Tibhar Black Carbon

The handle is uncomfortable and too small for my hand. I was looking for something fast, but this blade is way too fast. Control is poor. If you intend to play with this blade, use soft, slow rubbers. Durability-wise, I accidentally hit it on the floor and it shattered. I bought it from a local store. Afterward, I searched for products sold online or from an official distributor—not this trademark. Believe me, there are much better trademarks than Tibhar.

This blade is a good choice for using with high-performance “pimp out” rubbers, such as those designed to create disruption and unusual spin.

Very Fast Blade. I am using a Chinese Pen holder with T05. This combo is a dream. It provides ultra fast attack, with very nice control. Because of the Layer of Carbon fiber, it has a big spot, with the same consistency. I only had a problem with glueing the rubber. I had to make use of sandpaper to glue it properly. This is the only negative point that I can write. It is a hard blade, but the touch is amazing. It has a great sound too.

In my quest to replace an old Tibhar IV-S, I gave this blade a try. The first apparent thing is that the carbon layer seems to be the outer layer, which was surprising. With the addition of some painting on the surface, it becomes nearly impossible to glue. I resorted to using sandpaper to get my rubber to stick to the blade and smooth out some edges that were causing blisters.

I tried it with Boost TX on the forehand and Tenergy 64 on the backhand, resulting in a weight of around 85 grams. My style involves heavy forehand topspins and hard-hitting backhands.

My opinion on the result is mixed. First, the blade has quite a hard contact. My soft Tenergy 64 felt more like a harder Mark V M2 on the IV-S. The ball does not penetrate the rubber as much, resulting in a shorter dwell time. Pushing backspin with the Tenergy was difficult, providing minimal spin compared to other softer blades.

Control is also poor, leading me to miss many serves with my forehand. Despite this, I could execute decent topspins with my backhand, benefiting from increased accuracy and speed.

On the forehand, however, ball control was challenging. I lacked any sensation of spin while topspinning, leading me to believe the carbon layer prevented vibrations. Despite this, my topspins usually landed on the table, with the exception of an occasional major issue. Softer rubber like Boost TS might improve the situation. Notably, during training, I managed to generate exceptional spin, with the ball nearly reversing direction before hitting the table, reminiscent of using speed glue.

The caveat is that I could not consistently reproduce this spin. This may be due to my technique, but it highlights my main issue with the blade: its inconsistency. The sweet spot appears to be located only along the central axis of the bat, and rebound is poor orthogonally, even a few centimeters from the edge. While centering the ball might solve this, other blades I’ve tested perform much better in this regard.

The handle was also too small for my liking, despite my average-sized hands. Blocking was difficult, and the weight was too forward-heavy.

In conclusion:

- It is an extremely fast blade, enabling impressive power with accuracy. - It is relatively light, but the weight is unevenly distributed. - Spin generation is challenging, but exceptional topspins are achievable when executed correctly. - The blade has significant inconsistencies in rebound, making it difficult to control.