Those Atypical Outer-Fiber Blades
Generally, the 5+2 structure of outer fiber plus a kiri core is seen as typical outer, emphasizing a sense of speed in medium-power rallies, easy attack-defense transition, a stable backhand, and an explosive first speed. But even when the structure is typical outer, you can strengthen spin through tuning.
Boll Spirit — Boll ALC — Boll 70
Because Boll made a new request to Butterfly to strengthen over-the-table control and spin. Boll was still using the Vis then. So Butterfly made him the Boll Spirit. The fact stands: you cannot say Butterfly merely conned Boll, swapped the Vis’s handle to make the Boll Spirit, and then Boll could not even hit it out.
Later, entering the inorganic era, to add speed to the Boll Spirit, it transformed into the Boll ALC. But the soft ball-holding style continued, and the crisp-outside-soft-inside character grew ever clearer.
Taking this flavor to the extreme, I think, is the Boll ALC 70th Anniversary edition. I almost feel this is the spinniest of Butterfly’s outer ALC blades. Because even the Boll Spirit customs I played before never had spin this wicked. This is a typical outer blade made into an atypical flavor. It should have been a speed style, yet it produced super spin — though its first speed is quite good too.
Bingfeng HRD — Double Fish Zhou Qihao — and maybe the Super Viscaria and Fan Zhendong SALC
These few are also very ball-holding and add spin well, producing more obvious overall deformation. This counts as making an atypical flavor on a typical outer structure. Among them, the Double Fish Zhou Qihao Project Z is especially so. A player described it as a Viscaria gone stale and damp, and that is about right. This is not derogatory — it just paints its style.
Making an atypical style on a typical outer structure is not hard. For example, each wood ply can be treated differently, and then through different fiber curing degrees you make it softer or harder.
Then, back to our theme here: those atypical outer blades. These refer more to swapping the kiri core for an ayous core. Although the fiber is outer, the core is different, no longer emphasizing transparency and explosiveness, but ball-holding arc and a jet feel.
Carbon 45 — Destiny Carbon — Xu Xin Blue Label
Outer fiber, but an ayous core, not the kiri core that typical outer blades use. And the fiber is not the hardness-and-softness-combined aramid carbon, but a stretched carbon fiber. Add Stiga Sweden’s superb wood treatment. So these three atypical outer blades are all very ball-gripping. The first two have limba face plies, reaching even wicked ball-grip. But even though the Destiny Carbon’s support and bottom power beat the Carbon 45, that is only enough. The Carbon 45 needs no further comment — the national players have abandoned it, for good reason. The Xu Xin Blue Label has the strongest bottom power of the three. It can even be quite fierce at full power. Though its spin is not especially extreme, it is also very ball-gripping.
ZX-Gear Out, Victas Pitchford Limited
On these two you can see the importance of craftsmanship. Honestly, they are quite playable. The 5+2 combination of limba face ply, outer Z-carbon and ayous core has a very clear feel, grips the ball well, and the close-table first speed is good too.
But even though they use the supposedly powerful ayous core, these two blades’ bottom power is not very big — no more than the Vis. Why? I think the wood plies and fiber need to be combined with alternating hardness and softness; only when the whole works well together is there real bottom power. If the plies’ hardness is close, the overall deformation is not prominent enough. Although these two atypical outer blades are also fine in real play, compatible with ball-holding and first speed under small-to-medium power, they really cannot claim much bottom power.