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This review won't be very popular since it's about a basically unknown manufacturer from Taiwan that no one has heard of, and a lot of things are niche about the blade.
I got ahold of the blade while I visited TW and by great luck I met with some people who introduced me to it and I won't say it was love at first hit but it felt unique and fun, and that I like a lot. So I bit the bullet and bought one.
The main thing about the blade is that it's made from fully Taiwanese grown wood. Well it's not that of a big deal but it's worth a mention.
The company is not particularly a blade making company, it's a company making cardboxes and packaging for big companies. You know like your Linksys or Qualcomm and such and the blade making is just a side project for them, maybe even totally a loss making side project but since it's their passion who can blame them.
It's not really a mass produced blade either, so don't imagine they churn out hundreds per day like the big manufacturers do, but that is not a bad thing. To me it seems like they don't really grade their wood like the big brands and have a commercial line and a pro line, and to get the pro line you need to know someones very important uncle who can hook you up for a ton of money with a pro blade. And by these pro blades i mean the NO1 DHS blades or the double code Butterfly blades. Can be obtained but good luck. Anyway this is just speculation on my part, but it feels that way to me.
The blade construction is very standard, 5.8mm 7ply, outer blue ALC. Besides the ALC every ply is made from not that standard wood.
The below ply setup is from their website, since I'm only familiar with the common table tennis wood like koto, limba, ayous, kiri and some more exotic like hinoki, rosewood, ebony.
Outer layer: Naturally air-dried straight-grain acacia wood (approx. 1 g/cm³) for 25 years, providing hardness, toughness, and stability
Middle layer: Paired with straight-grain neem wood (approx. 0.5 g/cm³) air-dried for over 5 years, enhancing elasticity and responsivenes
Core: Selected royal cedar wood (approx. 0.4 g/cm³) air-dried for 5 years, enhancing overall lightweight and stability.
I can say the top ply in feeling reminds me of rosewood, very sharp but also very elastic. Sometimes I play with a friend's Rosewood 5 blade and I have some similar vibes from that.
The blade is quite fast but in a different way than a Viscaria. The blade is more sharp and has this boosted feeling. I mainly play with Chinese rubbers on forehand and lately I used Chinese hybrids and standard boosted Chinese rubbers like H3 and B3. I can say all of them work well exeptionally well since the blade gives some boost to every rubber without feeling like an outer ZLC blade that doesn't eat the ball, but instead pushes it out too fast.
So the blade is very sharp and feels alive, and not dead and reflective as outer ZLC blades, but on the other hand it is very fast, faster than Viscaria, and maybe on full power shots slower than Mizutani ZLC but below 70-80% of my power it feel faster, if I hit very hard I think the Mizutani ZLC is faster but it's quite rare I can hit with so much power, maybe at 5% or the time.
Like I say the blade has a boosted feeling, I don't want to get into too much technical things since I don't have the proper tools to back it up but it feels like it has very high membrane deformation and then recovery and it gives the ball a significant kick even if your rubber is slow and has non of that catapult. You can imagine this like a trampoline too, the blade is deforming that way. I don't feel like the blade is overly flexible so it's not bending at the neck, it feels like this membrane deformation. But like i say this is purely from handfeel and no real measurement.
Because of this it feels like the ball holding is quite long and because of that the blade is quite spinny, especially compared to competition in this speed range.
The rubber pairing with it is quite easy, on BH is mostly used Glayzer, I also tried Mantra Pro M and H3N OS 37deg unboosted (deboosted in fact). I like the Glayzer the most since it is very fast with this blade and it Glayzer while is not very fast but on this blade it is and has just about the best grip out of any rubber out there. And grip on this blade is the king, speed is very naturally there. H3N 37 unboosted was a very pleasant experience too, speed was a bit lacking but the control and grip and safety was great and actually quite fun too. Like a H3-50 might be a pretty good choice with this blade since with regular H3N I felt lacking from behind to be honest. Mantra Pro M was also okay but Glayzer has more grip so it is better in my opinion. I wouldn't recommend very hard rubbers, even Glayzer might be a bit too hard, I think G-1 or C-1 or like I said H3-50 37 or 35 degree might be really good picks for BH.
Forehand pretty much everything is good. I tried a lot of things there, Loki Rxton 7, super good pick, I really like it. Rxton 9 40.5deg, also a great pick, H3N OS 39 boosted, it felt amazingly good, godlike until H3 topsheet started slipping after 2 weeks then I was like damn this sucks. I had that slip issue a lot on thin contact with H3 and it's a deal breaker.
Also tried B3 Tiger 4, I won a local tournament in Xian with that and felt great, then I tried B3 purple which actually was not that great, but I blame the topsheet again for that, something was off with that topsheet. Now after H3N OS 39 I'm on B3 regular 40 degrees with 2 layers of FTL and while B3 is still new and not broken in it feels very good, I feel the good old B3 magic in it.
But honestly Loki Rxton 7 was very very good on it, like I could imagine using that regularly and I wouldn't complain. R9 also OK so if someone doesn't want to boost then if you want a sticky Tenergy like rubber then Rxton 7 40deg if D09c like then R9 40.5deg.
Also I can imagine Glayzer 09c being a good pick since it lacks a bit of base speed but with the blade feeling so boosted it might just be right. If B3 bites me in the ass then def I'm going to try G09c next.
Some other positive points about the blade that may or may not be important. The top ply is very hard, for me it didn't splinter even the slightest bit. Not even a strand of wood came out. I don't think it's varnished either since Suke No2 glue sticks to the wood like hell. Rubbes don't come off at edges, not even boosted and curled rubbers. Also this is good news for longevity.
I never felt like the blade has any improper glued spots, no weird sounds or bounces so it seems to be made very well.
It has the standard 157x150 head size so basically the same as most Butterfly blades, the shape is extremely similar if not identical.
The bad points, well like I said before it's a basically unknown brand, their price is not cheap, around Butterfly ALC blades so I don't think it's an easy sale for them. I think the quality and performance is way better than commercial Butterfly ALC blades but I could mention Korean or Chinese blades too. Nevertheless it's not a cheap buy either.
Speaking of the availability is rather difficult too, for international buy I think only WRM from Japan is the only option. So people need to jump some hoops too besides not being cheap, but need to use the WRM shipping method and maybe need to deal with customs clearance etc etc. For sure not convenient or hassle free.
The handle is very thin. It reminds me of the thin Nittaku FL handles. In fact this is why I didn't fall in love on first hit since I'm used to fat handles and I prefer those, and I immediately felt this is so thin I can't deal with it. But I got used to it by now, but I can't say it was easy and even now the little devil is on my shoulder whispering that you don't like thin handles.
Since the handle is thin the blade is more head heavy. There is a reason I play with Glayzer besides the grip it has, it's light. My Glayzer is 43g cut, and it's like a year old and looks like the dog ate it like a homework but I don't want to change it since it still has amazing grip and I know a new Glayzer is like 47-48g and ofc it will loose some of it's weight over time but that 5g is quite a but of head heaviness. Now my blade is 188g with B3 on FH, and as the booster evaporates maybe it will go down to 184g. And I bet that will be just right for me.
The ugly part about the blade is that whenever I glue something on it, especially whenever I put glue on the blade it lets out an odor, I wouldn't say it's pleasant but can be beared and ofc only lasts as long the water evaporates but still interesting that every time I can smell that wood smell. It reminds me when I chop wood and some wood has this acidic smell.
Actually I hesitated to even write about the blade since I don't know how many would be interested also since why should I even give others good blade pick advice, let me keep this for myself, but reasonably speaking it's good fun to use and it's good to share the fun.
There are some WRM videos about the blade so if someone is interested they should check them out, there is also a video about the company which is more detailed than what I wrote and I think it's worth a look.
Ps: I can also recommend contacting @SDC or @Wakkibatty to make something similar with a different handle in case you think handle is a deal breaker. I can imagine they can recommend alternative woods. As you can imagine, I gave it some thought before; I really used to like fat handles.
I got ahold of the blade while I visited TW and by great luck I met with some people who introduced me to it and I won't say it was love at first hit but it felt unique and fun, and that I like a lot. So I bit the bullet and bought one.
The main thing about the blade is that it's made from fully Taiwanese grown wood. Well it's not that of a big deal but it's worth a mention.
The company is not particularly a blade making company, it's a company making cardboxes and packaging for big companies. You know like your Linksys or Qualcomm and such and the blade making is just a side project for them, maybe even totally a loss making side project but since it's their passion who can blame them.
It's not really a mass produced blade either, so don't imagine they churn out hundreds per day like the big manufacturers do, but that is not a bad thing. To me it seems like they don't really grade their wood like the big brands and have a commercial line and a pro line, and to get the pro line you need to know someones very important uncle who can hook you up for a ton of money with a pro blade. And by these pro blades i mean the NO1 DHS blades or the double code Butterfly blades. Can be obtained but good luck. Anyway this is just speculation on my part, but it feels that way to me.
The blade construction is very standard, 5.8mm 7ply, outer blue ALC. Besides the ALC every ply is made from not that standard wood.
The below ply setup is from their website, since I'm only familiar with the common table tennis wood like koto, limba, ayous, kiri and some more exotic like hinoki, rosewood, ebony.
Outer layer: Naturally air-dried straight-grain acacia wood (approx. 1 g/cm³) for 25 years, providing hardness, toughness, and stability
Middle layer: Paired with straight-grain neem wood (approx. 0.5 g/cm³) air-dried for over 5 years, enhancing elasticity and responsivenes
Core: Selected royal cedar wood (approx. 0.4 g/cm³) air-dried for 5 years, enhancing overall lightweight and stability.
I can say the top ply in feeling reminds me of rosewood, very sharp but also very elastic. Sometimes I play with a friend's Rosewood 5 blade and I have some similar vibes from that.
The blade is quite fast but in a different way than a Viscaria. The blade is more sharp and has this boosted feeling. I mainly play with Chinese rubbers on forehand and lately I used Chinese hybrids and standard boosted Chinese rubbers like H3 and B3. I can say all of them work well exeptionally well since the blade gives some boost to every rubber without feeling like an outer ZLC blade that doesn't eat the ball, but instead pushes it out too fast.
So the blade is very sharp and feels alive, and not dead and reflective as outer ZLC blades, but on the other hand it is very fast, faster than Viscaria, and maybe on full power shots slower than Mizutani ZLC but below 70-80% of my power it feel faster, if I hit very hard I think the Mizutani ZLC is faster but it's quite rare I can hit with so much power, maybe at 5% or the time.
Like I say the blade has a boosted feeling, I don't want to get into too much technical things since I don't have the proper tools to back it up but it feels like it has very high membrane deformation and then recovery and it gives the ball a significant kick even if your rubber is slow and has non of that catapult. You can imagine this like a trampoline too, the blade is deforming that way. I don't feel like the blade is overly flexible so it's not bending at the neck, it feels like this membrane deformation. But like i say this is purely from handfeel and no real measurement.
Because of this it feels like the ball holding is quite long and because of that the blade is quite spinny, especially compared to competition in this speed range.
The rubber pairing with it is quite easy, on BH is mostly used Glayzer, I also tried Mantra Pro M and H3N OS 37deg unboosted (deboosted in fact). I like the Glayzer the most since it is very fast with this blade and it Glayzer while is not very fast but on this blade it is and has just about the best grip out of any rubber out there. And grip on this blade is the king, speed is very naturally there. H3N 37 unboosted was a very pleasant experience too, speed was a bit lacking but the control and grip and safety was great and actually quite fun too. Like a H3-50 might be a pretty good choice with this blade since with regular H3N I felt lacking from behind to be honest. Mantra Pro M was also okay but Glayzer has more grip so it is better in my opinion. I wouldn't recommend very hard rubbers, even Glayzer might be a bit too hard, I think G-1 or C-1 or like I said H3-50 37 or 35 degree might be really good picks for BH.
Forehand pretty much everything is good. I tried a lot of things there, Loki Rxton 7, super good pick, I really like it. Rxton 9 40.5deg, also a great pick, H3N OS 39 boosted, it felt amazingly good, godlike until H3 topsheet started slipping after 2 weeks then I was like damn this sucks. I had that slip issue a lot on thin contact with H3 and it's a deal breaker.
Also tried B3 Tiger 4, I won a local tournament in Xian with that and felt great, then I tried B3 purple which actually was not that great, but I blame the topsheet again for that, something was off with that topsheet. Now after H3N OS 39 I'm on B3 regular 40 degrees with 2 layers of FTL and while B3 is still new and not broken in it feels very good, I feel the good old B3 magic in it.
But honestly Loki Rxton 7 was very very good on it, like I could imagine using that regularly and I wouldn't complain. R9 also OK so if someone doesn't want to boost then if you want a sticky Tenergy like rubber then Rxton 7 40deg if D09c like then R9 40.5deg.
Also I can imagine Glayzer 09c being a good pick since it lacks a bit of base speed but with the blade feeling so boosted it might just be right. If B3 bites me in the ass then def I'm going to try G09c next.
Some other positive points about the blade that may or may not be important. The top ply is very hard, for me it didn't splinter even the slightest bit. Not even a strand of wood came out. I don't think it's varnished either since Suke No2 glue sticks to the wood like hell. Rubbes don't come off at edges, not even boosted and curled rubbers. Also this is good news for longevity.
I never felt like the blade has any improper glued spots, no weird sounds or bounces so it seems to be made very well.
It has the standard 157x150 head size so basically the same as most Butterfly blades, the shape is extremely similar if not identical.
The bad points, well like I said before it's a basically unknown brand, their price is not cheap, around Butterfly ALC blades so I don't think it's an easy sale for them. I think the quality and performance is way better than commercial Butterfly ALC blades but I could mention Korean or Chinese blades too. Nevertheless it's not a cheap buy either.
Speaking of the availability is rather difficult too, for international buy I think only WRM from Japan is the only option. So people need to jump some hoops too besides not being cheap, but need to use the WRM shipping method and maybe need to deal with customs clearance etc etc. For sure not convenient or hassle free.
The handle is very thin. It reminds me of the thin Nittaku FL handles. In fact this is why I didn't fall in love on first hit since I'm used to fat handles and I prefer those, and I immediately felt this is so thin I can't deal with it. But I got used to it by now, but I can't say it was easy and even now the little devil is on my shoulder whispering that you don't like thin handles.
Since the handle is thin the blade is more head heavy. There is a reason I play with Glayzer besides the grip it has, it's light. My Glayzer is 43g cut, and it's like a year old and looks like the dog ate it like a homework but I don't want to change it since it still has amazing grip and I know a new Glayzer is like 47-48g and ofc it will loose some of it's weight over time but that 5g is quite a but of head heaviness. Now my blade is 188g with B3 on FH, and as the booster evaporates maybe it will go down to 184g. And I bet that will be just right for me.
The ugly part about the blade is that whenever I glue something on it, especially whenever I put glue on the blade it lets out an odor, I wouldn't say it's pleasant but can be beared and ofc only lasts as long the water evaporates but still interesting that every time I can smell that wood smell. It reminds me when I chop wood and some wood has this acidic smell.
Actually I hesitated to even write about the blade since I don't know how many would be interested also since why should I even give others good blade pick advice, let me keep this for myself, but reasonably speaking it's good fun to use and it's good to share the fun.
There are some WRM videos about the blade so if someone is interested they should check them out, there is also a video about the company which is more detailed than what I wrote and I think it's worth a look.
Ps: I can also recommend contacting @SDC or @Wakkibatty to make something similar with a different handle in case you think handle is a deal breaker. I can imagine they can recommend alternative woods. As you can imagine, I gave it some thought before; I really used to like fat handles.
