It has taken some time since I didn´t want to buy one for testing, but I came across one (and another Gauzy blade, more of which later).
The HL CO is a moderate carbon blade, that is not to say a soft carbon blade.
It feels like "good old carbon" without additional fibres and is considerably slower than a Treiber CI/CO for example, it also feels harder and more direct than Treiber FI/FO.
All in all, paired with R48 it felt really nice to play, probably a bit better suited for direct open play than opening up against underspin (no worries with R48 in that discipline either, but harder rubbers I am not as sure).
I quite liked the first impression and could imagine the HL CO well with R48 forehand side and a slightly harder rubber on backhand (where my acceleration is much better) for opening up or push and block.
BUT the winner of the day (I also tried a Ligna, a Treiber and the Gauzy SL which I already knew) was the BL 5 ALL. For some reason, it was prepared for testing with R53 which is unusual for that kind of blade, and in that combination I found it to be fast enough for most situations except maybe very far from the table and a surprisingly high arc (for which the rubbers take a part of the responsibility). What you would expect is that it offers very good control.
Now what to make of it? This will be my blade of choice to give to beginners, paired with medium hardness rubbers (Vega Intro, GTT 45, anything moderate) to then upgrade to rubbers in the same hardness area with more performance (Hexer PowerGrip, R47).
I also think it will work well with HeXer Grip or anything else from the mid-range.
I had to give all the rackets back after testing and they are not available for a second or third impression for weeks to come, but I am really thinking of buying the BL 5 (excellent quality also by the way, made in Sweden and only 40 Euro!) for my personal "test center"
