Friendship/729 Z-2

I have two other 729 ALC models and a Yellow KLC Advance blade, and I’m pleased with them. I wanted a cheaper limba, limba-carbon outer plies blade, like my Butterfly Primorac, and a clone of the Mizutani ZLC, which are soft for looping with high dwell time.

I found this blade to be on par. It’s great for learning to loop with. As a RPB looper, I found the thick 6.8mm tung core more hollow and less springy than the later kiri cores, but it offers very good control and a solid feel.

I actually hand-sawed through the thick core lengthwise and PVA-glued blue/black KLC from AliExpress, which was only 20 AUD a meter. This greatly improved the sweet spot. I’ve used the same method for other 20DR Yinhe N4 and N6 limba face blades, with great results. It takes five days to dry out; I’ll try Araldite next time.

The blade needed to be sealed with light vegetable oil and two coats of lacquer, as the finish was dry. It has a similar feel to a mono-fiber DHS PG13 or Wang Hao blade.

Mercury 2 on the backhand and a Boar Sriver 40 degree felt okay, as both are light, bringing the overall weight to about 190 grams for the thick core.

I’m going to use this as a stable training looping blade. When I went back to my dearer 729 and Butterfly clones, I had extra wrist strength. I recommend you get one. For the price, about 25 Australian dollars, it’s the best value, lower-priced limba blade, other than the N6 pure wood, around.

Update: I added kevlar/carbon weave cloth with vulcanizing glue and wax paper on top. It’s now much firmer, even on the backhand, with no vibrations. It’s a cheap upgrade mod to a Hurricane 5 blade, but still has the high dwell touch.

I think this blade is made for long pips or Fast&Hard rubbers only. When you choose LP it will be slow, but when you choose Fast&Hard rubber you’ll get good control. Currently I am using LP Stiga Sculpture BH and Stiga Radical SP which can make it more confusing for your opponent.

This blade features a limba/limba/soft carbon construction with a kiri core, making it a suitable option for players transitioning from all-wood blades to fiber composite ones.

At low power, the Z2 exhibits slight bounciness with adequate vibration, though the overall feel is somewhat muted. However, when played with higher power, it delivers a responsive “bite and release” sensation akin to the HL5 blade, albeit with slightly less crispness. The resulting arc is stable and consistent during topspin exchanges.