Stiga Arctic Wood

What a balanced blade! You have a lot of flex that can produce heavy topspin, yet it has a quite hard outer veneer so you still have speed to kill the ball. It pairs well with hard rubber. I am using Rakza Z EH om forhand and it works fine.

I’m sorry, but I just don’t get on with this blade. It feels slow and ill-balanced in penhold form, as if the blade is actually too big. It just doesn’t feel ‘right’ to me somehow. My main blade is a DHS Ma Long V, and my backup is a soft carbon Yasaka Ma Lin. Both feel much better balanced, and the Long is quite a bit faster. I’ve tried both Chinese and European rubbers on it too, but it made very little difference. Sorry, but it’s not for me!

I have been playing with this blade for about a year and have also used Stiga CL, Offensive Wood NCT, and Allround NCT. Having experienced both extreme ends of Stiga blade (Quick Attack styled CL and Loop styled OC NCT), I would say this Arctic Wood blade is somehow the most balanced offensive blade I have ever had with Stiga. The weight of this blade is generally 80-85g for PH grip and 85-90g for SH grip.

Nonetheless, being very balanced is sometimes not a good thing for all playing styles. This blade is definitely designed for those that focus more on the details of ball control, rhythm, and close-to-far table transition.

Due to the stiffness and medium hardness, it could easily mix either tacky or tensor rubber (I have used DHS TG3 Nittaku, DHS Gold Arch 5, and Xiom Vega China VM for FH and Butterfly Rozena 2.1 & 1.9 for BH). After trying this blade out, some of my friends even thought it was a 7-ply or carbon blade. I personally felt that this blade performs very differently at low and high power. At low power, it is definitely felt like a 7 plyer (easy for short serves, short backspin return serve, and quick hits), whilst at high power, it could grip the ball well during looping.

Unfortunately, in other words, this means the blade is not very tolerant for BH flip shots/close-table loop if your footwork/motion is not accurate. Also, it cannot generate the extremely crazy spin during far table looping (like Stiga 245). Luckily, it has a rather throw angle and is stiff enough to maintain the low and curve during the rally, and the stiff surface makes most defensive returns faster than most wood blades (if you position well).

Lastly, on RPB, it has a more than average-sized sweet spot (longer), so I have not had the paradox of having either a shallower grip or missing the sweet spot.

Like most Stiga blades, it has the same issue of wood peels during rubber removal. The diamond touch only made it slightly better. Hence, be very careful as you peel off the rubber!