Need Wood Blade Help

[John Le]

As what i have said Korbel feels more stiff. Azalea and Offensive S have the same softness and good feel with the Azalea sometimes having more bounce.

Oh, it was a quote bug that initially made it seem like you had said it, but was really UpSideDownCarl.

Wish I could've been blessed by some of his thoughts here as well. c-:

 

[Konrad Bak]

Azalea has sweetspot for baby girls.

 

[John Le]

Azalea has sweetspot for baby girls.

Haha, this may not be the only jab at the blade's pink colorway I'll encounter.

 

[Caxoera]

Try the Cornilleau Conquest Off. Its one of the best blade I ever had (I had a Korbel too thats also great but the Cornilleau is in my opinion better). Its top class made in Sweden and its on sale at the Ping Pong Depot https://www.pingpongdepot.com/cornilleau-gatien-conquest-off-blade/

 

[Der_Echte]

I would suggest to get a reasonable proven blade a little slower than you think you need, like a Donic Person Power Play, get a grip tape (or make one), and use that thing for a year or two and look at yourself again.

If you use that setup with reasonable modern control oriented rubbers (or even a more dynamic soft rubber like T05FX) - if you do that a year or two and can play several times a week and are getting coaching or at least observation by better players...

You will grow in consistency and quality. Period. Lots of other ways to get to it as well, but this will do ya.

 

[John Le]

I would suggest to get a reasonable proven blade a little slower than you think you need, like a Donic Person Power Play, get a grip tape (or make one), and use that thing for a year or two and look at yourself again.

If you use that setup with reasonable modern control oriented rubbers (or even a more dynamic soft rubber like T05FX) - if you do that a year or two and can play several times a week and are getting coaching or at least observation by better players...

You will grow in consistency and quality. Period. Lots of other ways to get to it as well, but this will do ya.

Yea definitely, that's why I ended up just getting the Azalea Offensive over the Korbel because it seems to be slightly slower than the Korbel. Korbel is larger overall, though thickness is the same, I believe the Azalea's 2nd spruce layer is actually also slightly softer than korbel's limba second ply.

Another thing is that I've always only run control oriented offensive rubber since starting in 2012/13-ish and considering their priceerformance with the added bonus of control, I'll likely continue to do so for the foreseeable quite some time.

 

[Konrad Bak]

From the slowest Waldner allplay.
Primorac
Stratus powerwood to the fastest
Ofcourse you can find violin Acoustic or Butterfly hadraw
With premium price.
I dont like information about blade from guys who thinks they know everything better.
I know better but you cant go wrong with classic all Wood blade
Allround NCT from stiga is perfect because this coat Technology NCT makes wider sweetspot from normal stiga production, but itd discountined

 

[Konrad Bak]

Timo boll forte is used by top league players In Poland
Custom Wanokiwani ao from Andro is used by me.
Top blades.

 

[Kaizoku]

Just wondering, your favourite blade was an andro tempertech all+, awesome blade btw, I've tried it. But that's a 5 ply, Hinoki -ayous - ayous - ayous - hinoki, blade. Now you're using Innerforce... and want to downgrade to similar Limba all wood style. Did you consider trying a hinoki blade instead?
As in you sure you wouldn't consider blades more similar to the tempertech+, or is keeping it at a stable downgrade more important than.. experimenting with what you liked in the past?
There are a lot of hinoki top ply blades that would be far closer to tempertech than any of the blades mentioned thus far... in both faster and more all speeds.
To name a few:
JOOLA Rosskopf Emotion (Hinoki | Koto | Carbon || Ayous || Carbon | Koto | Hinoki (close to innerforce speed, but way different feel) you also have the faster Joola aruna off+ but yeah, too fast.
Nexy Color (Hinoki - 5x spruce - hinoki) allround speed
Nexy Dexter (Hinoki - spruce - ayous - spruce - hinoki) all+ (?)
Nexy Oscas (Hinoki... arylate carbon + something) off- (?)
but yeah I never tried the nexy blades, Der_Echte definitely has if you're interested though :v

The one I'm using is also a Hinoki (XVT Hinoki ZLC) (Butterfly Amultart clone.. but, less speedy), still an off blade, maybe off minus though, and huge dwell time (ball sinks in longer) never been able to generate slow spins like I do with this blade while still maintaining speed.

Anyhow, among the Limba-ayous blades, Azaela is great. My gf uses it

 

[John Le]

Just wondering, your favourite blade was an andro tempertech all+, awesome blade btw, I've tried it. But that's a 5 ply, Hinoki -ayous - ayous - ayous - hinoki, blade. Now you're using Innerforce... and want to downgrade to similar Limba all wood style. Did you consider trying a hinoki blade instead?
As in you sure you wouldn't consider blades more similar to the tempertech+, or is keeping it at a stable downgrade more important than.. experimenting with what you liked in the past?
There are a lot of hinoki top ply blades that would be far closer to tempertech than any of the blades mentioned thus far... in both faster and more all speeds.
To name a few:
JOOLA Rosskopf Emotion (Hinoki | Koto | Carbon || Ayous || Carbon | Koto | Hinoki (close to innerforce speed, but way different feel) you also have the faster Joola aruna off+ but yeah, too fast.
Nexy Color (Hinoki - 5x spruce - hinoki) allround speed
Nexy Dexter (Hinoki - spruce - ayous - spruce - hinoki) all+ (?)
Nexy Oscas (Hinoki... arylate carbon + something) off- (?)
but yeah I never tried the nexy blades, Der_Echte definitely has if you're interested though :v

The one I'm using is also a Hinoki (XVT Hinoki ZLC) (Butterfly Amultart clone.. but, less speedy), still an off blade, maybe off minus though, and huge dwell time (ball sinks in longer) never been able to generate slow spins like I do with this blade while still maintaining speed.

Anyhow, among the Limba-ayous blades, Azaela is great. My gf uses it

Hi there, even though I've already purchased the Azalea Offensive, thank you for the recommendations! You're right, I did want to stay within the limba category.
Tbh though, I didn't really look too much into hinoki this time around and also never really knew much about Nexy blades. Although I'm not sure if I would've been interested in a composite hinoki but one day I'll definitely look into owning at least an all wood hinoki again!

@Konrad, that's actually pretty interesting to hear the timo boll forte being dominant in Poland. I'll definitely have to look into that blade to see why. And for the Wanokiwani blades, I actually did notice them. They seem really premium with great reviews, but they were outside of my budget unfortunately. :c

 

[John Le]

For anyone that cares, here's the Azalea: https://photos.app.goo.gl/gPr6RbyB6VPWEMqu6
My phone's camera couldn't quite pick up the small details more obvious in person but I tried :b

Some quick impressions:
Tbh I'm not too impressed with its quality. Though I paid considerably less ($52.56‬) than its $80 MSRP over in the states, this is still an $80 MSRP blade which I think my $50 blades in the past were better. It seems like some plies are slightly uneven, frays/tiny splinters sporadically all around, a couple black smudges on the blade near its handle, etc. I did like the metal plates embedded into the handle though!
That being said, I'm still going to use this blade and will likely not matter in actual practice.

 

[Kuba Hajto]

A little off topic is stiga azalea second layer pine?

 

[John Le]

A little off topic is stiga azalea second layer pine?

No you're in topic, according to yogi_bear: Limba-spruce-ayous-spruce-Limba

 

[yogi_bear]

No you're in topic, according to yogi_bear: Limba-spruce-ayous-spruce-Limba

Spruce

 

[yogi_bear]

No you're in topic, according to yogi_bear: Limba-spruce-ayous-spruce-Limba

For anyone that cares, here's the Azalea: https://photos.app.goo.gl/gPr6RbyB6VPWEMqu6
My phone's camera couldn't quite pick up the small details more obvious in person but I tried :b

Some quick impressions:
Tbh I'm not too impressed with its quality. Though I paid considerably less ($52.56‬) than its $80 MSRP over in the states, this is still an $80 MSRP blade which I think my $50 blades in the past were better. It seems like some plies are slightly uneven, frays/tiny splinters sporadically all around, a couple black smudges on the blade near its handle, etc. I did like the metal plates embedded into the handle though!
That being said, I'm still going to use this blade and will likely not matter in actual practice.

Stiga blades are made a bit rough and not smooth.

 

[John Le]

Stiga blades are made a bit rough and not smooth.

I'm not so sure if that should be an excuse for the uneven (albeit slight) layered plies, smudges while new in box, etc. I'm still going to use it after all since these are all really minor complaints.

I just think your recommended Offensive S is the better buy in most scenarios, even if it were to have similar QC because it doesn't have the Azalea's $80 MSRP. Though I do understand that every manufacturing process isn't perfect so maybe my example is just an outlier.

 

[yogi_bear]

No you're in topic, according to yogi_bear: Limba-spruce-ayous-spruce-Limba

For anyone that cares, here's the Azalea: https://photos.app.goo.gl/gPr6RbyB6VPWEMqu6
My phone's camera couldn't quite pick up the small details more obvious in person but I tried :b

Some quick impressions:
Tbh I'm not too impressed with its quality. Though I paid considerably less ($52.56‬) than its $80 MSRP over in the states, this is still an $80 MSRP blade which I think my $50 blades in the past were better. It seems like some plies are slightly uneven, frays/tiny splinters sporadically all around, a couple black smudges on the blade near its handle, etc. I did like the metal plates embedded into the handle though!
That being said, I'm still going to use this blade and will likely not matter in actual practice.

I'm not so sure if that should be an excuse for the uneven (albeit slight) layered plies, smudges while new in box, etc. I'm still going to use it after all since these are all really minor complaints.

I just think your recommended Offensive S is the better buy in most scenarios, even if it were to have similar QC because it doesn't have the Azalea's $80 MSRP. Though I do understand that every manufacturing process isn't perfect so maybe my example is just an outlier.

Just try playing with it. I have told people in the past that if they can look past the look and color, that is a good feeling blade.

 

[Kuba Hajto]

Just try playing with it. I have told people in the past that if they can look past the look and color, that is a good feeling blade.

I think the color is great, but I do agree that the quality of new Stiga blades are not the best :|

 

[John Le]

Just try playing with it. I have told people in the past that if they can look past the look and color, that is a good feeling blade.

Oh yea, definitely. I'm excited to practice with it and my new Japanese rubber. Just waiting on my training partner to come this evening. I was just stating things that could be helpful for others. c:

 

[Konrad Bak]

it looks like 8$ blade from sanwei
John Le if you want know your next change (3-5 months later) remember this info
Innerforce Layer ZLF
Innerforce Layer ALCS
or if you find
Innerforce Layer AL with red vectran
great slow blades from Butterfly