Tibhar IV-L Light Contact

There are many versions of Tibhar IV-L.  The original Tibhar IV-L (All) is widely praised as a very good beginner blade.  There are others such as IV-L Light Contact (has piece of balsa inside the handle, speed = All+), IV-L Balsa (All), IV-S (Off-) and IV-T (Off).  Now, I got the chance to try IV-L Light Contact version, which weighs 87 grams (surprised, as catalog says it is about 80 grams).  I weighed several blades and the weight of this blade ranging from 81 grams to 90 grams.  This 87 grams version feels dense and I believe bump the speed rating to Off- (higher end of Off-).  Compared to my old Samsonov Alpha, Alpha feels much lighter and softer (although stiff).  IV-L Light Contact feels heavier and harder compared to Alpha, but overall still considered medium or medium soft.

IV-L Light Contact is a "primitive" blade that has been around for quite some time.  Why did I say "primitive"?  Because I believe it has ayous layers only (no spruce, limba nor koto)..  The odd thing is (as the name suggests) it is constructed out of 4 layers only (all ayous), while the norm is 3, 5 and 7 ply.  The outer ply is ayous but the two middle ply I am not sure, but reading from forum, they are also ayous, so they said.

Why the hell I discuss this blade?  Because for such as "primitive" blade, it feels surprisingly nice.  I don't know ayous can feel like that.  And the 4-ply construction has unique feel as well, which I consider a good feel.  It feels solid and yet during hard strokes, you feel like it flexes a bit to give good 2nd kick.

Speed will be around All+/Off-, but oddly it feels significantly faster than Samsonov Alpha, probably because my Alpha is only 81 gram (169 grams with rubbers) and IV-L Light Contact is 87 grams (193 grams with rubbers, both rubbers have thick glue residue).  My Opticon is about the same weight with Alpha, 81.3 grams bare blade and 172 grams with rubbers.

I think if you need a blade to be abused (wild playing) and has a lot of gears, you might want to consider Tibhar IV-L Light Contact because it is quite cheap and has pretty good quality.

Anybody who has used this blade, care to comment?

   "DEFORMITY" OF THE SHAPE
The very interesting feature inherent exclusively to Tibhar IV-L / IV-S models is the assimetry of blade's shape to give you a larger sweet spot. You shall not find such peculiar geometry on other classical paddles.
I was semi-pro player, using Tibhar products for years.

/Be happy/