[haggisv] Best of Brand series - Butterfly

I agree with Rob when he says " Most companies now have equivalent blades to each other, so the difference is always in the head shape or handle size."

Compared to 30 years ago, we have a much wider range of good quality products to choose from and are spoilt for choice. Some of the clones available on the market today are great blades in the own right. The Galaxy K4, W6, M6 and the Avalox blades come to mind

One thing also worth bearing in mind is blades are 85% wood and like most wood products, a well looked after blade will last decades and get better the more it is played. So older blades are still a valid option too. I have 2 1970's Stiga Allround woods and they play better than the Stiga Allround Classic i played with two summers ago.

Like Rob I've played with quite a few blades and  find that I can adapt reasonably quickly to most.

Regarding Butterfly equipment, my choices would be :
 
Timo Boll Spirit - versatile arylate carbon, that is a great looping blade; a classic
Michael Maze - a variation of the Timo Boll Spirit and an even better blade
Mazunov - great for those who like a heavy blade. One to rival the Clipper, as it has power for mid distance looping and good touch over the table.
Petr Korbel - great looping blade, better than the Yasaka Gatien Extra in my opinion
Kenny
Primorac ; Great choice for beginners.
Matsush*ta Pro - defenders choice

Rubbers :
Sriver : An excellent choice for many players over the last 4 decades. I prefer Sriver L, EL and G2 FX
Bryce ; I prefer Bryce to Bryce FX, as I block better with it.
Tackiness C & D : Great for defenders

p.s. I remember somebody mentioning that Butterfly also have a factory in Hungary and some of the plastic badge Butterfly's are produced there.

Ginko Tai Kim wrote: I agree that some "lower end" butterfly stuff are really poorly made, ie the blades that are made in china and not in the japan factory

I agree - the japanese butterfly products still have the strict quality control.  However those made in the china factories are lagging in quality. 

I have to admit, on the rubber side, some of the chinese manufacturers have come a LOOOOONG way compared to what i used to see in the eighties. 

The european manufacturers have great quality control also - but many of these don't have the range of products that the japanese and chinese companies do. 

Sriver and Bryce for sure

OK, below is my summary... hope it's accurate! Thanks for all the posts and information guys! I'll start the next brand shortly...I'm thinking Joola next...?

Butterfly
Here is my summary of the most notable / special rubbers and blades from the Butterfly brand. This is not meant to promote or criticize the Butterfly brand or products in any way, it�s simply a summary of opinions on the more famous and highly regarded products of the brand.

Butterfly is one of the most famous and largest table tennis equipment manufacturers in the world. Established in 1950 in Japan, Butterfly has developed into one of the market leaders, with high quality products, although with higher price-tags to match. Butterfly have many factories producing their products, including several rubber factories Japan, Germany and China, and blade factories in Japan, Hungary and China.

One of the reasons the Butterfly is so well known is marketing and information�there are few others who put in the same effort and have the same budget. All the information is of great benefit to users, and is a credit to Butterfly. Although a lot of the Butterfly products are very good, some are no better than those made by some other manufacturers, often made in the same factory, but it�s the marketing and promotion that turns people to Butterfly. Most people can find a suitable blade and rubbers from several of the major manufacturers, but it�s often personal preference or brand loyalty that drives them to Butterfly. Of course this is the same for several of the other major brands.

After talking to many people, and getting lots of great feedback from people on the table tennis forums, I�ve summarised the most popular Butterfly rubbers and blades below. Although the popularity can be biassed by marketing and availability, there are some that many agree on to be great products, so there must be something to it�

Rubbers:
Sriver � probably the most famous of all rubbers, that has stood the test of time and is still commonly used in modern days, even after several decades since it was released. This rubber is suitable for all levels, where thinner sponges are usually used for more control at the lower levels and they rubbers are speed glued at higher level for extra performance.

Other Sriver variants (EL, FX, G2, G2-FX) Building on the great reputation of sriver, several other variants have been developed over the years. The FX and particularly the EL have also enjoyed great success, the G2 and G2-FX are more recent and have not been quite as popular, partially due to the wide range of similar rubbers now on the market.

Bryce series � Bryce and Bryce FX are without a doubt two of the most popular choices for offensive players at higher levels, especially where speed glue is used. Many (but not all) agree that this rubber needs to be speed glue to really make it come alive, so with the upcoming ban, it may lose some of it�s popularity. The Bryce Speed, Bryce Speed FX are an attempt to modify the rubber to make it more usable without speed glue, but opinions on this are mixed.

The new Tenergy has been creating a bit of stir lately as the latest glue-free offensive rubber, but it�s a little too early to tell how successful it will be. Other offensive rubbers worth noting are the Tackifire C, Cermet and Catapult which have been successful for some people, but don�t stand out as much as the ones above. The Raystorm is one of the more popular short pimple rubber.

For the more all-round or defensive styles, there are the Tackiness C and D, which were very popular for many years and still used by some people today. The Feint Long II and III are their more popular long pimples, but have not had a huge following. The Super Anti appears to be one of the more highly regarded anti-spin rubbers out there, but with only a small percentage of players playing with these types of rubbers these days, we tend not to hear much about it. With the frictionless long pimple ban now in place, this rubber may well make a comeback.


Blades:
The Butterfly blades are generally regarded as high quality blades. Butterfly has factories in several different countries, but those made in Japan clearly stand out as top quality blades.

The Primorac, Primorac carbon, Korbel, Gergely, Sardius, Andrejz Grubba and Mazunov have been around for many years and have been the most succesful Butterfly blades.

In recent years, more research and technology has produced high-tech blades wich appear to have overtaken some of the earlier carbon blades in popularity. The Michael Maze and Timo Boll Spirit are high quality blades and have become very popular, and are used by some of the current top players in the world. The Schlager carbon seems to have a following, but it�s likely to be too fast to control for most people, although the sheer speed is often an attraction. The Kong Linghui Special is also highly regarded with a good following.

The Cypress-S seems to be the most popular J-pen blades, partially due to poor availabilty (in western countries) to the other J-pen blades.

The Matsush*ta Pro and the Joo Se Hyuk appear to be the most popular more defensive blades, and appear to be growing in popularity.

Final words:
It is likely that a player of any level and style can find something appropriate from the Butterfly brand, although this is the case for many of the other major brands too. Hopefully this summary will be useful for Butterfly fans or those that only have this brand available to choose from. Butterfly do have a range of other table tennis related items, in fact they pretty much sell everything related to table tennis, but blades and rubbers are the extent of this write-up.