For the past two months I have been using a Butterfly Primorac Carbon ST of 88grams after moving from a Donic Burn Off all wood blade. It gave me a big advantage in blocking and also lead to a drastic improvement in my offensive game. There was one or two draw backs though with the Primorac. These were the very short dwell time when serving as well as having trouble sometimes pushing the ball long and over the table when setting up the point for attack, thus making unforced errors.
I decided then that I wanted to get a blade very similar in build with a slightly less stiff rating and a tad more control. This resulted in the choice being between the Butterfly Schlager Carbon Light, Butterfly Kong Linghui and the Donic Waldner Legend Carbon.
The Schlager carbon light is a very popular blade in South Korea as is the Primorac, but rarely do you see Donic Blades being used. I aslo had the opportunity to hit with the Schlager carbon but did not like the feeling in comparison to the Primorac. I decided then that I would go either for the Donic Waldner Legend Carbon or the Kong Linghui Special as they were both of the same 5 ply build.
The Kong Linghui Special was just a bit too slow with a lot greater control. The only option I was left with was the Waldner Legend Carbon.
After a few ours on the table with the WLC it was very hard to tell the difference between the Primo and the WLC. It was almost identical in every way. The only difference to me were a little softer feeling and a tad more dwell time on the WLC. But even with the little bit of a softer feel I think the WLC had a little more flex at the top of the blade witch made for less linear control than the Primorac.
The hinoki layers on the WLC were a little thinner than the Primorac. But the veneers were identical otherwise. Hinoki-Carbon-Kiri-Carbon-Hinoki. (If you look at the photo of the bottom of the blades you will see just how similar they are.) Strangely the face of the WLC was a little longer than the Primo and also the handle is about 2mm longer. Yet the WLC is lighter by about 3grams. The neck of both blades were lightly sanded out of the box but the Donic seems to have a little narrower neck than the butterfly as to be expected from Donic blades. The two handles are identical as well.
I will have to play a lot more with the WLC to truly give a full account of its playing characteristics.
Overall I’m very happy with my purchase. (I’d like to thank http://www.racketlon.co.za ) It cost me about R600 (60$) which is a lot less considering the blade in Asia costs around 110$. Also it is definitely worth the money in comparison to the 110$-120$ you would pay for a Butterfly Primorac Carbon or Butterfly Schlager Carbon Light. Definite best bang for your buck.
In the end though I will continue playing with the Primorac Carbon and have the Waldner Legend Carbon as a backup. Hope you enjoyed my post. Hope to see you here again soon.
Butterfly Primorac Carbon
Donic Waldner Legend Carbon
Butterfly Schlager Carbon Light
Butterfly Kong Linghui Special
Ratings was taken from http://www.tabletennisdb.com/
Braam's Table Tennis World 