Latest Viscaria version Vs Older Viscaria version

I think it's stiffer cause it's new.
I remember my zjk alc when new it seemed so hard.
Now after like 2 years of use it feels much softer.

in part, also the fact of using it and hitting the same spot thousands of times I guess.
also in general time will make a wood softer I think.
humidity.
also the sweat of the hands.
there are many factors.

The handle is slightly different in the new ones, as if they cut the wood in a different direction. I have not hit with new ones enough to know for sure if there is something systematically different with how they play.

Bear in mind though, that soft is not the same as stiff, and different manufacturing series of Viscarias do have some differences (sometimes due to thickness of center ply). My favorites are from around 2007-2008.

My experience is that these blades don't get more flexible over time but they do tend to feel a bit softer as they age, even if they are not being used.

I bought a couple of Viscarias around 2014 (with silver tags) and they felt like bricks comparatively. I glued one of them up a couple of weeks ago and it actually played quite nicely.

The differences are actually not huge and I'm not ever sure I can put them in words. In some cases, part of it is weight, starting around 2012 a lot of Viscarias were being made in the 80-85 g weight. I prefer around 88-92g. Some of it is just something you have to experience by hitting with it. Everybody I know who likes ALC blades when they hit with my H series Viscaria says "wow, that's really nice". I think the extra weight of my older ones is in the handle so that is part of it too, they are not head heavy. I am not sure what else may explain it. It could just also be they are properly "aged". By the way, my 2014 blades are in the weight range I like, so that's not all there is to it.

I don't have exact numbers. My experience is that the oldest ones, without serial numbers, are smaller. Than they definitely got fatter, and stayed that way throughout the period of blades I like best, especially around 2006-2009, and possibly got a little smaller after around 2012. That is when I started seeing increasingly lighter ones being sold. By 2013 or thereabouts, some of the regular Viscarias were as light as the old Viscaria Light blade, and I suspect they were saving the weight by the way they made the handle (but I don't know that for sure). Why did they do it? Maybe because of increased use of heavier rubbers? Or maybe it was inadvertent some change in the manufacturing process or the wood they were getting? I have no idea.

One of the world's experts on this is a guy who posts under the name of Dean at MyTT. He owns about five of every series of the thing ever made. You can see some of this threads there, as he often posts pictures of his amazing collection. He definitely knows more than I do.

At the end of the day, only Butterfly knows everything about what is going on and they aren't saying.

Incidentally none of these are gigantic changes, but they are things that people (like me) who love these blades and never play with anything else would notice.

I use a coat of hairspray sometimes. Not really necessary with Finezip, Revolution, or Butterfly Free Chaque glues. I don't seal with anything permanent. At all costs, don't use Donic Blue Thunder glue, it will rip any blade to shreds.