Finally got to try one of Nate's three recent blades today. I tried the "Factory Second" blade 7 ply.
Limba - Lutz Spruce - Poplar - Kiri (core) - Poplar - Lutz Spruce - Limba
Weight of blade advertised at 106 grams. With 2x MX-K rubbers (no scale) prolly in neighborhood 210 grams without mods.
Balance right there neutral feel with the heavy-ish rubbers.
I asked for 110 mm handle and got 110mm handle... what I discover is with a thicker handle (which I asked for and got) I am very stable within base grip... to Koreans this means it doesn't shake at all, to English speaking folks this means total grip is secure and stable. If I had asked for the same 3-5 mm total overall circumference thicker and just a standard 100mm handle, then I believe that my whip action at the end by squeezing #3 and #4 fingers would be greater with a 100 mm length handle given my hands. As it is, the thicker handle and extra length give a very good balance and stability to FH to BH and BH to FH transition under pressure within same grip.
Handle is ST. Nate said he had a minor Chernobyl incident with the gluing process and that the International Nuclear Commission asked him to soak this blade in Carl's basement water for a full week before releasing it into the public. The gluing "Accident" caused the overall thickness to be 7.1 mm and weight 5 grams higher than intended. Well, I reckon the tomato in the horror movie Invasion of the Tomatoes kinda grew a little more than expected as well. It is all good, we can handle it.
The blade overall does not feel heavy at all, even with rubbers. I bet some cheeze-its that I could hand it to a nit-picky offensive player and they would be at home with it right away. I actually did that to a few, one of them Scoobie-Doo, who already knew what was coming a mile away, and the other a dude more agile than a monkey and hits McDonald's Quarter Pounders as his only FH shot of record. That dude was pounding it and landing it like crazy within the first 20 seconds.
Again, since this is a heavier blade, and a thicker one, and the blade shape is modern standard OFF 157x150 mm shape, this is not gunna be your average 7 ply spinning Off- blade. The blade, while it does have its gears, is for the most part a very linear blade, especially with the MX-K rubbers... of course except for the very top end where you crush it... in that situation, you are simply throwing the rule book out the window and defying laws of physics.. or at least attempting to.
The differing shots that require a low and medium force produce a very predictable linear response medium to low throw consistent with a solid OFF blade.
The blade and rubber combination still could produce those heavy and slow topspins that wreck timing and devastate opponent. There is still safety on that shot. However, it isn't what this blade was built for. make no mistake, this blade was crafted to FINISH THE POINT... PERIOD. Now you can look at it a few ways… go pound the "Go Nuclear ATTACK ASAP" button, or do a few shots to construct the point and listen to that 9mm go BANG BANG.
With this blade, when you setup the chance to blast it... and you go for your power loop... you will finish the point, opponent will watch ball go by him, pick up the ball, then look at 4 letters you apparently wrote on the ball. BY-YA. Yes, the ball went BY YOU. The top end of this blade is pushing the top end of the OFF spectrum almost into OFF+ when you smack a cracker.
When you are close to the table under the pressure of a fast rally and you want to use shorter swings, this blade works. When you want to punch block, good. When you are a step away from table and do a very short stroke kinda like an active block a meter away, it is almost like a counter.
I did not have a very long time to use the blade, but I found that it will be one of those blades for me that I could take out of the bag and adjust to it within the first few points and play my kind of match and win. The Akkad is one of those blades. Ditto with the 25 yr old Mono.
I have yet to test Nate's other two blades and I am especially hopeful for the Koto outer blade which I can see already NASA setting up data link between Houston, Cape Canaveral, and Sacramento.
Since the dimensions of these last three are NOT over-sized, but are standard 157x150 shape, these will be more offensive oriented.
I do not have vibration measuring device, but I would say frequency of these three will be higher than most OFF- blades and close to those in OFF range.
This blade has high potential