Looking pure Wood blade for developing my skill , Korbel etc

You can also look for Andro Gauzy SL OFF

shat1478 said:

How about Tibhar E. Lebesson ?

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This is an under-rated blade. It is an excellent blade. If you like the Old Samsonov Alpha, then you will like it. Compared to the new Samsonov Alpha (blue handle), Lebesson is more similar to the old Samsonov Alpha (grey handle) with bigger head.

shat1478 said:

How about Malin soft carbon ?

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Yasaka Malin Soft Carbon (MLSC) is basically Yasaka Sweden Extra (same composition) with thin carbon next to the core. If you are used to hard carbon blade, you will hate MLSC because it behaves more like wood blade. It is even quite flexible, considering it is a carbon blade.

Speed wise, if Yasaka Sweden Extra is ALL+, then I would consider MLSC to be OFF- only.

NextLevel said:

I'm late to the party but for an advanced player who is addicted to all wood, the best blade with the new ball is the Butterfly Mazunov. The only issue is the head size/weight might make it harder to use with modern rubbers for some players but if you can reduce the head size a little on the sides or just play with it as is, it is a very rewarding blade for an all wood blade. Probably the only blade with its speed that I can play and block with feeling and for a 5-ply looping blade, very underrated.

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If I'm not mistaken the Mazunov is going (or already) EOL. Lovely old school BTY blade indeed, but like you said, it's for advanced players.
It's a hard and fast blade, but even for plastic ball it's fast. Besides, it's pretty heavy and I haven't seen it below 95gr. Hence, >100gr is most common even

Personally, I'm a sucker for the Stiga Infinity (88gr) with Legend handle

Equaaz said:

Very flexible 5 ply blade do not only have advantages. It's slow, it vibrates a lot and it's bad in block for example.
I just did a season with the Yasaka Sweden Extra and I'm switching to the Sanwei Fextra 7 ply (better than PG7 for the same price).

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P1ngP0ng3r said:

If I'm not mistaken the Mazunov is going (or already) EOL. Lovely old school BTY blade indeed, but like you said, it's for advanced players.
It's a hard and fast blade, but even for plastic ball it's fast. Besides, it's pretty heavy and I haven't seen it below 95gr. Hence, >100gr is most common even

Personally, I'm a sucker for the Stiga Infinity (88gr) with Legend handle

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IT has been EOL for over a decade now - the thing is that the design is classic and people in Japan keep it alive because it is so good. When Boll signed mine, he went out of his way to say it was a great blade. It is a hard and fast blade, but *relative to its speed*, and that is the important part, it has a lot of vibration and feeling. It is still a 5 ply blade. As for the weight, many fast looping composites are also heavy.

My biggest issue with the Mazunov was the handle. The fat handle needs to be shaved flatter for most players to understand what it can really do. In any case, some people like fat handles. But when you look at the Butterfly statistics, a Mazunov has more speed and more feeling than a Timo Boll ALC. Since feeling is the biggest thing that you use a slower blade for, this ratio is useful for someone who likes the feeling of all wood blades. In any case, I just want to put it out there, because as a solution to blade with feeling issue, it is often overlooked and relative to composite blades, it has far more feeling.

PS. Just like with the Hadraw series, unless composites are 100% the future of blades, I suspect once Buttedfly finds the right star player, they will re-release the Mazunov but at twice the price.

OldUser said:

It's exactly what a developping skills player need, tell us mister know it all:did you really start on a 7 ply blade as a beginner in France ? I don't think so. You developped your skills on a club racket as all of french pingpongers did, then a month or 2 after that the club made a racket for you with a very flexible 5 ply blade with control rubbers like Tibhar Vari Spin, BTY Tackiness D or Xiom Intro, the 3 most used rubbers for beginners nowadays in french clubs.

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NextLevel said:

I'm late to the party but for an advanced player who is addicted to all wood, the best blade with the new ball is the Butterfly Mazunov. The only issue is the head size/weight might make it harder to use with modern rubbers for some players but if you can reduce the head size a little on the sides or just play with it as is, it is a very rewarding blade for an all wood blade. Probably the only blade with its speed that I can play and block with feeling and for a 5-ply looping blade, very underrated.

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I missed the train on acquiring the Mazunov and there are very few 5 ply wood blades in the same class. Have you ever tried Xiom Aria? All the other fast/hard 5 ply blades like Goiabao, Ebenholz/Rosewood etc have very hard very thin outers unlike Aria and Mazunov which have thicker outer plies.

Scarfed Garchomp said:

I missed the train on acquiring the Mazunov and there are very few 5 ply wood blades in the same class. Have you ever tried Xiom Aria? All the other fast/hard 5 ply blades like Goiabao, Ebenholz/Rosewood etc have very hard very thin outers unlike Aria and Mazunov which have thicker outer plies.

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Aria is closer to a Korbel or Korbel speed which are typical 5 ply looping blades. Yes the modern blades for the plastic ball have thinner harder outer plies not sure why the plancello of the Mazunov (which was also used on the diode/JSH) fell out of fashion because it is also a hard outer ply but the Mazunov has soft Ayous on the inside. I suspect the head heaviness with the new rubbers is the main thing not in its favor, I use Fastarc C1 to reduce the head weight and compensate (C1 isn't extremely light but definitely not the anvil that G1 is on such a large blade). I used the Korbel a lot and I just felt after a while that against certain players I had to work too hard to get the ball past them. 5 ply blade even the slower ones are great for spin and third ball but when you block or counter with such blades, you have to be willing to work, while with a Mazunov, you can stand 3 feet behind the table and still pressure the opponent with your blocks and counters. As much as I love all wood, I usually smile when a player speaks of 5 ply all wood as being fast enough, blades make certain things easier and certain things harter, you would struggle to find a serious pro who will take 5 ply all wood with the new ball. All the holdouts from the old ball switched over because they knew they were working too hard to get the new plastic balls moving with the old all wood blades.