Zylon is a semisoft material that is sort of like plastic. It makes the blade faster but because of the softness of the material, most blades with Zylon and no carbon have a lot of dwell time. Like a Timo Boll ZLF has pretty darn good dwell time for how fast the blade is; and this is in spite of the hardness of the outer ply (Koto).
Innerforce ZLF and the Liu Shiwen blades have more dwell time than the TB ZLF because Limba is softer than Koto and there are two Limba plies before the Zylon. But Zylon without Carbon gives a blade pretty good dwell time. Zylon with Carbon makes a blade really fast and still gives it decent dwell time.
Also, unlike Carbon, with Zylon alone you retain much more of the wood feeling from the blade.
Zylon is also similar in some ways to Kevlar and at one point was used in making bullet proof vests, but then they found out that the strength of the material degrades over time and then the vests stop being bullet proof. So they stopped making body armor with Zylon.
I see, I did know the Limba vs Koto facts, though not the " unlike Carbon, with Zylon alone you retain much more of the wood feeling from the blade." so pretty interesting, but then the more, I'm wondering why he could not get enough dwell time in that blade... because it seems like plenty.
I play with hurricane III provincial blue sponge unboosted on my forehand and the combination with the Hurricane hao III felt too slow, too hard. I normally play with TSP Balsa 6.5. The Balsa Carbo X5 came close to being ok, but it's not heavy enough for me. It has been like this since years; I am so used to the TSP Balsa 6.5 I can't seem to find another blade that doesn't feel awkward to me. Still, they are very good blades, they are as good as new and my prices are low.
Ah I see, I have yet to test it with a Chinese tacky rubber hehe, For me the speed was perfect considering the amount of control it had.
The hardness does indeed feel a bit different and that TSP Balsa 6.5 is of the more dwelly soft type, so compared to softer blades, it might indeed feel a bit weird or different. I'd like to call it special though.
When I play with softer wood blades with more dwell, I feel the ball sink into the wood a few milli seconds extra, and has a very comfortable feel. But when I play with HH3, it has a very different, yet very precise and magical response.
On my HH3, it has a very light vibration (a good feeling vibration) on impact, despite being a bit hard, it was not rock uncomfortable hard, but just hard enough to have a very unique but direct feel and yet better dwell and feel than you would think for such a hard blade.
Considering you played with Balsa 6.5, which has a softer feel than HH3, I can see why you would not pick it.
As you'd have to get used to a completely new feel in the blade. Balsa blades are also very lightweighted..
Though, If you Prefer the TSP Balsa 6.5, why not get the same, or from the same series?
http://www.tabletennis11.com/other_eng/catalogsearch/result/?q=Balsa
