AK47 Red

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5 out of 5 rating for AK47 Red

Hi All!

Not so long time ago, my inner equipment junkie self settled down with Donic Bluefire M1 on my FH side. With Donic Bluestorm Z2 out I tried that one too, but unfortunately I lost my love towards Z2 due to reasons listed on it's product review page. And also I went to try some chinese made but good FH rubbers. So I came across this AK 47 RED version. To be honest I loved the T05's bite on the ball, but I don't have enough time and skill to fully utilize that rubber. I loved MX-P but felt it a bit numb and unpredictable on counterloops. M1 was a perfect alternative to that, was a bit livelier, than MX-P, and the feeling was better. I will make my comparison to these rubbers. The rubber was tested on an ALC OFF blade.

So AK 47 RED feels a bit lighter on the blade than M1 or MX-P. It did not require any transition or modification from me or anyone that I showed the blade. They stated that the rubber feels lively (compated to Tenergy 05/05FX) and easy to play. The ball touch feels a bit more rigid than T05 and a bit harder than M1, but less softer than MX-P. Bouncyness is tricky, because the catapult effect is reduced, but the spin sensitivity is high, like a Baracuda level.

Serves are very spinny, because the tad less catapult effect it is easier to keep short. In other areas there is nothing special to say. This rubber plays like a modern attacking rubber fully comparable to any european modern tensor. Loops are really loaded with spin. Some of my opponents mentioned, that their flight curve is less predictable. It is a tad slower than the MX-P.

I tried the unboosted version. After 20 hours of play The rubber shows no signs of usage.
Black max on standard 151x159 butterfly head is 44g.

Update: After three months of usage. I still have the rubbers, I tried different applications, tried to boost it and experimented a bit with the glue layers. First of all after three months, a training camp and two championships (around 70-80 hours of play, 3 regluings) the rubebrs look fine. There is a matte abrasion under my thumb on the FH black rubber, but no abrasion on the surface of the rubber. The red rubber looks like a used one, there is a strange matte pattern on it, which does not show the sweet spot. Some sort of fluid spill pattern, maybe one of my cleaners did this. I also ordered a spare pair of rubbers, my other red sheet does not show any symptoms like that after 2 months. So the colour change on my red sheet was probably because of me. So the durability is good.

Regluing is tricky, because the rubber is factory tuned even if it's not advertised. The glue (revolution no 3.) can be peeled of (4 thin layers) easily from the sponge with minimal or no damage. The first glue was more softer than expected, and the rubber shrunk a bit (way less then euro/jap tensors) and it curved in. So it was likely boosted. The second glue layer was more crispier, when I removed it. So I had to reboost my rubber a little to make the curve a bit flatter. The optimal glue layers are 3+2 for a decent OFF- speed on an ALC blade. Boosting the rubber gives it more speed, but also flattens the ball flight curve a bit more, than expected.

Crash tests were performed (unintentionally). The upper rubber is quite durable to direct table edge hits. It may show a bit abrasion on the surface. However the sponge is quite fragile. It really breaks. A misplaced banana flick may cause an inch (2,54) cm tear in the sponge, while the surface looks fine. But considering the price of the rubber I don't really care if I have to replace it 2-4 times a year. So it is similar to Baracuda sponge as far as I can remember.

Overall impressions:
When brand new the rubber shines with 3+2 layers of glue, personally a single layer of booster can be beneficial to the rubber but nothing more. When regluing the rubber deserves a little boosting, just to conserve the original factory boosting. Serves are quite good, lot of spin can be generated with brush type movements. Huge control over every type of situation, good no pin game and good spin game.