Plies - 1 PLY

Thickness: 10mm

Speed: OFF+

Weight: 90 grams

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I was able to be given a chance to review for Ariex. It was last year since Tony suggested to me that I should review this because of the good quality blades they produce. I was convinced that Tony was right about this brand. The quality and craftmanship is top notch compared to high end kiso hinoki blades in the market. Ariex is an original equipment manufacturer for 30 years as they claim and they have been making blades for other brands in the market. It was in 2005 that they made their own brand and started producing high quality blades of their own. They pride themselves in using selected kiso hinoki from Japan. Not just regular kiso hinoki but among the 10% of the top quality kiso hinoki harvested are gotten by Ariex. I haven't had much information about this brand because I haven't seen an english review for this. I was fortunate that Ariex USA sent me a sample. Of all their blades, the Ariex Excellent Hinoki is top of the line and the most expensive. Also, they clain it to have the highest quality among their blades. As of the moment www.megaspin.net sells this for $180.

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Ariex has 3 kinds of 1 ply kiso hinoki blades. This one has the best quality. The blade itself is smooth on its blade surface and the lines of the wood are beautiful to see. The handle is thin giving way to a very thick blade of 10mm. It was balanced as a blade and it doesn't seem to feel heavy or head heavy.

Speed

I have 2 words for the Excellent Hinoki's speed - "hell yeah!!!!". This is the fastest all wood blade I have tried presently. It has this solid and hard feel when hitting the ball. I glued an Adidas P7 and Joola Rhyzm-P onto this blade as test rubbers. This blade produces a low, long and sharp trajectory. I had to adjust with it's speed at first on my forehand drill but not much on my backhand drills. It was very bouncy especially with the fast rubbers that I was using for it at max thickness. In terms of speed comparison, it is as fast as hard carbon blades like primorac carbon or a gergely blade. It has this solid impact that you would love when doing smashes or loop drives. The speed is constant up until mid-distance from the table and its long trajectory is good when you counter hit or loop. I owned a Butterfly Senkoh 90 before which is also a 1 ply kiso hinoki blade but compared to the Excellent Hinoki blade, the Senkoh 90 is slower and I mean way slower. 

Looping or spinning

I had to adjust my racket angle on this blade because it has a low arc on loops and on re-topspins. Even with the Adidas P7 that is already a spinny rubber it produced a low and sharp arc but with a long trajectory. I reckon maybe soft rubbers or medium soft rubbers are better much suited to this blade. You don't need a fast rubber on this blade but rather a slow but spinny rubber to balance it enormous speed. Of the 3 contact timing on the ball, I was most comfortable when looping the ball on-the-rise because of its speed. I had a bit of adjustment on slow spinny loops as I think this blade suits more of a ball contact that digs through the sponge more rather than brushing the ball thinly with the topsheet. 

Short game

Although this blade is very fast, I didn't have a hard time controlling my drop shorts or short pushes inside the table. Even with max tensor rubbers, it wasn't really that hard.  

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Overall Impression

I am greatly impressed with this blade especially on its speed. I would recommend this to players who hit and smash more. Loop drivers will also like this blade but not much on the ones that do controlled spinny loops. A bit of adjustment would have to be made on how to control this beast. It's like when you attack with this blade you should not hold back and just follow through with your drives. As I found out during practice drills, the more I hold back on my power the more I had less margin of error for this. ON its weight, the set up I have was 189 grams. I recommend using a 2.0mm rubber on each side that are soft in order to have better control. This blade is for advanced players. I think Ariex's other models can be good even for beginners but not this one. It needs to be in the hands of a skilled player. 

Double Day is made by the same blade maker and offers two different Cypress levels.  They offer a 9.0 at various weights but mine came in at 9.20.  The head is a bit bigger then the standard compact and plays great. I have a WRC 9.2 with a compact head and they play very close,  I don't believe its worth spending the extra for Kiso from what I have read.  Ariex seems to be a reliable blade maker.

JIMT is probably the best source but from my limited point of view control is excellent, blocking the best and very easy to play.  Some complain that BH is more difficult but I don't have that experience but I don't play with a 10M rather a 9.2 and the weight is 83 grams so that probably makes a difference.  Difficult to find lighter one ply due to the drying time needed for thicker wood which adds cost and time in the manufacturing.  I tend to like medium to hard rubbers rather then soft don't know if that is universal for one ply or just me.  Found a wealth of info searching on Oak and this site under one ply.

I tried looking on facebook and i only saw there events page. Maybe they will make a official FB account someday. I'd still greatly appreciate your reviews, thats why i bought the Adidas Hypertouch and Strike Carbon when i launched my 3rd comeback last year. Keep up the good work. 

They are going to rebrand their blades with specific model name and logo, they also have a lot of new blades coming out this year as well.

you can take a look at their latest series here.  http://mytabletennis.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=71352&title=2015-ariex-excellent-gt-1ply-hinoki-review" rel="nofollow - http://mytabletennis.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=71352&title=2015-ariex-excellent-gt-1ply-hinoki-review

i saw the ariex web store and they have lots of kiso hinoki wood logs store in their warehouse, just wondering how can they import those many logs of woods from japan to taiwan, since their factory i think is based in taiwan, is it illegal to cut down trees that much.