What's happening with Stiga blades quality?

I open this thread to know is someone else is getting the same perception.

Last years, Stiga is absolutelly falling down with the quality of their blades. Let's talk about objective facts.

* 'Premade Barnish'. Lots of people talk about sanding the blade before gluing. It's a joke for brand new blade?

* Inners veneers unstucked!. I know few cases, but someone else have seen it?

* Outer veneers completely chipped when removing the rubbers. In that case I'm talking about Clipper, CC5 and CC7 (outer 'white' veneer very damaged after removing 2 times...), Infinty....

* Outer veneer of some Emerald blades is blowed!!! I'm talking about a small part unstucked in the  middle of the blade.

I think that all of that facts are incredible when we are talking about expensive blades...

I see Yasaka blades and Avalox blades made in Sweden that doesn't have these problems.

Does Stiga have different quality controls? Does Stiga send to Asia better quality blades?

Of course, I can be wrong, it's my opinion. But every day I see more 'facts' about that.


Edited by DrBacterius - 01/27/2015 at 2:59pm

frogger wrote: Hmmm Stiga blades I have purchased in the past had finishing issues not structural. My recent Stiga Clipper Classic was perfect. No sanding required. Great wood selection and weight. You must have got a lemon. :) Also my current Offensive CR was perfect.

Did you buy the blades in US?.

In my case was Clipper CR. Impossible to glue a rubber before sanding. Also the outer veneer chipped when ungluing the rubber. I know more peole with that problem.


Edited by DrBacterius - 01/27/2015 at 2:15pm

I guess stiga try to lower down their prices for regular cheap blade and completelly ignore the quality issue.
Or some massive amount of blades on the market are 5 usd chinesse wood.

You can ask your local STIGA dealer how he is gluing his rubbers on the new STIGA blades.
I am sure you can glue rubbers on a new blade without sanding, if you are enough skilled to use some acetone only around the edges for removing the original varnish and the rubbers will stick well then.
You can try first on some cheap blade and then on the expensive one. You must know just a drop of acetone on the original signature could destroy/delete it.

Stiga blades made in Sweden have been absolute garbage for their premium price. I've gotten two Stiga OCs (out of 3) with 2/4th spruce plies oriented every which way but up/down. Fake stigas from china have better quality.

Get a donic/yasaka if you want decent quality from Sweden. Or Yinhe or equivalent if you're OK with OFF blade; for whatever reason their slowest blade is OFF- as are products from most chinese companies. Guess it's easier to build faster blades, and they can be marketed for more $. Gee I wonder why manufacturer all try to promote the fast end of the market.


Edited by AgentHEX - 01/28/2015 at 1:08am

yogi_bear wrote: the newer baldes from stiga are much better in quality compared to the ones in early 2013, the ones produced in 2014 like their rosewood, ebenholz and emerald have very good quality

Those are the exception (as are blades from Stiga china) but obscenely overpriced for basically slightly thicker OC/CC with harder face ply.

They're also into the speed range where chinese companies have replacements for a lot less.

Oooh
if this information is right, that's bad news. One blade from different factories???
I knew, that the different blades are produced by different factories some times, but the same blade?
In this case I am happy, that all my Emeralds are from the same factory.

yogi_bear wrote: the newer baldes from stiga are much better in quality compared to the ones in early 2013, the ones produced in 2014 like their rosewood, ebenholz and emerald have very good quality

this blade looks perfect to me. The only chips are at the contact points where you hit the table and destroyed the edge. Seen identical picture on all my blades, familiar with it all too painfully. Unless you put steel protection on the edge you will have same complaint with ALL blades where you destroyed the edge.
Not a stiga fan personally, but bought infinity VPS and Intencity Carbon for testing last year, and the craftsmanship quality was simply outstanding on both.

It's probably a bit of both: some contact and not the most firmly glued layers.

Then again, it's not one of their >$100 models so maybe they don't care enough to make sure the glue dried right.

Victor_the_cleaner wrote: this blade looks perfect to me. The only chips are at the contact points where you hit the table and destroyed the edge. Seen identical picture on all my blades, familiar with it all too painfully. Unless you put steel protection on the edge you will have same complaint with ALL blades where you destroyed the edge. Not a stiga fan personally, but bought infinity VPS and Intencity Carbon for testing last year, and the craftsmanship quality was simply outstanding on both.

HappyHarry wrote: Agree that happens on all blades no matter brand or quality if you hit the edges in the table for example.

The problem can be better or worse depending on the blade/glue. As someone who chops on the BH hitting the table happens a lot, and that stiga does seem worse than the norm. Donic/Yasaka blades from Woodhouse as someone mentioned above are much less susceptible to this..

Stiga makes blades in china for the chinese market. They're better than the swedish ones.

HappyHarry wrote: Victor_the_cleaner wrote: this blade looks perfect to me. The only chips are at the contact points where you hit the table and destroyed the edge. Seen identical picture on all my blades, familiar with it all too painfully. Unless you put steel protection on the edge you will have same complaint with ALL blades where you destroyed the edge. Not a stiga fan personally, but bought infinity VPS and Intencity Carbon for testing last year, and the craftsmanship quality was simply outstanding on both. Agree that happens on all blades no matter brand or quality if you hit the edges in the table for example. I have been playing with the Infinity for a while an re-glued it many times without a scratch. I think Stiga still produces really good quality blades and if you just are gentle and don't hit the table when you play and take it a bit slow when you are removing your rubbers their shouldn't be any problems!