From Infinity to Eternity - Something new is coming from STIGA!

[TurboZ]

Spring is ending in 2 days. Stiga please.....

 

[yogi_bear]

the arctic has either white ash or spruce top plies. about the eternity, i love this blade only problems are it is heavy and you would need to seal the blade surface when gluing your rubbers and that is mandatory.

 

[TurboZ]

the arctic has either white ash or spruce top plies. about the eternity, i love this blade only problems are it is heavy and you would need to seal the blade surface when gluing your rubbers and that is mandatory.

I think Stiga claimed that it is something new and never used in any table tennis blade before. Interest to know what it really is. Any news about release date? Is it still Spring in Sweden?

 

[yogi_bear]

probably may 2017

 

[TurboZ]

Saw a Chinese article saying it will be available in April. It is one expensive 5 ply wood blade priced in the Rosewood range. Can't wait to see how good it is for the price.

Spec: Thickness: 6.0-6.4mm. Weight: 80-89g. Size: 150x158mm. Control: 65. Speed: 110. Class: OFF.

 

[TurboZ]

Finally, 4 months and 12 days overdue, I'm chill .

It is 6mm thick and surprisingly light at 178g glued with Rasanter V47 and V42. All the rest in the Stiga Se7en series are heavy weight ranging from 194g to 205g. Initial feel is Great! Is that the blade, the rubber or both? Probably all the above combined. Will play with it tomorrow and see how wonderful it is.



Only gripe is that even the cheaper Eternity has a unique design cardboard box of its own but this time the highly anticipated Arctic Wood only comes with a plain and yellow generic paper box. Stiga, you can't do that to a 100 euro 5 ply wood blade. That is unforgivably wrong.

 

[Suga D]

Spring is ending in 2 days. Stiga please.....

Where did you get that from? That's not correct.

Is it still Spring in Sweden?

Just for the record: in the northern hemisphere spring starts at 21st of March and ends on the 20th of june
[Emoji12]

Finally, 4 months and 12 days overdue, I'm chill .

It is 6mm thick and surprisingly light at 178g glued with Rasanter V47 and V42. All the rest in the Stiga Se7en series are heavy weight ranging from 194g to 205g. Initial feel is Great! Is that the blade, the rubber or both? Probably all the above combined. Will play with it tomorrow and see how wonderful it is.

View attachment 12750View attachment 12751

Only gripe is that even the cheaper Eternity has a unique design cardboard box of its own but this time the highly anticipated Arctic Wood only comes with a plain and yellow generic paper box. Stiga, you can't do that to a 100 euro 5 ply wood blade. That is unforgivably wrong.

View attachment 12752

Gr8!

Looks nice, buddy.

 

[yogi_bear]

nice, mine will be coming by may. is the top ply like white ash? or is it really arctic wood. i could not find a wood named arctic wood but probably a pine species.

 

[P1ngP0ng3r]

Nice pictures, thanks for sharing.
Very curious how this blade plays, so please share your thoughts on this when you played with it.

Tried multiple other blades, but keep coming back to Infinity. Would this be "the one"?

 

[TurboZ]

nice, mine will be coming by may. is the top ply like white ash? or is it really arctic wood. i could not find a wood named arctic wood but probably a pine species.

I hope Stiga can tell us what it really is. From their description it said "we have found a rare pale outer veneer which only grows in the cold and deep forests above the arctic circle...". It does have a distinctive texture like no other. My best guess is that it is pine of some sort after some googling.

 

[TurboZ]

Nice pictures, thanks for sharing.
Very curious how this blade plays, so please share your thoughts on this when you played with it.

Tried multiple other blades, but keep coming back to Infinity. Would this be "the one"?

May be I am used to heavier setups lately especially with the new ball so "initially" this below 180g Arctic Wood + Rasanter Ultra Max both sides seems kind of lacking in precision for me. I am totally comfortable with the 245/290 pair these days and they are 200g and over with Airoc 2.3 both sides. I find them match perfectly with D40+. They are fast, easy and powerful yet control and precision is high.

The Arctic Wood's light weight combined with freshly glued Rasanter V actually gave me some hard times. Balls go long and shooting all over the place in the first few minutes. Only after 15 mins or so did I get the hang of it and everything start falling into places. It is a looping machine alright. Not as easy to put the power through with loud click as my Emerald + Rasant Powergrip. But looping with it is awesome and pack with crazy curves and big dip. It easily brings back the lost of spin many complained about with the D40+. Can't imagine what the spin oriented Rasanter R is like on this one.

It is stiff with next to no vibration and perform similarly to Rosewood V type of all wood blades. I bet the new rubber will "calm down" after a week or two and should feel "normal" and matching the blade more by then. I can't remember my Emerald + Powergrip is ever this crazy in loops even when new. Anyway I am totally comfortable with it after an hour of play. I bet many players will like it for a 5 ply. I will definitely put it above Eternity and Celero.

It is time for me to find a matching case. Why Stiga does not make any case in white?

 

[Zaid323918]

May be I am used to heavier setups lately especially with the new ball so "initially" this below 180g Arctic Wood + Rasanter Ultra Max both sides seems kind of lacking in precision for me. I am totally comfortable with the 245/290 pair these days and they are 200g and over with Airoc 2.3 both sides. I find them match perfectly with D40+. They are fast, easy and powerful yet control and precision is high.

The Arctic Wood's light weight combined with freshly glued Rasanter V actually gave me some hard times. Balls go long and shooting all over the place in the first few minutes. Only after 15 mins or so did I get the hang of it and everything start falling into places. It is a looping machine alright. Not as easy to put the power through with loud click as my Emerald + Rasant Powergrip. But looping with it is awesome and pack with crazy curves and big dip. It easily brings back the lost of spin many complained about with the D40+. Can't imagine what the spin oriented Rasanter R is like on this one.

It is stiff with next to no vibration and perform similarly to Rosewood V type of all wood blades. I bet the new rubber will "calm down" after a week or two and should feel "normal" and matching the blade more by then. I can't remember my Emerald + Powergrip is ever this crazy in loops even when new. Anyway I am totally comfortable with it after an hour of play. I bet many players will like it for a 5 ply. I will definitely put it above Eternity and Celero.

It is time for me to find a matching case. Why Stiga does not make any case in white?

Could you also review the Rasanters that you tried out or tell us how they play or compared to the Rasants.

 

[James Livesey]

Yo turboz, what do you make of infinity and intensity. On paper those appear to be 2 of the best rpb blades on the market. Lightweight, offensive looping blades.

 

[SFF_lib]

May be I am used to heavier setups lately especially with the new ball so "initially" this below 180g Arctic Wood + Rasanter Ultra Max both sides seems kind of lacking in precision for me. I am totally comfortable with the 245/290 pair these days and they are 200g and over with Airoc 2.3 both sides. I find them match perfectly with D40+. They are fast, easy and powerful yet control and precision is high.

The Arctic Wood's light weight combined with freshly glued Rasanter V actually gave me some hard times. Balls go long and shooting all over the place in the first few minutes. Only after 15 mins or so did I get the hang of it and everything start falling into places. It is a looping machine alright. Not as easy to put the power through with loud click as my Emerald + Rasant Powergrip. But looping with it is awesome and pack with crazy curves and big dip. It easily brings back the lost of spin many complained about with the D40+. Can't imagine what the spin oriented Rasanter R is like on this one.

It is stiff with next to no vibration and perform similarly to Rosewood V type of all wood blades. I bet the new rubber will "calm down" after a week or two and should feel "normal" and matching the blade more by then. I can't remember my Emerald + Powergrip is ever this crazy in loops even when new. Anyway I am totally comfortable with it after an hour of play. I bet many players will like it for a 5 ply. I will definitely put it above Eternity and Celero.

It is time for me to find a matching case. Why Stiga does not make any case in white?

Interesting. Thanks for the review.

Do you mean artic is harder than celero?

 

[TurboZ]

Could you also review the Rasanter that you tried out or tell us how they play or compared to the Rasants.

As I have only spent an hour or so with the new Rasanter and won't play again in the Easter holiday so my first impression may not be all accurate. A freshly glued rubber will always gives me that wow factor.

For now I would say the Rasanter is definitely spinier and grip better than Rasant. The new trend of soft and thin top sheet plus Ultra Max sponge is a successful formula matching the new ball. Even the old Rasant with Grip and Powergrip put in their names, their grip is nothing outstanding.

The Rasanter R has 50 rating which may compare better to Powergrip in power that I use but too bad all R is out of stock. Will try when I get the chance. Using V47, I need more contact/hit to reach the same power as Powergrip on Emerald in loop drives.

 

[TurboZ]

Yo turboz, what do you make of infinity and intensity. On paper those appear to be 2 of the best rpb blades on the market. Lightweight, offensive looping blades.

I have Infinity in shakehand because of FZD so as a penholder myself I have not spend much play time with it. I just bought it for the collection.

I have Intensity in CPen obviously for the sake of XX, but mine is only 168g pairing with Big Dipper and T64 which is way bellow my comfort zone. This is quite fast for its weight and I found it one the most hard to control in my collection. I prefer a setup that is heavy and fast rather than one that is light and fast. For now the 200g 290 is my favorite with the new ball, even the 205g 245 is feeling great with power and control. Of course it is just me and I believe many will love something light for RPB. That is all down to one's habit I believe.

 

[TurboZ]

Interesting. Thanks for the review.

Do you mean artic is harder than celero?

My Celero is only 5.6mm and flex while Arctic is 6mm and stiff. But Celero + Airoc 2.3mm is 195g and Arctic + Rasanter Ultra Max is 178g which makes them quite different in every way. Arctic is harder and faster even it is much lighter.

As I prefer heavy and fast, not just heavy alone. So I find my Celero is heavy without the performance to match. I am quite surprised to see Arctic is so light comparing to others in the series which are all 195g+. If I can cut 10g from Celero and add that to Arctic then they should be perfect, I guess.

 

[Fan Xu Long J.K Dima]

I have Eternity VPS, I also love it, paired with Tibhar MX-S on FH and MX-P on BH feels great. I think the weight is just right if you glue new rubbers, if you re-glue them the extra layer of glue will add noticeable weight. I second the opinion that you must seal it, TT11 will do ir for free when you buy one.