EJ season has started!
After seeing how Yuya Oshima have performed lately I got curious of what was so special about his setup? I did some investigation and found his blade, the Mizuno Fortius FT (Fine Touch), for a reasonable price.
Unboxing the blade:
The Fortius FT comes in a nice presentable box from Mizuno with a lot of Japanese wording which I do not understand. With the Fortius FT you get high quality for the money. Looks like Mizuno does comprise with anything. The blade just looks stunning with the selected colors lens and the beautiful logo in the end of the handle. The sample I got weighs 93g which were the lightest they had.
Composition is: Limba-Ayous-Ayous-Ayous-Ayous-Ayous-Limba
For testing I decided to pair up the blade with the new GF series of rubbers from Mizuno the T48 on FH and T45 on BH both max. The numbers indicates the hardness of the rubbers. Andro 2* Polyballs were used for the test.
The following impressions is after one training training session.
Counter drive: When counter driving I had to adjust as I kept hitting the ball into the net. After some minutes the balls were hitting the other side of the table again.
One thing I noticed from the Fortius blade was the amount of feel and control it had. When going back to an all wood blade I always get reminded of how the feel is.
Loop: Here I got amazed how this setup was performing. The GF rubbers creates this awesome click sound when looping like in the good old days before the SGB. The trajectory was in between medium/low with the T48 in FH and I would say it was medium with the T45 in BH. The outer limba the its job right giving a very good dwell time so you can generate spin in the ball. Sweet spot were very good for an all wood blade.
Block: In this aspect of the game the Fortius FT is very balanced between feel control and speed. Block is a child's play with the setup without any comprises.
Short play: Is very easy with this setup. I even thought the GF rubbers were insensitive for incoming spin compared to Tenergy rubbers which made the receiving game easier.
Flicks: With the limba top ply and the rubber combination getting grip in to the ball did not feel too difficult even on heavy backspin serves. Big thumbs up!
Mid distance: Here the Fortius FT is very balanced playing balls in low/medium arc. Trajectory was very decent, but it lacks in terms of speed compared to my W968 or Viscaria.
Conclusion: The Mizuno Fortius FT is a blade in the -OFF/OFF range. I will recommend this blade to players who plays close to mid distance from the table. It is minded for a close to the table looping game where spin and speed is very balanced. The blade has a medium feel and is relative stiff. It does not have a lot of vibration and have a lot of dwell. Compared to similar blades like the Stiga Clipper this blades have different thickness of plies and it does feel different from the Clipper. The Fortius FT is a heavy blade but balanced well even heavy rubbers. I would say this blade is a great value for the buck.
Product information
