[Concluded] Looking for an ‘all wood alternative’ for Viscaria

[Spinning_loupe]

Check out my recent review on the ZLF. It’s a similar composition as the Vis, except with no carbon and just ZL fiber.

 

[Spinsanity]

Butterfly Falcima is one good option and ticks your boxes.

I have a 90 gm Falcima and it lacks power, feels hollow and is too soft - nothing like the crisp Viscaria feeling.
To me Korbel (Japan made version) is much more similar to Viscaria. Has that crisp and direct feeling and surprisingly does not lack power at all even from mid distance even though it is a blade made around the time of the 38 mm celluloid ball (leave alone the 40 mm celluloid ball and definitely the 40 mm plastic ball).

I would look for the following in an all wood blade similar to Viscaria:

1. Adequate power for looping from mid distance
2. Crisp feeling
3. Good control for consistent looping

My suggestion is to go for a 7 ply all wood. A 5 ply all wood is unlikely to have the same feeling and playing characteristics as the Viscaria as 5 ply all wood blades are more for topspin play close to the table (good for developing one's technique) but are not particularly suited for high level competitive play as they may lack the speed needed for mid distance looping. My suggestions are:

1. Butterfly Korbel SK7
2. Stiga Clipper

or any good 7 ply all wood blade.

If you are insistent on a 5 ply (for whatever reason), then I would recommend the following at 90+ gms:

1. Nittaku Acoustic
2. Nittaku Tenor
3. Korbel Japan made version
4. Stiga Nostalgic Offensive (has the hard and elastic wood Wenge in the outer layers that gives it 7 ply like characteristics)

 

[S-Pin]

Victas Koki Niwa Wood.
Quite hard and stiff, crisp and fast, somewhat similar to a Viscaria. Less mute and more spin.

 

[Kopp]

Based on your question – Falcima, Falcima & Falcima.

If you aren't convinced, buy Viscaria. End of story.

 

[piligrim]

Victas Koki Niwa Wood.
Quite hard and stiff, crisp and fast, somewhat similar to a Viscaria. Less mute and more spin.

I have it. It feels like ALL in speed.

 

[Zwill]

Butterfly Revoldia CNF. It's not cheap tho, hope that is not a criteria.

 

[Chr75]

Falcima is a “mini” Viscaria.
Both blades have the same trajectory. Falcima is slower but still predictable. Trajectory not as high. Good in block play.
My Falcima:
Frequency: 1380 hz
Balance: 2,9 cm
Weight: 89,4 gr
Plate: 157 x 150
Handle: flared
Lenght: 100
Thickness 5,9 mm
5 all wood
Koto - Koto - Kiri - Koto - Koto

Handle is more rounded than Viscaria and slightly slimmer.

 

[Egon]

Butterfly Falcima [Photos & Information]

Butterfly ‘Falcima, released in March 2022, is a 5-ply wood blade with reasonable price for entry or middle class players. Butterfly is explaining that this blade is excellent in the balance …

ttgearlab.com

 

[Amayzde]

I see people are still posting here. I would like to give an update to what I eventually went with and to also conclude this thread.

At the time I was coming from a Sanwei V5 Pro. This blade was alright. I liked its feeling on topspin shots, it was a hard feeling blade, but it grabbed the ball really well on slower shots. But it felt a bit weird and inconsistent at times. The different in the throwangle between spinshots and flat hits was immencely big, something I never experienced with any other blade. I did buy it for $35 off Aliexpress and recieved it in bubblewrap without the real box from. So I don't even know if it was real, lol.

Eventually I went to the store and I tried a bunch of different blades to see what I liked. It went from Ma Lin Carbon to Gauzy SL to Primorac off- to Harimoto ALC. I asked about Falcema, but they unfortunately didnt have a testracket. The guy in the Store actually reccommend me Timo Boll ZLF, because its supposedly a Viscaria without the ALC, but with ZL-fiber instead, but also unfortunately no test racket.
Eventually I went with Ma Lin Carbon, because it was good enough, cheap, and I just desperately needed something to replace my (probably fake) Aliexpress blade with. And I didn't feel like spending €150-200 on a racket I wasn't completely sold on either.

After playing 6 months with the Ma Lin I started looking for another blade again. Even though I had great results (19/24 matches and 80+ points added to my rating), I felt like the Ma Lin wasn't supporting my 'natural' way of striking the ball, especially on the backhand I felt handcuffed at times. So I played with a bunch of rackets from clubmates: Inspira Plus (Wang Manyu), Ovtcharov ALC, Fan Zhendong CNF, Franziska ZLC, Syntaliac VCI, and more. Eventually I quite liked the Inspira Plus. It was a bit hard and fast but not in an uncontrollable manner. There was 1 big downside though: lack of spin. Same as with my Timo Boll Spirit, I guess outer ALC just isn't for me.

Then I met a foreign student that occasionally played at our club. He was using a Timo Boll ZLF. I asked him if I could hit a few balls with it. And I immidiately felt it had potential. So the next weekend I went back to the store I tested all those rackets before, and got myself a Timo Boll ZLF. So far I have only had 4 sessions with it, and even though I am far from fully adjusted, I feel like I am playing so good. The blade is actually working with me instead of against me.

So yeah I can pretty much reccommend this blade to anyone looking for a slower Viscaria/Timo Boll ALC. It is expensive though. But I will gladly spend €180 on a blade that I know is exactly what I am looking for. Rather then spening more time and money on 'better value alternatives'.

 

[vanjr]

Nice conclusion to the story!

 

[ThePongCommenter]

The viscaria isn't that fast, it's a good blade. A blade that plays like it is the clipper wood, but has the weight more towards the head.

LOL

 

[NextLevel]

LOL

Looks like someone invoked European privacy laws and got his account deleted or something. A reminder of the diverse personalities that exist on the internet.

 

[turbozed]

I see people are still posting here. I would like to give an update to what I eventually went with and to also conclude this thread.

At the time I was coming from a Sanwei V5 Pro. This blade was alright. I liked its feeling on topspin shots, it was a hard feeling blade, but it grabbed the ball really well on slower shots. But it felt a bit weird and inconsistent at times. The different in the throwangle between spinshots and flat hits was immencely big, something I never experienced with any other blade. I did buy it for $35 off Aliexpress and recieved it in bubblewrap without the real box from. So I don't even know if it was real, lol.

Eventually I went to the store and I tried a bunch of different blades to see what I liked. It went from Ma Lin Carbon to Gauzy SL to Primorac off- to Harimoto ALC. I asked about Falcema, but they unfortunately didnt have a testracket. The guy in the Store actually reccommend me Timo Boll ZLF, because its supposedly a Viscaria without the ALC, but with ZL-fiber instead, but also unfortunately no test racket.
Eventually I went with Ma Lin Carbon, because it was good enough, cheap, and I just desperately needed something to replace my (probably fake) Aliexpress blade with. And I didn't feel like spending €150-200 on a racket I wasn't completely sold on either.

After playing 6 months with the Ma Lin I started looking for another blade again. Even though I had great results (19/24 matches and 80+ points added to my rating), I felt like the Ma Lin wasn't supporting my 'natural' way of striking the ball, especially on the backhand I felt handcuffed at times. So I played with a bunch of rackets from clubmates: Inspira Plus (Wang Manyu), Ovtcharov ALC, Fan Zhendong CNF, Franziska ZLC, Syntaliac VCI, and more. Eventually I quite liked the Inspira Plus. It was a bit hard and fast but not in an uncontrollable manner. There was 1 big downside though: lack of spin. Same as with my Timo Boll Spirit, I guess outer ALC just isn't for me.

Then I met a foreign student that occasionally played at our club. He was using a Timo Boll ZLF. I asked him if I could hit a few balls with it. And I immidiately felt it had potential. So the next weekend I went back to the store I tested all those rackets before, and got myself a Timo Boll ZLF. So far I have only had 4 sessions with it, and even though I am far from fully adjusted, I feel like I am playing so good. The blade is actually working with me instead of against me.

So yeah I can pretty much reccommend this blade to anyone looking for a slower Viscaria/Timo Boll ALC. It is expensive though. But I will gladly spend €180 on a blade that I know is exactly what I am looking for. Rather then spening more time and money on 'better value alternatives'.

Nobody is making fake Sanwei blades. Even thought it was $35 on Aliexpress, it's probably less than $20 in China.

The outer plies of the V5 Pro is ash, and that's not used often at all. So it's likely going to perform differently than what you and most people are used to. The people who like it might have a different style, like the old folks who don't know how to loop but are flat hitting everything.

 

[ThePongCommenter]

Looks like someone invoked European privacy laws and got his account deleted or something. A reminder of the diverse personalities that exist on the internet.

He made sure to send me a few death threats by PM on his way out 😂

 

[NextLevel]

He made sure to send me a few death threats by PM on his way out 😂

Wow.... that bad? Just because you can't admit you changed your mind on the internet? Really sad.

 

[ThePongCommenter]

Wow.... that bad? Just because you can't admit you changed your mind on the internet? Really sad.

I guess it's also that liars don't like when the logical gaps in their stories are pointed out

 

[NextLevel]

I see people are still posting here. I would like to give an update to what I eventually went with and to also conclude this thread.

At the time I was coming from a Sanwei V5 Pro. This blade was alright. I liked its feeling on topspin shots, it was a hard feeling blade, but it grabbed the ball really well on slower shots. But it felt a bit weird and inconsistent at times. The different in the throwangle between spinshots and flat hits was immencely big, something I never experienced with any other blade. I did buy it for $35 off Aliexpress and recieved it in bubblewrap without the real box from. So I don't even know if it was real, lol.

Eventually I went to the store and I tried a bunch of different blades to see what I liked. It went from Ma Lin Carbon to Gauzy SL to Primorac off- to Harimoto ALC. I asked about Falcema, but they unfortunately didnt have a testracket. The guy in the Store actually reccommend me Timo Boll ZLF, because its supposedly a Viscaria without the ALC, but with ZL-fiber instead, but also unfortunately no test racket.
Eventually I went with Ma Lin Carbon, because it was good enough, cheap, and I just desperately needed something to replace my (probably fake) Aliexpress blade with. And I didn't feel like spending €150-200 on a racket I wasn't completely sold on either.

After playing 6 months with the Ma Lin I started looking for another blade again. Even though I had great results (19/24 matches and 80+ points added to my rating), I felt like the Ma Lin wasn't supporting my 'natural' way of striking the ball, especially on the backhand I felt handcuffed at times. So I played with a bunch of rackets from clubmates: Inspira Plus (Wang Manyu), Ovtcharov ALC, Fan Zhendong CNF, Franziska ZLC, Syntaliac VCI, and more. Eventually I quite liked the Inspira Plus. It was a bit hard and fast but not in an uncontrollable manner. There was 1 big downside though: lack of spin. Same as with my Timo Boll Spirit, I guess outer ALC just isn't for me.

Then I met a foreign student that occasionally played at our club. He was using a Timo Boll ZLF. I asked him if I could hit a few balls with it. And I immidiately felt it had potential. So the next weekend I went back to the store I tested all those rackets before, and got myself a Timo Boll ZLF. So far I have only had 4 sessions with it, and even though I am far from fully adjusted, I feel like I am playing so good. The blade is actually working with me instead of against me.

So yeah I can pretty much reccommend this blade to anyone looking for a slower Viscaria/Timo Boll ALC. It is expensive though. But I will gladly spend €180 on a blade that I know is exactly what I am looking for. Rather then spening more time and money on 'better value alternatives'.

You may have liked the Hugo SAL as well. He hates carbon so he uses composite blades without it.

 

[ThePongCommenter]

You may have liked the Hugo SAL as well. He hates carbon so he uses composite blades without it.

If only XIOM didn't discontinue all their blades on a yearly basis lol

 

[Lazer]

Looks like someone invoked European privacy laws and got his account deleted or something. A reminder of the diverse personalities that exist on the internet.

👏👏👏
Hooray, to our moderators… 👍

Cheers
L-zr

 

[NextLevel]

👏👏👏
Hooray, to our moderators… 👍

Cheers
L-zr

Nah, I don't know whether moderators were involved and if they were, I doubt they would delete a member's accounts without the member's consent.