Played with the following during training with a robot and serve practice
- ALL UN-BOOSTED, sponge hardness scale is ‘Shore A’ used by both DHS and Butterfly I believe.
Primorac FL All-Wood blade, 2.1 mm H3 National 41 degree blue sponge,black, 1.9mm Dignics 09C 44 degree sponge, red.
Original Grubba all wood blade (30+yrs old), 2.1mm spin art, 48 degree sponge, red, 2.1mm Aibiss 50 degree sponge, black.
So out of these 4 rubbers, the H3 Nat has the softest sponge. The important thing to remember is that the hardness of the rubber top sheet also has a large effect on how the complete combo of sponge and rubber actually feels.
For comparison MXP, Victas 15 extra, Rhyzer 48 are all about 35 degree on the Shore ‘O’ scale (47.5 degree, Shore ‘A’ scale) the Aibiss comes in at about 61 degrees on the Shore ‘A’ scale !!!!
interestingly Butterfly have 4 rubbers with harder sponges than DHS H3 National or their other rubbers which are generally available in 39,40 & 41 degree hardness. (Shore ‘O’ scale)
Standard Dignics are 40 deg (53 deg Shore ‘A’ )
Tenergy 05 hard is 43 deg (55 deg Shore ‘A’ )
Speed (generally) 09C fastest, Spin art 2nd, H3 Nat 3rd, Aibiss 4th.
Spin , fh topspin loop - H3 Nat 1st, 09C 2nd, Spin art very close 3rd, Aibiss 4th
Spin , serve - H3 Nat and 09C =1st, Spin art and Aibiss = 2nd
Control , Aibiss and H3 Nat 1st, mainly because they are slower and the sponge has less ‘bounce’ O9C and Spin art 2nd, they seem very similar.
Throw angle, 09C highest, Spin art 2nd highest, Aibiss 3rd, H3 Nat lowest.
Gears , H3 Nat highest, Aibiss 2nd highest, O9C and Spin art = 3rd
Kick , H3 Nat had most and lowest forward kick, O9C 2nd best forward kick , 3rd Spin art, 4th Aibiss, because of the higher throw angles the Butterfly rubbers have a higher bounce and the kick seems less pronounced, but they still have a good amount of kick.
After using these rubbers for a number of hours practicing serves, and training with a robot, I would be happy to use any of them, the ‘safest’ rubber is the Aibiss the Sponge hardness didn’t make the rubber unplayable, it was actually nice to play with but will not be on the purchase list of the spring sponge fans. Needs more spin.
Spin art was faster and would appeal more to spring sponge fans. The O9C has the spring sponge feel that
Tenergy fans love, but the throw angle maybe too high.
Butterfly are saying these are high friction rubbers, the top sheets do feel very grippy, but they are not really tacky like the H3’s and other tacky Chinese rubbers.
i used Tackiness D 30 + yrs ago and you could pick the ball up and it would stick and hold for a second or so (when new) if the modern version of Tackiness D is still the same, then Tackiness D is more tacky than 09C, Spin art and Aibiss.
Butterfly have got their listed spin and speed ratings spot on for these rubbers.
However there’s still room in the line up for a REALLY tacky rubber with a potent spring sponge. If such a combination is possible.
