Funeral for Bernard Hock
Margaret Smith
Friday, August 20, at:
Craft Funeral Home
708 East Spring Street
New Albany, IN
812-945-6321
The funeral will be held on Saturday, August 21, at 10:00 a.m. at St.
Mary's New Albany Catholic Church.
--
Margaret Smith
USATT Operations Director
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Share what you know. Learn what you don't.
Sexton, F. H. (Frank)
I found this news to be sadly ironic given the previous thread about
hardbat. One of my prize table tennis possessions is a Hoch hardbat.
I used it to win 3 Michigan Hardbat titles. My condolences go out to
his surviving family.
--
Frank Sexton
End of regluing is near
<fse...@eccms1.dearborn.ford.com> wrote:
>
>I found this news to be sadly ironic given the previous thread about
>hardbat. One of my prize table tennis possessions is a Hoch hardbat.
So are a few of mine. I was fucking lucky that one of mine broke
(semi-large defensive) a few years ago & I panicked & bought another
which was the wrong one (an offensive small head). I kept it anyway &
ordered another & then managed to fix & restore the broken one also.
I also got a large head blade designed for hardrubber at a bragain
price of $5.
For defensive blades for no sponge type play, Hock blades seem to
have no parallel (& I hope he fucking did not go bye bye without
trasferring all the technical knowhow of the only long-standing TT
blade maker to anyone else )
This also brings up interesting issues.
Who was in competition with Hock during the hardrubber era ?
Butterfly as I understand is a product of the sponge era.
Can Butterfly (or any other Europeans / Asians) make as good defensive
blades as Hock especially for hardrubber play (Butterfly's
defensive blades, all sponge oriented are truly pathetic & no match
to Hock) ?
I even wonder ....do the top choppers esp Syed know about the Hock
blades ? I have been able to atack the hardest with Hock blades
(for a defensive blade, that is). Syed seems to be known to whack the
ball really hard & I wonder how much better he would be with a Hock
bat. ( I know for sure his chops will be 100 times more effective,
because in chop mode where contact is more tangential, the Hock
blade vibrrates a lot, making it harder to attack as compared to the
Butterfly Grubba Pro that Syed uses which is extremely slow &
extremely stable and much more easily attackable at even my level.).
But in the hitting mode where the cotact is more orthogonal, the
Hock blade stiffens like a bitch & provides tremendous offense.
The only time I spoke with Hock was over the phone in 1993
(when I was playing a lot ) to ask him to make a custom two speed
blade which would be even faster & stiffer on one side & even softer
yet faster on the other.He essentially politely said "Fuck you"
because he seemd to be to surprisingly think the blade did
not make that much of a difference for a brilliant blade-maker
which I did not buy anyway because at that point I felt he did
not want to bother with designing any more blades.
After this I had that ASTI bitch CW Smith make some custom blades
& they were quite good. Tong Lee is still keeping CW Smith a secret
from me after all these years , what a bitch.
John Grinnell
<snip>
> For defensive blades for no sponge type play, Hock blades seem to
> trasferring all the technical knowhow of the only long-standing TT
> blade maker to anyone else )
Check out Don Varian's Hock Table Tennis Company...the successor
enterprise.
>
> This also brings up interesting issues.
> Who was in competition with Hock during the hardrubber era ?
During the years immediately preceding the Hock period, the blade of
choice (at least in NYC) was the MacCrossen. When the MacCrossen was
being retilled at $7.00, the Hock came on the market at $3.50, and in
addition, offered a very wide variety of shapes and construction
details, compared to MacCrossen's 2-shapes, one blade-material choices.
They both featured "Leyland" rubber, and nominal weights of between 4
1/8 to 4 7/8 ounces. MacCrossen *did* offer many other choices, but in
all my years at Lawrence's, I never saw a "player" use one.
<snip>
>
> The only time I spoke with Hock was over the phone in 1993
> (when I was playing a lot ) to ask him to make a custom two speed
> blade which would be even faster & stiffer on one side & even softer
> yet faster on the other.He essentially politely said "#### ###"
> because he seemd to be to surprisingly think the blade did
> not make that much of a difference...
He tried a lot of variations in the early fifties...after that, I don't
know...and perhaps the feed-back he received (i.e., sales figures for
the more exotic-material blades) convinced him that no one found them to
be of any advantage. Or, perhaps, by the 90's, he just didn't want to
try something "new", again, when he'd already decided it hadn't been
important "way back when". Could it have been your perceived attitude
or choice of language, do you think?
<snip>
...for a brilliant blade-maker (sic)
> which I did not buy anyway because at that point I felt he did
> not want to bother with designing any more blades.
<snip>
(No Sig)
John the Elder
>
End of regluing is near
<jgri...@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
> Could it have been your perceived attitude
>or choice of language, do you think?
{
Oh yeah, that is how I speak to total strangers
that I meet for the first time over the phone :)
}
John Grinnell
That explains it then...
Scott Gordon
: For defensive blades for no sponge type play, Hock blades seem to
: have no parallel (& I hope he fucking did not go bye bye without
: trasferring all the technical knowhow of the only long-standing TT
: blade maker to anyone else )
Don Varian bought Hock TTC and is putting out a practically identical
product using the original plywood. What makes the Hock blades so
unique is the plywood. Even his thinnest 3-ply blades never warp.
He had a secret process for generating ultra thin plywood that didn't
warp. There is still a lot of his original wood left.
: This also brings up interesting issues.
: Who was in competition with Hock during the hardrubber era ?
MacCrossen, Slazenger, Flisans, Barna (Dunlop), McClure (PlaGood),
Bergmann, Leach (Halex), Amouretti, are a few that come to mind.
: Butterfly as I understand is a product of the sponge era.
: Can Butterfly (or any other Europeans / Asians) make as good defensive
: blades as Hock especially for hardrubber play (Butterfly's
: defensive blades, all sponge oriented are truly pathetic & no match
: to Hock) ?
Andro makes a Barna replica intended for hardbat, and is marketing
it under the name "Victor".
: The only time I spoke with Hock was over the phone in 1993
: (when I was playing a lot ) to ask him to make a custom two speed
: blade which would be even faster & stiffer on one side & even softer
: yet faster on the other.He essentially politely said "Fuck you"
: because he seemd to be to surprisingly think the blade did
: not make that much of a difference for a brilliant blade-maker
: which I did not buy anyway because at that point I felt he did
: not want to bother with designing any more blades.
He was getting quite old by then and probably starting to have
difficulty physically making it down to his workshop.
Scott
Alan & Erin Williams
It is the way you speak to total strangers over the Internet, so this is
very believable.
Alan
Certified Official
<will...@mindspring.com> wrote:
>
>It is the way you speak to total strangers over the Internet,
>so this is very believable.
You are convincing proof as to why she acts like she does
in this newsgroup.
You see, you keep insisting that she talks to a total
stranger she meets for the first time, which is clear proof
why this newsgroup is a collection of assholes & deserve
what they get
Alan & Erin Williams
"She" can't even tell the truth about his gender, so why bother reading
further?
As for 'deserving' your posts....seeya round, Bucko.
Alan