HELP - Characteristics of Balsa

Boing, boing, boing........... bouncy and fast.  Usually found in the core of the OFF and OFF+ rockets like Primorac Carbon, Boll Tricarbon, Juic Air Carbon series, and faster all wood blades types.  Lightweight and soft but stiff.  You normally won't find balsa in classic OFF- looping blades or allrounds.  Normally if you want to loop with a balsa blade you need to have a soft and preferably thicker outer ply.  This is just my opinion and what I've noticed during my EJ tenure.

The TSP with glass get plenty enough dwell for loops but you can't feel it as they are a stiff vibration free blade, they have an extremly thin top layer of limber the "fitter" handles are the top heavy looping specials and have exactly zero vibration or feel (I like that). All balsa have a huge amount of "spring" springy spongy I think it's great to help launch balls off very tacky topsheets. Also anything with a thickish balsa core and normal thickness limba will be a pretty good blade, can't go wrong from a good brand really

Balsa is very unique wood, you have to try it! It provides soft feel & less vibrations but it depends on thickness of core. But don't go in more than 4-5mm core if you want to loop with lots of spin.  the thicker core is, the softer or thinnier rubber should you use. I don't recommend max or >2.1 sponge, typical chinese rubber doesn't suit balsa blades at all. Speed: passive shots, block, pushes feels like All or All+, if you put more power in shot - smash or topspin it's like from Off+ rocket launcher. I think there are only 2 kinds of people:  who absolutely love it or absolutely hate it.
I've played with Andro Blax off(6mm core), Dr. Neubauer Bulldozer(8mm core) and Dr. Neubauer/Re-impact Combination effect(10mm double core).

I got my BTY X5 with carbo-balsa. Good feeling and fantastic block !

doraemon wrote: Hi guys, I stumbled upon Donic Opticon in a TT store (no intention of buying any blade, just looking around) and surprisely amazed by the unique feel of the blade when bouncing ball on it.  Later I realized that it has balsa in it.  Never try balsa before so I am not sure.  Can anybody tell me the general characteristics of Balsa?  I know it's light and soft physically, but how do they behave during play? Thanks.

Very Light material, very stiff and huge dwell time

Thanks to all of you that had commented on this.

However, I am more confused now, because when someone said stiff, good rebound speed, it can't have good dwell time.  The logic is when the ball bounces back quickly, it does not have good dwell time.

So, does Balsa have good dwell time or not?

doraemon wrote: Thanks to all of you that had commented on this. However, I am more confused now, because when someone said stiff, good rebound speed, it can't have good dwell time.  The logic is when the ball bounces back quickly, it does not have good dwell time. So, does Balsa have good dwell time or not?

depends on the thickness of the balsa core

Anything up to the 6.5 like I use has very good dwell, after that, the faster OFF+ Balsas not so much. But it also totally depends on what compisite is used and how much of it and how thick the top layer of Limba or other wood is. I'm certainly able to get just as much spin off the 6.5 as any other blade I own including the Accoustic and they are both similar speed blades, but they feel totally different, the TSP is alot lighter and zero flex

Ma Long is using Rutis with chinese rubber!

Thank you guys.

If I have to summarize: Balsa behaves exponentially, it is slow at slow strokes but extremely fast on fast strokes.  Hmm, I think this will be either you love it or you hate it kind of thing.  I am now considering to get one of Balsa blade, just to get a feel for it.