How Quality-Control Variation Affects Blades and Rubbers, and How to Avoid Harm
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Rubber weight. More than one player has asked me to write about rubber’s measured weight. But rubber inherently has a low yield rate, so naturally its weight quality-control variation is large too. Weigh any NEO blue national Hurricane and it can differ by seven or eight grams. The supposedly very light Tianyi can differ four or five grams. In such a situation, writing a measured-weight article is actually pointless. If you really are sensitive to rubber weight, best weigh several together with the packaging. I can only say that, relatively, Butterfly rubber weight is fairly stable — either stably heavy, like D09c and the heavier T05 Hard; or stably moderate, like T05, D05. German rubber differing a few grams is normal too. Tibhar’s Evolution, with sponge pores sometimes big, sometimes small across batches, is common. I can only judge by general experience — say the Jinghai C55.0 cannot be light, and the Platinum DNA is generally relatively light. Alas, ultimately, the world is still a slapdash outfit. Weigh several and see.
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For a certain blade, what weight suits better? Many players often ask me this. I generally do not answer, because it is purely a waste of time. If you do not even understand yourself, how could I understand you more? Take national players: I have seen 84g Vis and 95g Vis. One national player says around 88g is the gem; another says under 90g is junk. Where is any fixed golden weight? Butterfly’s “official weight” for a blade is not a design weight but a post-weighing average. That is, not how heavy they planned the blade, but: across this big batch, what is the average weight, so label it. After a while, if this product’s average weight gets lighter or heavier, just change the official-site number. Ultimately, choosing what weight depends on what feels right to you. My personal acceptance span is fairly wide — 80 to 93 is no problem. I may care more about the handle, the blade’s balance point, and the rubber’s weight. The rubber’s weight actually greatly affects the blade’s balance point too.
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On the Viscaria’s codes, the only valuable thing is: if you find a code’s Vis plays well, just keep using that code, that batch. As for which code plays better, that is purely hype. Each batch differing is normal — after all, naturally different wood material makes up at least 85 percent of a blade. But which code, or batch, plays well is purely individual. You happened to find it nice. Even due to quality-control variation, the next one you meet may not be as nice. Just that, for the same batch, it generally will not differ much. From iron-label to aluminum-label, the Vis is changing, with adhesive and fiber updating. But at least over the past decade or so, I have not seen the Vis adjusted. Differences are just quality-control variation from different batches of wood and workmanship. None is better — only a chance fit. In most Japanese shops’ eyes, it is even broader. They even deem the Viscaria, Zhang Jike ALC and Fan Zhendong ALC entirely identical, no difference. Of course, their handles surely differ. The Vis I have seen is basically all solid-handle; the latter two are not. This affects the blade’s balance point and the feel transmitted to the hand. But in the blade’s recipe, perhaps the differences we hit out are just quality-control variation, not deliberate. Watching Singapore’s Zeng Jian, now using the W968, now the Q968; watching Hong Kong’s Zhu Chengzhu first using the Lin Gaoyuan ALC, then the Viscaria — I feel my view is not idiosyncratic.