Review: Butterfly Hadraw VK

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   Name: Butterfly Hadraw VK
Weight: 82g
Speed: OFF-
Thickness: ~5.7mm
Dimensions: 150x157mm
Plies: 5 (koto-koto?-ayous-koto?-koto)
Handle: FL

Background: 1700-1750 USATT, been snagging matches from 1850-1950 rated players lately. Previously played with TB ALC and ZJK ALC. Rubbers used were H3 Neo 39 2.2mm commercial (not boosted) and Sriver G3 2.1mm. I'm going to mostly compare this blade to ZJK ALC since I've used both blades with same rubbers. The blade was sealed with 1 coat of wipe-on poly. This is done to all my blades.

How did I end up with a 5 ply in plastic ball era?... So ive been playing with ALC blades for a while now and my main setup was TB ALC with T05 2.1mm both sides. I decided to try a flared handle ZJK ALC with previously mentioned rubbers to see if I would like the whole "Chinese rubber + ALC" thing and to my surprise it was good. But after playing numerous players that were USATT 1800+ I noticed I was lacking control and confidence in my shots so I decided to take a step back... to a 5 ply wood blade. 

Initially I was looking at Korbel and Primorac, but remembering how one felt almost "dead inside" and lacked power (Primorac) and the other was a chunky unbalanced brick (Korbel) I stumbled upon Hadraw VK (don't get me wrong I owned both Primorac and Korbel and those were wonderful blades but I was looking for something a bit more special this time). 

VK is advertised as a 5 ply (V for 5 ply and K for "Korbel-like") wood with "SOUL" , no kidding that's what was said in a Butterfly Mag.... https://en.butterflymag.com/2015/11/blade-with-a-soul/

Initial Impressions: Top ply which is koto is great: 10/10 quality, no knots, smooth, has that shiny koto grain that I love looking at. Overall quality of this blade is amazing.... ofcourse it has to be for $110+ 5 ply wood. One thing that did disappoint me was the handle. Even though it was nicely done with good finish, it's rather small... smaller than ZJK ALC flared. ZJK ALC flared handle is a bit thicker and squarer (similar to Viscaria FL) where as this one felt thinner and more rounded. I put some grip on it and that fixed the handle issue for me as I have large hands.

Another note about plies. The core is clearly made with multiple joints. I never noticed this before I read an article about BTY using multiple joints for the cores of their blades. On this blades you can clearly see it. It's not a negative to me but after reading a post about this practice I noticed the same on the ZJK ALC and TB ALC. Top plies however were all great on all 3 blades.

Speed: This blade is rated as OFF- and I would say that's appropriate, even though butterfly got rid of that system and now uses terms like "Reaction" and "Vibration" which it got 10.5 and 8.4 respectfully.
To put things in perspective butterfly gave ZJK ALC/TB ALC/Viscaria a Reaction: 11.8 and Vibration: 10.3 ratings. 

For the Reaction rating I would agree since it is suppose to represent the blade's speed with a numerical value. Hadraw VK is indeed slower than ZJK ALC and TB ALC. As for Vibration, Butterfly states that:
The higher the number (or frequency) of swings produced by the blade, the higher the vibration property. A higher frequency equals less feedback from the blade, making it more difficult to control.  
Source: https://en.butterflymag.com/2015/11/blade-with-a-soul/

I think this makes things more confusing for the customer (which I honestly learned today that higher the vibration number means the less feedback from the blade... you would think a higher number would indicate more vibration thus more feedback but I get it why its a reverse relationship), but it does correlate with this blade's feeling. It does offer more "feeling" of the ball as you hit with it. However it does not feel like some of the other 5 ply wood blades I've tried in the past that had "too much feeling" i.e. Yasaka Ma Lin Extra Offensive aka YEO. 

So... to put things in simpler terms.... speed: ZJK ALC/TB ALC/Viscaria > Hadraw VK > Korbel > Primorac OFF-

Control: Like I previously mentioned in my other reviews control is relative person to person but to me this blade does offer more "control" during hits, drive, and loops compared to ZJK ALC/TB ALC/Viscaria. Its hard for me to rank this blade in terms of control for blocking because on one hand ALC blades provide that direct consistent block which can be attributed to great control, where as Hadraw VK offers a slower block due to its slower rebound speed. Take this with a grain of salt... but during gameplay I feel more control with this blade, especially playing higher ranked players.

Feeling: Not much to be said here other than what was said already. Hadraw VK has more feel than ZJK ALC/TB ALC/Viscaria in a sense that the blade vibrates on active strokes and lets you "feel" where the ball is on the blade without overwhelming you with "unnecessary overexaggerated" vibrations that Ive experienced in the past. This blade has that crisp koto feel you get with BTY ALC blades like ZJK ALC/TB ALC/Viscaria minus the "ALC numbness". Hadraw VK does feel harder than Korbel and Primorac OFF- (which are Limba outer ply).

Conclusion: Overall Im a happy camper with this one, I recommend it to anyone that wants to go back to 5 ply wood without sacrificing too much speed but wants to gain more feel and control. I also recommend this blade with Chinese rubbers like H3 Neo since both pair very well. The price may be high for some to spend on a 5 ply wooden blade but to me it is worth it.

Edited by DreiZ - 07/17/2018 at 2:18am