Blade Suggestions

Tried spark, primorac and korbel, played with spirit which almost the same as alc and have played with mazunov. If you like spark i think you Will like spirit, korbel, primorac better than Mazunov. I think it is easier to loop with the others compared to mazunov since they are not as hard and stiff. Mazunov have good control, great for blockning and for smashing. Good for close to the table play. It is not as good for looping and play further away from the table i think since the arch is low. Think sitter rubbers Will be good for mazunov. I would recommend you to try the spirit. Very nice blade.

If you are going to get a Stiga blade for looping, I suggest Intensity. Great dwell time, huge spin and great arcs when looping. Also, it has great touch and feeling.

Morgado said:

However i am looking for another blade ( in a near future ) which could offer me "one more gear" than my beloved Spark which i can get great amounts of spin with it but when it comes to straight counter loop vs a Korbel or a Primorac, DAM, i can feel the diference.
Thank you for your time!

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Are you (unconsciously, I guess) saying you want more flex? In which case, what did you like or didn't like when you tried the Korbel and Primorac?

Morgado said:

I am a strong believer that the blade should be an extension of your arm, by that i mean " power should come mostly from the body" (atleast it is my philosophy).

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That is a pretty generic description but I'd say yes, based on this and the previous quote, 5-ply all-wood could be a good direction to go.

It would be easier if you had more specific details to give, or else you could simply play with either one of the two blades just mentioned, or any the usual suspects one these boards: Stiga Infinity, Nittaku Acoustic (if you can afford it), OSP Virtuoso (ditto), Xiom Offensive S, Tibhar Stratus PowerWood, and a million others. I have never tried Avalox blades (a great shame!) but they definitely have stuff along these lines (BT555 seems to take the cake these days?).
The idea is going for something that is neither too soft nor too hard, with excellent feedback and just the right amount of flex to give you that extra-gear (and killer sound!) you are looking for. Based on how things go, you could still decide for harder or softer outer-ply in the future but there is a reason these blades are so popular.

I don't pretend to be a world-champion, but so many times when I hear / read about this type of blades being slow and barely good enough for beginners (I'm exaggerating, but not much really), I feel players have no clue this behaviour in play even exists, not to mention how to exploit it. With the rubbers you are using, any of the blades I mentioned should be plenty to send balls flying past any player at your club.

Hi Morgado, where are you from? If you live near Porto I have a few homemade blades that you can try. They are all all-wood ranging from all+ to off. The one i was playing until now is very similar to Korbel and i think it might suit you.

Stiga Azalea Offensive, the best Stiga blade in terms of feel and also balanced speed and control. Xiom Offensive S is also good.

Morgado said:

Are you (unconsciously, I guess) saying you want more flex? In which case, what did you like or didn't like when you tried the Korbel and Primorac?

The one thing that i noticed the most when playing with both Primorac/Korbel , Korbel seemed to have an extra kick when u compared them both on the loop/loopkill. I would say that it is faster than Primorac imo.

I don't pretend to be a world-champion, but so many times when I hear / read about this type of blades being slow and barely good enough for beginners (I'm exaggerating, but not much really), I feel players have no clue this behaviour in play even exists, not to mention how to exploit it

I didnt mean that Spark is a slow blade by any means( i do believe it was a great blade to go for after i started with Grubba back when i was a kid! I couldnt agree more with you when it comes to players that are using "full tunned up cannons" where they legit hit the ball and pray " oh Lord take the wheel" since they cant control their own set up. No point on buying a motorcycle if you cant ride a bike ... And thats exactly why i was asking about it! I dont wanna climb the whole stairs of blades, just looking for the next step ahahah.

Stiga Infinity, Nittaku Acoustic (if you can afford it), OSP Virtuoso (ditto), Xiom Offensive S, Tibhar Stratus PowerWood

I will definetely have a closer look at Infinity,Virtuoso and PowerWood since you guys give some good feedback on it.

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Just to be clear, I wasn't referring to you in my last comment, which I could have refrained from mentioning altogether. I hope whichever blade you get will suit you nicely!

Also, do hang on to your Spark, I looked around after reading your thread and from what I have seen these seem to be picking up in value. Not saying you should see TT items as investments, but you never know.

Butterfly Liu Shiwen ZLF (discontinued) is probably the spinniest blade I ever played around with. It's also one of the best.

Very flexible, quite soft, but has that ZLF zip to it. Intensely spinny but a bit hard to play because of how ZLF behaves.
It's not as 'consistent' as harder blades (where every shot is more or less predictable in terms of arc and speed), but for spin? No competition.
It's also faster than blades that are comparable in spin (usually 5ply woods) and has a more stable sweet-spot due to the synthetics.
In addition, I solemnly swear that you'll never find a blade that is so perfectly weight-balanced.

There's also the Ai Fukuhara but it's not as good. The LSW also has a bigger blade head than normal to add even more flex, the Fukuhara is a bit less extreme. Normal head size I think. But not discontinued at least.

There's also the Innerforce ZLF which is again more or less the same, but a lot slower than the previous 2.

Lightzy said:

Butterfly Liu Shiwen ZLF (discontinued) is probably the spinniest blade I ever played around with. It's also one of the best.

Very flexible, quite soft, but has that ZLF zip to it. Intensely spinny but a bit hard to play because of how ZLF behaves.
It's not as 'consistent' as harder blades (where every shot is more or less predictable in terms of arc and speed), but for spin? No competition.
It's also faster than blades that are comparable in spin (usually 5ply woods) and has a more stable sweet-spot due to the synthetics.
In addition, I solemnly swear that you'll never find a blade that is so perfectly weight-balanced.

There's also the Ai Fukuhara but it's not as good. The LSW also has a bigger blade head than normal to add even more flex, the Fukuhara is a bit less extreme. Normal head size I think. But not discontinued at least.

There's also the Innerforce ZLF which is again more or less the same, but a lot slower than the previous 2.

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You're sure that it's discontinued? On the Dutch Butterfly webshop it's still available. I actually thought that it would be one of the easiest composite blades to play with, since it's an "Innerforce" composition with ZLF being the softest composite material.

It's discontinued as Liu Shiwen is no longer sponsored by Butterfly. It's not on the main Butterfly website anymore.

LSW is quite a bit faster than innerforce ZLF. Quite a bit. Also once you get to extremes (it's extremely flex/soft with a over-broad blade head for even more flex) things aren't as easy because you have to learn the blade. Some shots will seem oddly slow and some will seem oddly fast out of nowhere.
If you learn the blade it's really awesome in terms of spin and even speed, but spin most of all. It's meant to be a 'close-to-the-table-bullet-topspin' kind of blade.

Given your signature, I think you'd quite like it if you tried it. I can't stand the YSE personally. It's so bouncy and hard, even my viscaria is easier to spin with. But then I suppose it's all in the habit.

Lightzy said:

It's discontinued as Liu Shiwen is no longer sponsored by Butterfly. It's not on the main Butterfly website anymore.

LSW is quite a bit faster than innerforce ZLF. Quite a bit. Also once you get to extremes (it's extremely flex/soft with a over-broad blade head for even more flex) things aren't as easy because you have to learn the blade. Some shots will seem oddly slow and some will seem oddly fast out of nowhere.
If you learn the blade it's really awesome in terms of spin and even speed, but spin most of all. It's meant to be a 'close-to-the-table-bullet-topspin' kind of blade.

Given your signature, I think you'd quite like it if you tried it. I can't stand the YSE personally. It's so bouncy and hard, even my viscaria is easier to spin with. But then I suppose it's all in the habit.

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Thanks for the explanation, Lightzy.

For some reason I missed the fact that Liu Shiwen is no longer sponsored by Butterfly, while I tend to keep up to date when it comes to things like that.

I've read quite a bit about the blade, and I think I'd also really like it. In fact, if they let me choose any Butterfly blade, it would be that one. But as tempting as it is to try a fancy, faster blade like the Butterfly LSW, I think for now I'm better off with an all wood blade (like the YSE). I don't have much to compare with since I'm relatively new to table tennis, so I can't really comment on what you said, the YSE blade being bouncy and hard. According to you, anegre as an outer ply differs a lot from a Limba outer ply?

Jirrex said:

Thanks for the explanation, Lightzy.

For some reason I missed the fact that Liu Shiwen is no longer sponsored by Butterfly, while I tend to keep up to date when it comes to things like that.

I've read quite a bit about the blade, and I think I'd also really like it. In fact, if they let me choose any Butterfly blade, it would be that one. But as tempting as it is to try a fancy, faster blade like the Butterfly LSW, I think for now I'm better off with an all wood blade (like the YSE). I don't have much to compare with since I'm relatively new to table tennis, so I can't really comment on what you said, the YSE blade being bouncy and hard. According to you, anegre as an outer ply differs a lot from a Limba outer ply?

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Yes, limba is quite a bit softer and slower.
Hey if you're enjoying your setup have a blast. Most important thing is to feel comfortable with your racket.

The Fukuhara just didn't feel as good to me. They're very similar.
The LSW blade is only ZLF, so if you found a LSW, you've found a LSW ZLF. There's a kind of fantasy bird painting thing on the left side of the blade head.

I saw pictures also of one with a tiny bird painting on the middle but I dunno what that is or if there's any difference. With some butterfly blades they have old and new versions. I think the new is the big bird motif.