Tibhar Karas OFF Review (5W,4C)

from my experience with blades with that type of building i wouldn't expect much.too thick with a kind of carbon that offers control but not good feeling and carbon spot powering feeling.  

Edited by ejmaster - 03/22/2011 at 6:50pm

speaquinox wrote: It really is thick.

It's as thick as the SK7 I am currently using so it's not a problem for me.

cls222, It looks good.  Can you tell whether the blade is made in Sweden or Germany?
Look forward to the review.

Tibhar blades factory is located in Slovenia.

I tested both BH and FH with Tenergy 05.

Style: European FH loop with a lot of power. My stroke is optimized for 50/50 speed and spin although I can drive and play spinny loops as well. My BH loop is more close to the table with more emphasis on spin than speed although I still get a lot of speed as I play near the table (70/30). If I would compare my BH form to anyone, I would say it is somewhere in between Ovtcharov and ZJK. Service is one of the strongest parts of my game so I will give a lot of info regarding serves.

The blade is more than I expected to be. The feel is similar to the Galaxy T-11, which is a rather thick Balsa blade with thick carbon layers and outer limba plies. The feel is crisp when counterhitting, not like the solid feel of a Korbel or the sharp carbon kick of a Galaxy T-2 or Primorac Carbon. I'm not sure what the composition of the blade is, as I am not a wood expert, but from the feeling, I'm pretty sure that the wood sandwiched between the carbon plies is Balsa. Surprisingly, the feel is medium (not hard, but not very soft either). The Galaxy T-11 has a softer feel imo, although the Balsa center ply is really thick.

Counterhitting FH: Nice and crisp feel. The ball was going pretty fast, maybe a little faster than off my SK7 with T05 on the FH. This is where the similarity between the T-11 and the Karas stood out the most (the feel). I didn't have to make any adjustments to my stroke coming from the SK7. No problems here.

Counterhitting BH: I have 2 different counterhits that I use depending on the ball I am receiving. My first is more of a punch, like Primorac and my second counterhit is similar, expect that I use my wrist to counter the spin a little, a little bit like Timo Boll, which makes for faster blocks and counterhitting. Punching the ball was pretty easy as the blade did not have a low throw and I was able to play consistently without having to make any adjustements. The feel was pretty much the same as with the FH counterhit. I was able to get more speed out of the Karas with T05 doing my second type counterhit vs. the SK7 with T05 although the SK7 feels a little bit softer when hitting harder. Calibra LT (Max) on the SK7 felt harder and played faster than the T05 on the Karas. No negatives here for me.

Blocking FH vs soft/spinny topspin: The blade blocks well. Incoming spin does not react so much when blocking passively. Blocking spinny topspin with a little extra push is just as easy.

Blocking BH vs soft/spinny topspin: Blocking is just as easy as with the FH. Punching works out well for me so no problems here. My BH block is one of my stronger sides so this is very important to me. No problems except that the ball travels at a slightly faster speed than off my SK7, which made some of my balls go long, although this is not really a problem as all I had to do was change the racket angle 2-3 degrees lol.

Blocking FH vs Drive/Power topspin: This is one of the best parts of the blade because the feeling is the best here. There is a very pleasant, crisp feedback when you block a powerful shot (makes blocking feel a little more enjoyable lol). Countering the block with a little "wrist-added" topspin produces a really fast return, although you must have good technique as this shot can be especially risky due to the added speed of the blade, compared to the SK7.

Blocking BH vs Drive/Power topspin: Just like the FH, I really like blocking with the BH using this blade as well. When I punch the ball, it travels nice and flat, just the way I like it. When adding a little wrist flick to the block to counter the topspin, the ball flies much faster, however. Feeling is awesome here too. I really like the blade for blocking with my BH.

Looping/Drive(Loop Smash?) FH: Looping is fine with this blade. The throw, compared to the Korbel SK7, is a little lower; my loop would travel maybe 2 inches lower than usual, although adjusting was easy. However, the added speed makes up for those 2 inches lol. The feeling here was much softer than when blocking, which surprised me as I expected it to be harder; I was still able to make spinny loops without a problem. Note that the feeling I describe is not huge, it is still smaller than other blades, such as the SK7 or the TBS; it just has a nice, subtle, crisp sound. I enjoyed driving the ball more than looping, however, as the feeling is great and the throw/speed ratio is just right for smashing through the ball (the ball would go a little lower compared to the SK7). I didn't have a hard time driving high, chopped balls; it was actually easier for me to smash through those. While looping vs. slow, heavy backspin I had to go a little more up than with the Korbel SK7 due to the slightly lower throw.

Looping/Smash BH: I don't really drive the ball with my BH, I either smash or spin it. Looping was actually more impressive than with my FH imo. When I started looping almost all my loops were going long due to the throw. When I spinned the ball with my BH, it would go longer although when I spinned the ball with my FH, it would usually go a little lower (Note the style differences mentioned at the top of the review). This blade has a high throw when going for maximum spin *near the table* and a lower throw when trying to hit the ball. I really liked looping with my BH using this blade although I had to step back a little bit to control my shots a little more because the pace was a little faster. Looping vs. backspin was a little tougher with this blade (lower throw) than with the SK7, however, but I normally loop backspin with my FH, so this was not really a downside for me. Smashing was good, a little more speed and a little lower throw, so no problems here. Didn't have a hard time smashing through slightly high serves.

Lobbing: I didn't lob too much with this blade, but it performs well here. There is no strong vibration when hitting the ball, such as in many 5 ply wood blades or Donic Senso blades, which pleases me (lol). The sweetspot is large so I didn't have a hard time returning balls from awkward positions. I actually prefer this blade for lobbing over my SK7. Looping a poorly placed smash by my opponent from far away from the table was pretty much standard. As always, the feel was nice when hitting the ball.

Service: I have just recently switched to T05 (a week ago), so I am still adjusting a little as it is a tad harder for me to serve spinny, short serves due to the strong catapult of the Tenergy (it's actually easier for me to serve with Calibra LT max than with T05). Also, 95% of my serves are FH so I will base my review on those. Short serves were spinny with the T05, as usual, but I still wasn't getting the desired height over the net; I was probably serving 1-1.5 inches over the net on average. The dwell on this blade is a tad less than with the SK7, although the dwell is still impressive as it is a carbon blade. Fast (deadball or topspin) long serves are a tiny bit easier with the Karas because the dwell on the blade is a little less than with the SK7. I was able to serve fast serves down the line, into the middle, or into the BH corner with relative ease, although I would prefer serving with a harder rubber with less dwell, such as Calibra LT as my serves have more of the "snap" although many times I am killing myself with these serves as I am not in position quickly enough to make an aggressive return (lol). It was easy to perform short, heavy backspin serves. Serving pure sidespin was a little harder as the ball would come off my paddle faster than with the SK7 and with the added catapult of the T05, it sometimes went long. Topspin was hard to perform short although it took me maybe 5-6 serves to adjust my form. Note that all these differences are very subtle and when I say "harder" or "easier," I am making a judgement based on a difference of a few inches or less.

Short game: There is plenty of touch for the short game although there is very little feel. I didn't have a problem making short pushes or pushing long However, for those people that really like to feel the ball in the short game, this could be a downside. Regarding flips, I really like flicking short serves with a heavy topspin return, similar to Ovtcharov or ZJK, and this blade performed well with T05. Similarly to my BH loop, I would launch some balls maybe 7-8 inches past the table when spinning topspin serves, although flipping backspin would tend to go closer to the net. After some adjustments, I was able to flip normally again and the speed of my flips was a little faster. Short pushes sometimes went a little high, but not enough to give me a large disadvantage.


Conclusion: This blade is a fast for a medium hardness carbon blade, although not as fast as a Primorac Carbon, Galaxy T-2, or Andro Kinetic CF Light OFF+. The hardness is much softer than the latter blades. As I mentioned before, I presume that the wood sandwiched between the carbon layers is a very soft type of wood, such as Balsa, and the wood between those carbon layers slightly bulges outwards when looking at the blade from the side. The Karas OFF is a good blade for loopers, all-around attackers, and blockers/counterhitters. It is also lighter than my SK7 by about 10 grams (noticable difference).


Edited by cls2222 - 03/23/2011 at 4:14pm

ejmaster wrote: the final point in a blade review is having good blade references testing to compare, 'i would play with that blade instead of lets say close building blades like yasaka max 3d o 7 ply 5 ply thick blades ?' and the final point is 'it would be a primary blade over other blades'. most blades are playable and performance well with training.

That's 100% true, even though it took me a while to decipher the information. I would be able to play with the Korbel SK7 and the Karas equally well after maybe a day of adjustments. I didn't buy this blade, as I don't have the money to be an EJ, so I figured since I'm testing Karas's new blade, I should at least make a review about it.

Very good and detailed review. It would be wonderful if you could supply some video too.

cls2222 wrote: ejmaster wrote: the final point in a blade review is having good blade references testing to compare, 'i would play with that blade instead of lets say close building blades like yasaka max 3d o 7 ply 5 ply thick blades ?' and the final point is 'it would be a primary blade over other blades'. most blades are playable and performance well with training.   That's 100% true, even though it took me a while to decipher the information. I would be able to play with the Korbel SK7 and the Karas equally well after maybe a day of adjustments. I didn't buy this blade, as I don't have the money to be an EJ, so I figured since I'm testing Karas's new blade, I should at least make a review about it.