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• Handle:  Flared
• Weight:  91g
• Thickness:  5.3 – 5.4 mm (my eyes aren’t what they used to be)
• Size:  156mm x 150mm
• Plies:  3W+2C  (walnut + carbon aramid + Kiri? + carbon aramid + walnut)
• Sealant:  two light coats of Miniwax, oil-based, satin.
• Speed:  Off+
• Bounce Test:  Ball passively dropped from 40cm rebounded up to 35cm
• Short to Mid and way beyond with the right rubbers.

Qabod by Nexy is a well-crafted, high-quality, well-balanced attacking blade. As with all of the Nexy designs, Qabod looks like no other! It’s dark and radiant at the same time, like nighttime in the desert. “The glory, the qabod, is the manifestation of the essence of God.” The handle is cool-looking and has a nice gentle flare. It will probably be just the right thickness for most players. I prefer a thicker handle as I have long, boney fingers. Still, I could easily adjust and/or add one band of racket tape. The blade features a unique ply structure — a thin carbon layer sandwiched between a fine top layer of super-hard burnt walnut and a hardened core. I have used many hardwood blades. Some were lively and some were lifeless. This blade has a lot of zip and zing! The walnut may be burnt, but it’s not dead. It’s very much alive and has a nice catapult effect for drives and helps produce excellent spin.

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The blade is fairly thin, yet stiff with little flex. For a whispy 5-ply it hits and feels surprisingly like a sturdy 7-ply wood blade. Many 5-ply blades have a small sweet spot in the center of the blade and become quite weak towards the edges. That is not the case with Qabod. During the bounce test, the ball rebounded nearly the same all over the playing surface. In short, Qabod has a HUGE sweet spot! It’s fast, hits hard, and has a natural feel, which is rare for a carbon blade.  According to Nexy, Qabod has a “dual speed.” If I understand them correctly, they are claiming the blade has two gears. If so, I agree. In addition to being fast, there is a slow gear that enables players to have an effective short pushing/blocking game. Nexy Calix II is a similar blade that has a more pronounced gap between offensive and defensive gears. I would rate Qabod at OFF+ for high gear and OFF- for low gear. To quote another reviewer, “In terms of speed, I would compare it to a butterfly Jun Mizutani with a more woody feel.” It’s true — this blade has more wood feel than many all-wood blades, but with more speed and less vibration without sacrificing dwell time, which is important during aggressive loop-drives.

In conclusion, Qabod is a fantastic blocking, hitting, loop driving, and counter-hitting blade. You can also spin, brush loop, and do those big hand-to-forehead salute loops, but that is not this blades true strength. This blade cried out to me, “Hit that ball, Tommy Zai. Kill it!” As expected, Qabod plays well at mid distance, and thanks to the built-in low gear — you can also play a short, touch game. Qabod seem to hit a bit softer on the touch shots than most Butterfly Z-blades and hardwood Stiga blades. Depending upon the rubbers used, I’m sure players could drop back and enjoy long-range rallies. Control is average for an OFF+ blade, and this too is partially dependent upon racket coverings. I demoed this blade with a soft Euro/Jap rubbers and a hard Chinese rubber. Both work, but I think softer matches better with this hard blade. It took a few strokes to adjust to Qabod’s speed — shots were shooting long at first. With the Euro/Jap rubbers (Tenergy, Evolution, etc.) the gears were less pronounced and played more linear, and with the Chinese rubber (H3-Neo), the two gears were more obvious.

Note:  It would be interesting to compare Qabod with Calix II. I think, perhaps, other reviewers have done this, but nevertheless I would like to. ;-). I’m guessing the latter is more suited for a wider variety of players, but the former may be exactly what certain players’ love. Perhaps someday I will compare them all . . . after all, my Nexy collection is growing by the minute!