortly after came up with a frame with two (!!) parallel chrome shafts between the head and handle. However (and I say this from a place of experience, having tried both racquets), doubling...
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    REALLY Ancient History

    I’m a week in arrears on reviewing this fabulous, ongoing chronolog (pressing engineering projects have reared their ugly noggins in retro-world) but I was snickering to myself about the preponderance of pseudonyms employed among the participants in the Commenting About Tennis Community of 110...
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    Best items you found at thrift stores (Goodwill)?

    Hahahaha! It certainly looked like it…
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    Best items you found at thrift stores (Goodwill)?

    Zina Garrison used the white Kevlar 95 with considerable success.
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    Obscure/unpopular frames used by pros

    Voelkl literature of the time called that „plaid“ stringing Tandem Stringing. I think all it really did was make racquet stringing professionals angry-!
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    Obscure/unpopular frames used by pros

    Voelkl made some attractive composite racquets, and had attractive eponymous lines of men’s and women’s clothing, shoes, and other accessories (bags) circa 1983-1986, and they even signed on as the official supplier of all of the above to the Soviet Davis and Federation Cup teams. The equipment...
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    Obscure/unpopular frames used by pros

    Voelkl (and Kneissl, another ski manufacturer who diversified into tennis) reused model names from their ski lines on their tennis lines. World Cup, Servo, Impuls… White Star, Red Star, Blue Star, World Star, Cup Star, Vario, etc.
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    Obscure/unpopular frames used by pros

    It’s a standard +14% head size, so approximately 74 square inches. Mains were fairly short. I believe also Andrei Chesnokov… or was it Cherkasov??? Used the model circa 1986 as well.
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    Best items you found at thrift stores (Goodwill)?

    I still crack up when I see the Pro Supex chicken logo… whereas the French are historically (ahem) cocky with their Coq Sportif, reflecting their chosen national sporting symbol, on the Supex, it appears lifted from a ramen package. Chicken Noodle Supex?
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    Obscure/unpopular frames used by pros

    That’s NS14, I think.
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    Donnay GTI 25

    +50 style points awarded to @teachingprotx for the Long Duk Dong quote.
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    Best items you found at thrift stores (Goodwill)?

    I think one good, hard, flat first serve, taken from the baseline right next to the center marker will be all the empirical exploration necessary to generate a definitive conclusion. Recommend wearing a full-face helmet, and have some Tiger Balm handy for the shoulder.
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    Best items you found at thrift stores (Goodwill)?

    Hmmm… tempting. However, the squash frames seem to be strung quite a bit more loosely than a tennis racket, and are designed to strike a ball that only weighs 23-25g, where a regulation tennis ball is 56-59.4g—over twice as heavy. These two factors suggest to me that the squash racket hitting...
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    Best items you found at thrift stores (Goodwill)?

    The court that was available to me was industrial carpet, and played slow. We used several rolls of masking tape to make singles court lines—doubles alleys would have been a waste. It was immediately apparent that the normal space needed for a basketball court is shorter than that of a tennis...
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    Best items you found at thrift stores (Goodwill)?

    I have to play squash on a racquetball court, whose dimensions aren’t quite right, and which lacks the lines and “tin.” Not unlike the times I played tennis indoors, on a basketball court, with a volleyball net strung between two folding chairs as netposts!
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    Best items you found at thrift stores (Goodwill)?

    I would love to have one of those someday. Lately I have been using a Fischer or a Prince. Stateside, and it seems acutely here in my sector of California, squash is a rather obscure sport and not well supported.
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    Best items you found at thrift stores (Goodwill)?

    I took up squash again last year as a solution to winter training. I knew of the IMF Dunlop frames for squash, but never ever find them on the big auction site, stateside.
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    Best items you found at thrift stores (Goodwill)?

    Perhaps with a little bit of luck and a lot of planning, more of us will be able to meet up in person, and play some tennis with interesting equipment! I am game. Anyone else in Northern California available (for starters)?
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    Legendary Racquet Hoop Dimensions

    HOOP! There it is! (sorry, everyone; couldn’t resist)
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