Stiga Vs Butterfly blades.
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Topic: Stiga Vs Butterfly blades.
Posted By: kakapo
Subject: Stiga Vs Butterfly blades.
Date Posted: 04/23/2015 at 7:39am
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I have always been a BTY user and for some years, a little BTY blades collector. That didn't prevent me to try some stuff from other brands. Of course, the problem is ...the permanently increasing in prices that seems to be without any limits. The other problem is....when you have stiga as club sponsor and you play with butterfly :)))...so you have to sell your free stiga rubbers and buy yourself butterfly rubbers...because stiga rubbers are worst than BTY, xiom, yasaka, tibhar, donic, nittaku.......rubbers. You can take any brand...they are better than stiga. The other brands and most of all.....stiga have come with blades and rubbers presented as competitors for the BTY ones : emerald, carbonado, rosewood, cc7..... I have tried all these blades and my personal thought is that they only compete regarding....high prices :))). Some of these blades are not well made, the weight differences between 2 blades (samples received or blades bought) can really be huge and I have personnaly never find one better than BTY. Regarding the rubbers.........there are really no competition ! Butterfly seems to win it by KO. When we are looking world tour tournaments or German, French...leagues, we often see players using BTY blades and rubbers: a lot of Mizutani, Spirit, Maze, ALC, Liu Shiwen, Viscaria.....somtimes BTY blades "camouflate" in other brand blades.....and of course, lots of tenergies. So, my question is....... I am just wondering if I'm blind or.... Have you seen a pro player somewhere really using : emerald, carbonado, cc7, ebenholz, rosewood ? I mean one of the "expensive" stiga blades. ------------- Def play grey grip 94gr, Venus 2 blue 2,2, Neubauer KO extreme 1,3mm |
Replies:
Posted By: *_strataras_*
Date Posted: 04/23/2015 at 7:59am
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Butterfly rules with nittaku in blades.No one can say something different.Personally, I have the emerald but also the rosewood from stiga.Between these years that I play I have bought many brands and in stiga too, but I have sold them back.Butterfly and nittaku are the best blades ever made.In rubbers there is only one brand, Butterfly.Stiga, unfortunately wanted to make the big difference starting with ebenholdz and rosewood series, wich are the same poor construction as the oldest blades (I have personal experience to say that) and then stiga tried to convince us with the emerald and then carbonado series.Both poor constructed again.No sealing on the top plies and I think that the glue that is used for the plies to be applied, is not good quality.The only good in emerald is that it is very good blade to play with and it is very beautiful to watch.If u try to peel off the rubbers, the problems are starting.Ofc there are exceptions, but the most of the people have the same problem.Butterfly has to rethink the parameter price, but stiga has nothing to think....only do it with any thoughts!!!I am not spending money for these poor made blades of stiga...ofc IF I find a stiga blade in very good price, cause I have my conections...then maybe i will give a try, but generally speaking, no way!!!I prefer to put some 20-30 euros more and buy an excellent-quality Butterfly blade! ------------- OSP Virtuoso SQST Tenergy 05(black 1,9mm FH) Tenergy 05(red 1,9mm BH) http://mytabletennis.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=74157&title=feedback-strataras" rel="nofollow - Feedback |
Posted By: Zo k
Date Posted: 04/23/2015 at 8:27am
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Ebenholz V is used by some china women national members (cant remember names at the moment) Rosewood V used by Wang Liquin Rosewood VII Par Gerell,Allan Bentsen At some point Chen Qi played with Ebenholz VII Emerald,carbonado are fresh items for now.. ------------- OSP Ultimate 3 CRW ST Victas V>01 Limber max Victas V>01 Limber 2.0 |
Posted By: t64t64t64
Date Posted: 04/23/2015 at 8:43am
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Chinese national team do not really have a choise. Stiga is in cooperation with CNT for as long as 10 years. ------------- http://mytabletennis.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=61764&PID=734709 |
Posted By: Magic_M
Date Posted: 04/23/2015 at 8:58am
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I agree to nearly all points, but with some acceptions. Like I already wrote somewhere on MyTT, Stiga was the best blade-producer in the 60's up to the 80's (without a really competitor until 1972). After 20-30 years as number one the quality got worse and also the playing-skills. You can feel the difference, if you compare an old Stiga Allround Wood from 1970 with the actual Allround Classic or the old Offensiv Classic (black double lens) with the actual Offensiv Classic. In the last two years Stiga released some good blades with very good playing-skills like Rosewood XO, Intensity VPS or especially the Emerald. The Emerald also looks extremely good. Personally I bought three Emerald and still have two of them. All three blades had high quality and no problems after dozens of rubber-removings. On the other side I bought a Butterfly Liu Shiwen, which had extremely poor quality (the outer veneer splintered, when you look on it). Nevertheless the average craftsmanship of the actual Butterfly blades is much better than most Stiga blades. In this point I agree 100% and maybe the Emerald is a positive acception, because I have seen pictures of some Carbonado blades with really low quality. The price-discussion is not fair in my eyes, because (here in Germany) I can buy Stiga Equipment with very good dicount. Therefore the real price of the Emerald is not 147€, it is maybe 110€ and for this price Butterfly has NOTHING comparable, which is able to competite with the Stiga Emerald. I have tested the Zhang Jike Super ZLC, Mizutani Super ZLC and Carbonado. In my eyes these Butterfly top blades are totally overpriced. A Carbonado with big discount may be still expansive, but a Super ZLC without any discount is crazy. The rubber-quality of Butterfly is very good - without any discussion. The Tenergy-family is still on top, although it was released many years ago - really astonishing. In the last years some other brands also released some very good rubbers like the Evolution-series for example. In this point Stiga is still far away from the top, although the Airoc M is a good backhand-rubber, but they have only 2-3 acceptable rubbers, the rest is ....... ------------- http://mytabletennis.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=51774&title=feedback-magic-m" rel="nofollow - My Feedback |
Posted By: VictorK
Date Posted: 04/23/2015 at 9:05am
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There are many excellent choices of high quality, well made blades and/or rubbers from brands that aren't mentioned in this thread, such as: Tibhar, Joola, Donic, Andro, Xiom, Nexy, DHS, Juic, TSP, Darker, Adidas, Yasaka, etc. For the overwhelming majority of non-professional TT players brand should not make a difference or matter at all, assuming no significant quality issues, IMHO - just choose the equipment that you can afford, that fits your style and personal preference, and that feels good in your hand, and just give it some time to get used to. ------------- 99% practice 1% equipment 0% ratings |
Posted By: Stavros
Date Posted: 04/23/2015 at 9:44am
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Stiga blades are much more popular in China. I like Stiga handles (and wings) more. I like the unique Stiga feeling. I like Butterfly's quality control and durability (Japan made only). I don't like Stiga's splintering. Regarding rubbers, Butterfly is in the lead. Stiga has only some decent b/h rubber , like Airoc M as Magic_M mentions. ------------- InfinityVPS - D80 - D05 |
Posted By: Da Baobei
Date Posted: 04/23/2015 at 10:40am
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Stiga Blades are actually pretty popular among pros: Ding Ning, Guo Yue, Kato Miyu - Ebenholz V Li Xiaoxia, Tsuchida Mika - Ebenholz VII Hirano Sayaka, Matsudaira Shiho - Rosewood 5 Kasumi Ishikawa, Morizono Misaki, Zenqi Barthel, Shibata Saki, Watanabe Yuko - Clipper CR Miu Hirano, Maeda Miyu, Takahashi Mariko - Clipper That are only a few female pro players I know and there are a lot more. Also among the men there are a lot of guys using Stiga blades. Stiga is definetly the second most used brand for blades among the pros behind Butterfly. But most of the comercial Stiga blades sold in Europe lack the finishing and qc of BTY and Nittaku blades for example. The only ones used by the pros are pretty much Clipper with and without CR and the Hardwood Series (Ebenholz, Rosewood). |
Posted By: ericd937
Date Posted: 04/23/2015 at 11:12am
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I have used quite a few different blades in the last few years. I really like Donic's blades. The price to quality ratio is very good. Xiom and Nexy also have some nice ones. I've yet to find a Nittaku blade or Stiga blade that suited me. Butterfly is really good, but a bit overpriced. ------------- Current Setup: TBS FH T80/BH D80 Official USATT Rating 1815 Current estimated level: 1800-1900. |
Posted By: beeray1
Date Posted: 04/23/2015 at 11:20am
| before the quality went down, Stiga was great. Now, the chinese made ones are better quality than swedish made. This is due to improvements in china, and cutbacks in sweden. The Chinese domestic Stiga blades are very well made. |
Posted By: jonyer1980
Date Posted: 04/23/2015 at 11:26am
I own a bunch of BTY blades but im playing with Stiga RW5 but honestly Maze/TBS has better craftmanship than any Emerald/Carbonado/RW/EBHZ for sure.... It´s not a matter of a battle of brands, this thread depends about which model are we comparing to. I also had in the past a few crappy rough finished BTY Blades that were bullshit, such as old Timo Boll Forte SBC or classic TB ALL series. Same thing happens with TB Tricarbon. BTW interesting thread... 
------------- Rosewood V FL Nittaku Fastarc G1-FH Stiga DNA Pro-S MAX BH Avoid any Butterfly stuff... at abusive prices. Raw power without control means nothing |
Magic_M wrote:Posted By: in2spin
Date Posted: 04/23/2015 at 11:36am
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in the speed glue days: stiga energy wrb mark v stiga energy glue was remarkable :)
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Posted By: asifgunz
Date Posted: 04/23/2015 at 11:45am
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Highly doubt it's the commercialy available blades. Probably customs. No point in comparing equipment to wang liqin. Not only is he a superb player. His equipment is crazy. Have people forgotten the video clip where he shows off the stickiness of the rubber? -------------  "I do not have any idols. I am my own idol." - Zhang Jike Feedback: http://mytabletennis.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=71761&PN=1#905629 |
Posted By: jfolsen
Date Posted: 04/23/2015 at 11:47am
I find Stiga blades highly variable. I went through five different Stiga OC CR blades at one point, the first played great, one of the nicest blades I have ever used. I bought four more over the next couple of years, no two played alike. I finally switched to Butterfly, not for the way they played, but just for the fact that I could have a backup blade that played the same as my primary. The weight varies a bit, but the feel of the blade is much more consistent. There are probably lots of other manufacturers that do superb quality control like Butterfly, I am just not as familiar with them. jfolsen |
Posted By: beeray1
Date Posted: 04/23/2015 at 11:52am
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I'm not so crazy about Butterfly's QC sometimes either. It all depends on what factory makes them. There are a lot of Hungarian made BTY blades that are just crap next to the japanese made counterpart. I can imagine having one Korbel made in Japan that's awesome, and then my backup is hungarian and completely crappy.
Nicest main brand blades I've seen are all Nittaku.
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Posted By: Chicobo
Date Posted: 04/23/2015 at 11:58am
| Slightly off-topic, how can you tell where the Bty blade is made? |
Posted By: bbkon
Date Posted: 04/23/2015 at 12:23pm
bty blades are not good anymore,,if you want a good one buy an old one,if another brand has a blade with a flaw is bad quality control if the same happens with butterfly is a bad batch
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Posted By: TT newbie
Date Posted: 04/23/2015 at 12:35pm
| It´s all about preferences. I´ve never liked any BTY cpen blade. They can´t be compared to Stiga, Yasaka or Donic cpen blades. |
Posted By: jfolsen
Date Posted: 04/23/2015 at 12:54pm
I agree, I prefer the feel/feedback on a Stiga blade. Even softer Butterfly blades feel hard to me. But it was like playing the lottery, I had a one in five chance of winning and getting the blade I actually wanted. And you couldn't tell by weight with Stiga, two blades that had identical weight would sound different when you bounced a ball on the blade, and they would play different. jfolsen |
Posted By: Leftyy
Date Posted: 04/23/2015 at 4:12pm
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I think it's hard to say that all butterflys blade are better then Stigas and also vice versa. Every blade is unique from both the brands and all blades will suit different game styles and different techniques. I'm a fan of both Butterflys and Stigas blades and are currently very happy with the new Carbonado which I think or maybe hope that some of the pros also will start using haha. Like someone wrote I think most of the Stiga blades got a softer feel and of course some people likes it and some people likes it more stiff. Is not the Clipper used by some of the Pros? Jorgen persson and also dimitrij ovtcharov with a Donic handle? |
Posted By: Leftyy
Date Posted: 04/23/2015 at 4:14pm
Is not all the Stiga blades made in Sweden? Or am I wrong?
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Posted By: schen
Date Posted: 04/24/2015 at 5:32am
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As far as international usage, Xu Xin of course used the Rosewood V with great effect for some time before switching to the cheaper Intensity NCT. Fan Zhendong is allegedly using the Carbonado 145 now according to an interview with Liu Guoliang but that has yet to be confirmed by photos or video... And like a previous poster said, Stiga's Ebenholz V & VII seem to be pretty popular among the Chinese National Women's Team. Aside from that, a lot of international players and provincial level players in China still opt for the older generation of Stiga blades (most popularly the Clipper and Clipper CR), which Stiga's reputation was originally built on. The newer generations of Stiga blades that I've tried so far have been of disappointing quality (I've tried Infinity, Carbonado, Emerald) which all have had the same problem of top ply separation from the rest of the blade - my Infinity's top ply completely separated from the wood, my Carbonado's top ply bubbled, and my Emerald splintered. Rosewood, Ebenholz, Intensity, and Clipper have held up very nicely in build quality recently though, although the hardwood blades went through a period with the obnoxious NCT layers. Stiga has always been made in Sweden - there are no Chinese made blades, only ones designated for Chinese distribution (and I suspect these ones actually go through additional finish processes). Stellan Bengtsson used to work with Stiga and he told me the downfall of Stiga's feel and quality started when they switched to a faster drying glue (around the same time they moved their factory) for their blades in order to put out higher quantities. Their older glue took much longer to cure and Stiga couldn't produce enough blades to keep up with the demand, causing them to change it up. Now while you might find less defects with BTY blades, the playing characteristics inconsistency is still present across all brands. In the past when I've used the IZLC, I found to my dismay that my spare IZLC of the same weight played nothing like my main... a costly discovery. Nowadays I just order several (maybe 5-6 blades at a time) of the same weight and inspect them all by hand, keep the two that feel the way I like, and return the rest. This is because wood is an organic material and as such is subject to variation - you'd be amazed how different two seemingly identical blades can play... I've seen huge differences in nearly every blade by every manufacturer I've tried: Stiga, Butterfly, DHS, Donic, Yasaka, JUIC... everyone. Being a chronic EJ and wholesaler, I've literally tried dozens of models and hundreds of actual blades and nearly nothing escapes this variation. However, composite/carbon blades tend to behave a bit more consistently than all wood blades from blade to blade... probably because the non-organic materials stabilize the construction a bit. ------------- http://bit.ly/1clQmfp" rel="nofollow - Feedback | http://bit.ly/1rcjTiH" rel="nofollow - FOR SALE - updated Mar 19 Dynasty / H3 / H3 |