Gewo Aruna Hinoki Carbon & Sensus Carbo Speed

Aruna Hinoki Carbon

Weight: 89 grams

Thickness: 5.75mm

Plies: 5 Wood + 2 Carbon

Speed: Off to Off+

The Aruna Hinoki Carbon is a high quality blade from Gewo. This is made in China but the quality and construction seem to be much better looking than some of the European-made blades from Gewo also.

The smoothness of the Aruna Hinoki Carbon is very evident upon holding it, from the handle to the blade head surface, quality construction has been given emphasis. I would like to correct the stigma of people who think that OEM blades from China have very poor quality. The OEM blades from China can actually rival Butterfly’s quality but comes with a price. We know that OEM blades have a much cheaper cost compared to blades made in other countries such as from Korea, Sweden or Japan but Chinese-made blades depending on the quality demanded by the one who orders them can be increased to a level that rivals those of much more expensive brands. The handle of the Aruna Hinoki Carbon is a bit larger to Butterfly blades. It has a dimension of 34mm x 25mm x 100mm. I have the flared type handle and it is larger than the handles of Viscaria or Timo Boll ALC. The hinoki outer plies seem to have been carefully selected that you could mistake it as Kiso Hinoki. The sides of the blade have a fineline-like wood frame covering the sides. You can actually see the junction between the hinoki and fineline wood but it is tightly packed it could pass as a continuous and uniform blade surface.

The Gewo Nexxus EL 53 and 50 degree variant rubbers were used in this test. I decided to use the harder rubbers because the Aruna Hinoki Carbon has some sort of softness when I was hitting my fingers against the blade. The hinoki outer and the soft carbon composite layers may have contributed to the softness of the Aruna Hinoki Carbon. Overall feel is medium-stiff but it is fair to see you can feel some flex or softness in the blade when you are bouncing the ball against it both with the bare blade and with the rubbers mentioned above. To compare the speed of the Aruna Hinoki Carbon, I could say it is faster than an OFF blade but at the same time not as fast as the off+ Balsa Carbon blades of Gewo. I am quite sure it is faster than Viscaria or Timo Boll Spirit but slower than ZLC or Super ZLC blades of Butterfly. I would attribute the speed of the set up more on the 53 and 50 degree Nexxus EL rubbers than the blade itself. I believe the Aruna Hinoki Carbon is fast but when I placed an RITC Battle 2 rubber on it instead of the Nexxus EL 53, it was clear to me what the actual speed of the blade is. Yes , the RITC Battle 2 is slower than the mentioned Nexxus rubbers but it gave me a picture of the speed because I used the same rubber in other blades I have tested before. For other blade speed comparisons, I can say the Aruna Hinoki Carbon is faster than a Yasaka Ma Lin Carbon by a small margin or more or less equal to the Butterfly Innerforce ALC’s speed. The Aruna Hinoki Carbon has this bounciness that you can immediately feel but the speed is more than enough to give you power shots near and middle distance from the table if you use medium fast rubbers. It could be effective even at far distance if harder and faster rubbers will be used like the Nexxus EL 53 and 50 degree rubbers which I felt there was no reduction in speed or power.

For the spin, I already expected this to be very easy to spin with because of the soft carbon layers. Overall, the Aruna Hinoki Carbon has the flex and softness that can enable a player to produce heavy but fast topspins. I would say if you combine the Aruna Hinoki Carbon with Hard ESN rubbers like the 50 and 53 Degree Nexxus rubbers, you have high arched tospins. When I was looping this against backspins or doing topspins against blocks, I observed the ball height that is about 3 to 4 inches above the net for loop vs blocked balls and 4-6 inches when looping underspin balls.  I feel little to no amount of vibrations with the Aruna Hinoki on all most all attacking shots. It does not have this vibration that I regularly experienced with a few blades I have tested in the past from other brands. I had this experience with a certain brand that some of their older blades have this crazy vibration when doing flicks to the point that you felt some sort of a jolt of shock in your hand.  This is both a very balanced blade in terms of attacking and blocking. It is very fast that I believe it should not be rated as OFF only but it almost borders the range of being a true OFF+ blade. Despite the great speed, the control is that of a slower carbon blade. I would compare the control in the level of a Yasaka Ma Lin Carbon (not the Max 3D or Soft version). It is fair to say that it also excels in blocking as it is a stable blade to block with the comfy handle contributing to having less effort in defending against strong shots. Smashing on the other hand is above average. It is not the best on that area because of the flex but it can be compensated with harder rubbers. I would place the Aruna Hinoki Carbon more on the spinny shots area compared to pure smashing and driving shots. It does the job on smashing and driving but it would be a waste not to use this to make spinny shots because it is what it was built for in the first place.

I am not a fan of Hinoki blades and some people know that I do not but objectively speaking it is an excellent blade to use for offensive players. I would suggest this blade for advanced level players and maybe intermediate level players who have a few years of playing and also developed some offensive strokes to some extent.

Sensus Carbo Speed

Weight: 99 grams

Thickness: 6.1mm

Plies: 5 wood + 2 Carbon Aramid

Speed: OFF+

Yes you are not dreaming, the blade is 99 grams! I will explain further on this but in a nutshell it does not feel like a 99-gram blade. I have the flared version and it is big as the flared version of the Aruna Hinoki Carbon blade. The shape of the handle reminds me of the Yasaka Alnalde or the Joola PBO blades but this feels a little bit bigger. It is made in Europe basing on the marking in the blade surface but somehow the Aruna Hinoki Carbon felt a lot smoother. It is not that I am complaining as the Sensus Carbo Speed has a semi smooth surface already and not rough compared to some European brand blades that I have tested but still the Aruna Hinoki Carbon has a much better overall quality finish. Gewo stated in their website is not top or head-heavy and I would agree with it completely. Despite the weight of 99 grams (yes I weighed this in my digital weighing scale 3 times!), it does not weigh that much when I was using it maybe because the balance of the blade is not on its head but rather on the middle or in the handle to offset the 99 gram weight. This has a 150x157mm blade head dimension like the Aruna Hinoki Carbon but both seem to almost in the same weight range when I was using the Sensus. I glued the Nexxus 38 and 43 EL rubbers which in fairness are light rubbers especially the 38 degree version which might have contributed also to the more balanced weight. It felt like a 95 gram blade that is not head heavy. I have known only a few blades that weigh as much but do not feel as heavy. If for example this would be at 94 grams only, a lot of players who hate heavy blades can definitely use this. It is fair to say maybe this is not the normal weight the Sensus Carbo Speed has but maybe it should be around 92 to 93 grams in my opinion.

Even though this is rated as an OFF blade only, when I was testing this during drills, it felt as a true off+ blade. This is even faster than the Aruna Hinoki Carbon but I still think the major factor for hitting that strong and fast is because of its weight. It produces really strong and fast shots. You can feel the solidity of your shots when you hit flatly. Compared to the Aruna Hinoki Carbon, the Sensus Carbo Speed has lesser flex and is more on the stiff range of stiffness. It does not feel as a Schlager carbon but it can almost be as fast as popular pure carbon blades in the market. The Sensus Carbo Speed is way faster than a Timo Boll Spirit or ALC and so I would put it in an OFF+ range of speed. Unlike the Aruna Hinoki Carbo, the Sensus Carbo Speed has a long trajectory that is on the medium low or low arc. The Aruna Hinoki Carbon has an obvious medium to high arc while this blade has a sharp arc with a ball that kicks hard when you are looping with it.

For spin attacks, this blade is ideal to go all out offensively. Its strength is obviously more on power than spin. Do not get me wrong, the Sensus Carbo Speed can spin very well but its speed and power is better utilized for heavy hits that engages the sponge heavily. If you favor a contact which compresses the sponge more even on less stronger shots, the Sensus is a superior attacking blade you that you can easily tame. One particular attacking shot that I like with is that when you loop drive underspin balls that are both loaded with underspin and at the same time with good amount of speed, you can still loop the ball well but those very low flying loop drives when you hit the ball on the rise and above the table is the best thing I have experienced with it. It is a risky shot but is very rewarding. The Aruna Hinoki Carbon on this instance need more brushing on the ball while the Sensus to clear the net, you would just nedd to compress the sponge more.

The Nexxus 38 and 43 degree rubbers were easy to use with this balde and the Nexxus 38 was particulary appreciated in the forehand shots because it made the shots easier and controllable. When you hit mostly using more of the sponge, you will appreciate this blade more. If you smash a lot, harder rubbers will do the job for you but the blade itself will shine directly on power shots. Being heavy has its perks, blocking against strong topspin shots is wonderful especially with the 38 degree rubber. I bet blockers with harder rubbers can use this to the max. Also, because of the weight partially, the momentum on your swings is much stronger therefore giving you stronger smashes.

This is an advanced level blade but with a very soft rubber, this can be used by intermediate level players. Slight adjustments on short shots such as drop shots and flicks may need some adjustments due to the blade’s bounciness but it isn’t too hard.  Overall, this is a great blade to play with and even with long pimples, this seem to excel well with attacking or blocking pimple styles.