How to deal with cracked blade face

     Hello. I was going in for a smash, and the blade slid out of my hands and flew off. The side of the blade at the top hit a wall, it sort of got pressed in at the top of the blade. There is now a big bump on the face of the blade. When the side of the blade got pushed in, it pushed the wood inwards towards the paddle, and bulged some of the wood up from the face of the blade. There was a 1 - 1.5 inch crack on the blade, with the crack forming a slight sloped surface on the top part of the blade face. Sort of like this:

     I pressed the "mountain" back down a bit, and tried keeping the rubber less blade under something heavy overnight, to flatten the blade to it's original shape, but the bulge is still there. Also, a small portion of the top layer of the blade face broke off. Now, I have a small 1mm deep "crater" on the top edge of the blade surface, so it is not on the center of the blade surface.

     Is there anything I can do about this, like fixing it or replacing the blade? The blade wasn't very expensive, less than $50 USD. However it was a gift, so I want to avoid replacing the blade. Would the "mountain" and the small "crater" be a problem later on when changing the rubber, or be a problem for my overall performance?

Hi HArry,

It could be a problem if it is in the area where you usually hit the ball.  If you really want to try and keep the blade you could try sanding the wood down to flat.  If the blade is cracked all the way through to the other side it may not be able to be repaired.  You could also use some wood filler to smooth it down.  I have seen that used to good effect especially on the edges of bats.