Stiga Exclusive Blade Review

Stiga Exclusive Blade

Weight: 90 grams (FL legend), 89 grams (ST)

Hardness: Stiff

Plies: 5 (walnut outer plies with secondary spruce layers and ayous center core)

Speed: OFF

Blade Head Size:  151x157mm

The Stiga Exclusive blade is a specially-made blade by Stiga for TTEX.com online store in Sweden. I believe if I am not wrong about the info, this is exclusively distributed by TTEX and is not sold outside by other stores both online and local stores. One can only buy this through TTEX online order so in some way this is a rare blade.

At first close up look on the Stiga Exclusive, one could see that it has the features of the new and high end blades of Stiga. It has the metal tag and logos. It also has no nct coating or finish on the blade surface. One thing I was surprised to find out with this blade is that the blade head size is the standard Butterfly head size which is 151x157mm. Supposedly, Stiga blades have a compact head size about 149x155mm. The blade is a bit thicker than the Intensity NCT and felt stiffer overall. Despite the NCT coating which gives the Intensity NCT a hard surface, the overall feeling of the Exclusive blade is stiffer while the Intensity NCT has flex. The increased head size did increase the weight also. Fortunately, mine is only 90 grams and the ST handle was 89 grams. The neck needed to be sanded down carefully as I would not want a beautiful blade such as this to be ruined. Overall look is a classic brown blade look for the Exclusive blade.

On the bare blade, I bounced the Nexy polyball a few times and it had a medium height for its bounce like 6-7inches in height. The sound was loud but only in medium pitch. I attached a Xiom Vega Europe and a DHS H3 Provincial rubber for this blade test. When I was warming up using both backhand and forehand drives, I have noticed the Exclusive blade to have a diminished vibration when compared to the original Intensity NCT. The overall hardness on ball impact feels harder than Yasaka Ma Lin Extra Offensive Intensity NCT and more or less equal to the Yinhe ProW5. The Intensity NCT still has the hardest surface feel with the Exclusive in the middle and the Ma Lin Extra Offensive as the softest. When I was doing drives and smashes with it, it is fast. In fact it is faster than the ProW5 and has a more solid feel on impact.

The Exclusive blade seems well suited to the H3 Provincial as my forehand rubber. It was really good in all forms of strokes especially in looping and loop driving balls. The blade can make you spin that much even with polyballs. It gives a medium arc for the balls path onto the table when looping. In fact, looping and counter looping is its forte. It rates high also as a smashing blade but the looping and loop driving is on top of its arsenal. The Exclusive blade fares very well up to mid distance from the table. Further than that and you would need a bit more effort or very fast rubbers.

I am quite surprised and impressed with the blade. I am using it now as my main set up when playing once a week. I have also found out that for European rubbers, it favors rubbers that are not too hard. The best hardness for rubbers in tandem with the Exclusive blade would be medium down to soft rubbers. When you dig hard rubbers that you can compress a lot when hitting through the sponge, the control and speed seem to be very high. It produced a loud sound when I was hitting using the Vega Europe DF. For Chinese rubbers, I think only hard or medium would suit well and not soft Chinese rubbers. The H3 Provincial when paired with the Exclusive blade is a nasty spinny set up. Those sharp loops are awesome. Overall, I actually love this better than the Intensity NCT or the Emerald blade. A bit pricey like the Emerald but it is that good.