andro ‘Wanokiwami’ series is a very special pure wood blade family that is produced at Yamanoki which is a Japanese wood processing company by wood craftsmen who have won many awards in various skill competitions. ‘Wanokiwami’ series has been improved and completed through repeated testing by top players and coaches active in German professional table tennis league. ‘Wanokiwami’ series includes three models – ‘Wanokiwami Ren’ which is a 7-ply wood offensive blade, ‘Wanokiwami Ao’ which is a 5-ply wood offensive blade, and ‘Wanokiwami Midori’ which is a defensive blade.
Among those three, ‘Wanokiwami Ao’ is a fast 5-ply wood blade that provides high performance in offensive skills. While providing high elasticity, ‘Wanokiwami Ao’ provide helps player to play aggressively but safely by the ability of catching the ball securely.
andro ‘Wanokiwami Ao’ is a top-quality 5-ply wood blade made with Yamanoki’s wood processing knowledge and technology.
‘Wanokiwami Ao’ is a 5-ply wood blade. The top layer is Limba, the middle layer is also Limba, and the center layer looks like Kiri. Overall thickness is around 6.1mm.
The handle of ‘Wanokiwami Ao’ is carved from solid wood, and therefore has a very classic look. aThe width of FL (flared) handle is around 23mm (at head side) ~ 27mm (at bulge) ~ 25mm (at the middle of handle) ~ 32mm (at the end), and the thickness of FL handle is around 23mm (at thumb) ~ 24mm (at the end). The size of ST (straight) handle which isn’t shown in the picture is around 29mm (width) x around 24mm (thickness).
At foreside of handle squared logo panel is applied. This logo panel is the common one that is applied to most of andro blades.
At the low left corner of the foreside of head, the blade is stamped with the stamp of Mr. Takeshi Wanaka who is the representative of Yamanoki Co. Ltd., who is the manufacturer of ‘Wanokiwami’ series, and supervises the produced products.
There isn’t metal plate or plastic lens at the end of handle.
Printing or lens isn’t applied at the backside of head.
The head of ‘Wanokiwami Ao’ is quite big. Its size is around 160mm x 153mm.
Not only the material but also the shape of handle gives classic feel. What is particularly unique is that the area where the thumb rests is not flat but is inwardly curved.
Following are the performance indices of andro Wanokiwami Ao (avg.weight = 87.9g) :
– Ep = 1.88
– Ec = 1.51 (Ec/Ep = 0.80)
– Vp = 1.16
– Vl = 1.31 (Vl/Vp = 1.13)
Please note that above are average values and can be updated by further measurement.
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TTGearLab 
Beautiful blade, a guy I know played with one briefly in Indonesia and loved it. Do you think you will review the 7 ply version?
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It is really beautiful blade. And, I have just uploaded the pictures of Wanokiwami Ren which is the 7-ply version. So far I have just measured this series and uploaded the data and the pictures. I will test at table tennis court those blades sooner or later. (But, the measured data are much more important in this home page. :-))
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Ah,just saw the Ren update. I will be in Japan in a month and will buy one if the ST handle is big enough. I’m torn as to which one, however. If the 5 ply is really this fast that will most likely be the one. I’m really looking forward to your testers opinion’s of these two blades. Thanks again for providing this info.
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You will be able to see it at many shops in Japan. For example World Rubber Market at Takadanobaba. They have all models all variations of Wanokiwami series. Please directly check the ST handle before buying.
Wanokiwami Ao is a very fast 5-ply wood blade. Its Ep is same as that of Nittaku Tenor which is also a very fast 5-ply wood blade. But, the Ec of Wanokiwami Ao is much lower than the Ec of Tenor. So Wanokiwami Ao hugs ball very deep when the impact is strong, and that may make the player feel that Wanokiwami Ao is slower than expected. But, if you play aggressively at close-to-table area, I think that you will be satisfied with it. Andro is also explaining that Wanokiwami Ao is the powerful blade for aggressive play. On the contrary, it is expected that it will not provide that high level of power if the player plays at mid-distance area. In this poly-boll era, making powerful ball from mid-distance area by 5-ply wood is somewhat difficult even though the elasticity of that blade is high.
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Good information, thank you. I think it will have enough speed for what I want to do with it if paired with hard rubbers. I still am curious what your impressions are after playing both these Andro blades. Thanks for the good articles. 🙏
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Thank you! I’ll try the court testing of Wanokiwami series as soon as possible.
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