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@turbozed
so, on Aliexpress, buy from the stores you mentioned in another thread? (BEO, GOO, GH sports, etc.)?
Also, i could buy one from megaspin that would get to me fast in the US then wait for the others from aliexpress. Any recs for a good ?looping? BH rubber from the same stores that I would use on the Fextra w/RPB?
I saw your original post w/the blue Fextra, that blade looks amazing! I'll get the Moon 12 Blue and Fextra from BEO sports/Aliexpress since they seem to have the most stock and have been around longer than goo and GH sports. I'll also pick up some RXton 1 plus as well. Where did you get the blue one again? aliexpress shows no blue variant, though most likely it will come in FL only at this point.
Sanwei Fextra 7 was my first serious blade when I was a begginer 5 years ago. I learned to play with this blade, and made best progress. Meanwhile I became an equipment junkie, excepting my 7 Fextra blades, I tested more than 20 blades, expensive like Butterfly Innerforce ALC, Harimoto, Primorac JP, Viscaria, or cheaper like Yinhe, Sword and DHS. Fextra 7 is still good enough or even the best for me.
To be honest, in my case upgrade from Fextra 7 was unnecessary. Fextra is a perfect balance between stiffnes, spin, speed and feeling. I have 7 blades at this moment.
1. Sanwei Fextra - not because is the best, but is best ballanced blade that suits my lever and playing style.
2. SWORD HD Long 5 - bery fast and bouncy, for me unplayable with springy rubbers like Tenergies, but with chinese tacky rubbers it's completely different story. Powerfull looping machine.
3. Yinhe Pro 01 - this one is unique, better than aby Viscaria and any other Pro 01. Little too fast, but with FastArc G1 2.0 fh, and Xiom Omega V Euro 2.0 bh is awesome.
4. Xiom Novus Jazz - the best 5 ply All+ blade ever. Not fast, but with fast rubbers is enough, and feeling is wanderful.
5. Yinhe Pro 05 - similar to SWORD HD Long5, also hard to control with springy rubbers, plays good with tacky, but attack quality is not as spectacular as Sword.
Thanks for the very detailed reply. It's interesting that all of your favorite blades are also very inexpensive (at least compared to Butterfly pricing).
Have you tried any of the thicker or harder 7 ply from Sanwei or Yinhe? Stuff like the Sanwei V5 Pro, Yinhe PD 437/537? Or 7 plies from more expensive companies like DHS Long 3, Tibhar Force Pro Black, Nittaku Barnwell, and Clipper variants?
I just took off a rubber from the blue Fextra (Pro Fextra V) and after taking a look at the wood grain and comparing it to the standard red Fextra 7, I'm pretty convinced now that it's not the same limba.
It looks a lot like koto. The grains are completely straight with no curve to them at all. And there's a fish scale look to it that's visible in person. Here's a picture of it.
I've always thought that this blue Fextra played slightly faster and crisper than my other Fextras, but thought it was just my imagination.
So if anyone has been looking for a thin 7 ply (6.0mm) with a koto outer, then this blue $30 Fextra at Aliexpress is an option.
Sorry to rebut your findings, but I have seen many different samples of blades with Limba and Koto top ply, and while this sample has almost entirely straight grains, it is still Limba (I cannot recall any Koto top ply having the slightest curve in its grains). Koto does not have this many open pores, and has other features that I cannot explain, but I miss from this image.
For a 6.0mm 7 ply all-wood blade, it is still the Yinhe Uranus U2, which is the best under $30 option.
I wish you could see it in person since it'sl ooks very different from the limba top ply on the other Fextras. There are horizontal grains that you can see in different lighting that give off that shimmery 'fish scale' look. I've never seen that on any of the limba blades I've bought. Maybe I'll try to capture it on video. Not saying you're wrong. I can fully believe that this is just a very unique grain pattern for limba. But it looks too much like the koto samples I've seen online.
Is there another way of knowing like checking the layers from the side?
Limba top plies can also have this hologram effect, sometimes at a comparable level to average Koto top plies. For me, the upper third of the picture is definitive. Limba top plies can have many open pores (look for darker brown stripes, sometimes in very small groups near each other), which seem to be varying in length due to having slight curves along the grain - those can be seen as tiny channels running along the surface.Alright here's a slightly better close up picture that shows the fish scale look that I was referrring to. You can see the grain pattern transition in appearance from top to bottom depending on the lighting. Depending on the angle you look at it, it can look like the top lighter part or bottom darker part (kinda like a hologram effect).
None of my limba blades look like that so that's why I thought it was koto. What do you think @damszelfly? If it still looks like limba to you then I'll defer to your experience.
I trust your expert opinion on this.Limba top plies can also have this hologram effect, sometimes at a comparable level to average Koto top plies. For me, the upper third of the picture is definitive. Limba top plies can have many open pores (look for darker brown stripes, sometimes in very small groups near each other), which seem to be varying in length due to having slight curves along the grain - those can be seen as tiny channels running along the surface.
So, this is still definitely a Limba top ply.
One more thing: having the top ply lacquered greatly increases the chance of making the hologram effect visible for nearly all kind of woods.
Older Fextras were known to be faster and stiffer. The Fextras I've bought off Aliexpress have all been in the lower to mid OFF- range (1313-1333 hz). So it's not fast at all if you don't use fast/bouncy rubbers.Is the fextra too fast for a beginner? I am going through an EJ phase and thinking about picking up fextra, echo, or parla. The fextra is the most affordable which makes it more appealing but I am still firmly in the beginner stages. Also what are you running on the FH side with your yinhe blue moon? Also if anyone here has used both how does the fextra compare to the M8? I know the M8 is only 5ply