Blade Review #09 / Field Guide: Strong on Defense — The Sword Vsea Blade!
This installment, a joint Blade Review and Mushroom Field Guide feature, covers: strong on defense — the Sword Vsea blade!
Test setup: forehand Yinyi Cuifeng and Neo Provincial Hurricane; backhand Yinyi Zhenhai and Blue Whale 3.
Blade Overview
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Sword’s traditional paper-box packaging, with an anti-counterfeit code added to the seal film. The overall design is blue-gray with a contrasting-color handle — looks are a matter of taste.
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The limba wood chosen for the outer ply is very even, which deserves praise. The outer ply also has anti-fraying treatment; many manufacturers are starting to do anti-fraying now, which is a good thing! The handle and badge are a bit rough, though.
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Reference purchase price is over 300 yuan — not expensive — positioned as mid-range value-for-money.
I. Blade Construction
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5+2 construction: limba outer ply + ayous middle plies + inner yellow aramid-carbon + ayous core.
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What’s special: the Sword Vsea’s outer ply and middle plies are made fairly thick, while the core is made fairly thin. You have to keep in mind that most blades today raise their bottom-end power by thickening the core to increase support — the Vsea takes the completely opposite route, which is a pretty interesting trait.
II. Actual Performance
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Feel: the striking feel is fairly normal — neither outstanding nor lacking, neither crisp nor muffled. The blade feels weighty in hand, not the lightweight type, so you can pair it with lighter rubbers.
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Arc and spin: the fairly thick limba outer ply provides a “not-hard” contact feel, and you can sense the ball-grabbing and your control over the arc. The placement and arc height are moderate, and overall it’s stable.
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Defense: defense is what I consider the Vsea blade’s standout strength. Because the outer ply and middle plies are both relatively thick, the force feeds back to the fiber layer later when you strike, and more of it gets dispersed into the outer wood. So during testing I had a different take: the Vsea blade’s defensive ability is excellent, with a very high defensive on-table rate. Paired with a tacky rubber, the rubber’s grip can take its defense even further, letting you save a lot of unbelievable balls.
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Power: the power threshold isn’t high, and the difficulty of driving through is medium. Other reviews online might say its bottom-end power is good, but my feeling is this blade is better suited to mid-and-close-table fast attack. A thin core inevitably means a little less power; the Vsea’s absolute power isn’t very strong, but its support is no problem, about the same as the Inspiration Carbon.
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Speed: once you put power in and drive through the blade, the close-to-mid-table speed is very fast. The pitch of the through-the-blade sound is fairly high — it has a short, punchy, fast-decaying style. The Vsea is not a power-type blade.
III. Usage Suggestions
I’d recommend the Vsea for amateur male players with some foundation who want defensive forgiveness while still handling mid-and-close-table attack. At over 300 yuan, the price is acceptable, and my recommendation level is medium-to-high.
PS: The contents of the Mushroom Field Guide are all the author’s subjective impressions. Rubbers vary from piece to piece, and results also differ depending on the blade you pair them with. Comments and corrections are welcome.