Donic Carbo System OFF-

Coming from a Schlager Carbon, this pretty much blew my mind. It doesn’t give up a whole lot of speed, but the feel of touch in all aspects of the game is ridiculous! That alone is worth it completely. It can more than hold its own close up to the table and if your form is decent enough, your distance smashes could knock a coin off the table. Everything in between is just as amazing.

It’s not without its downfalls, however. It’s not made in Sweden, so the fit and finish is lacking, especially in the carbon layer. There were little tufts of fibres sticking out everywhere, which is fine around the head (especially so if you like edge tape) but annoyed the hell out of me because it was basically leaving little slivers of carbon fibres in my skin. A couple of light scrapes with sandpaper did the trick, however.

My second issue is the balance. It’s fairly average in weight (~85g) but coming from a ~95g+ SC, I was expecting a bit more weight in the handle (the whole ordeal not being made better by the need to take weight AWAY from the handle with sandpaper).

My third complaint: Donic doesn’t make it anymore. *sadface*

If you can still find one, buy it! Be forewarned of its sub-par fit and finish, however. Donic seems to have replaced it with the Li Ping Kitex (which has me very interested, if I wanted to replace this blade).

The best blade I have ever encountered. I have tried over 15 blades from almost every manufacturer and once I found the Donic Carbo System Off-, I knew I had found the perfect blade. It’s pretty light (around 80 grams), and most of the weight is on the handle, so it never feels heavy, not even with heavy rubbers. Another advantage is its softness. I’d say it’s medium-soft, and therefore can be played with any rubber type; even hard rubbers feel good on this blade. The only downside is that it has somewhat of a medium-low throw. Too bad they recently discontinued it.