Donic Bluefire JP 02

This table tennis rubber has a low throw and an average weight. It offers excellent control while maintaining reasonable speed, making it well-suited for serves and chopping. However, one challenge is that the ball consistently stays low, which can make clearing the net difficult.

The rubber is quite forgiving, thanks to its medium hardness and overall soft feel. However, it does have some drawbacks. Primarily, it occasionally lacks the ability to generate spin; to create significant spin, the sponge must be fully engaged. Additionally, it demonstrates limited reactivity to incoming spin.

Incredible spin, easy to open up the game, and lobbing is great.

This rubber offers great speed for a medium hardness option. Although the topsheet is not as grippy as, for example, Donic’s Acuda S2, it is still a spinny rubber. I believe that the spin is most effectively unleashed when engaging the sponge.

The rubber is quite springy, which means it requires a decent technique to prevent overhitting. It pairs well with OFF- to OFF blades such as Xiom’s Offensive S and Yasaka’s Ma Lin Extra Special. Additionally, it is relatively heavy for a rubber of its hardness.

I’m an intermediate player whose strength is topspins, with enough spin to put my opponent off. I used this rubber on both the backhand and forehand sides of a Donic Persson Powerplay Area Sensitive V2.

My first impressions were that the rubber felt heavy. In the driving game, the rubber performed well, generating good speed off my flat drives. When pushing, the rubber could generate good spin, but only when pushing long. Unfortunately, short pushes tended to go high over the net. The topspins with this rubber were satisfactory; while the ball carried good spin, it was difficult to achieve both speed and spin while keeping the trajectory low over the net. After 12 months of use, the rubber now feels like my old JP 03s did when they came out of the wrapping, although they have cracked slightly.

Overall, I think this rubber is good for the backhand, but it is not suited for the forehand of an attacking player.

I was using JP 01 Turbo on the forehand of a Ma Lin EO JP version, and DHS 555 on the backhand. Some players in my club are very defensive, which made it difficult for me to compete against them. The JP 01 Turbo was too fast and not suitable for a short game.

After reading Smith’s review, I decided to try JP 02, even though I knew it had less spin than JP 01 Turbo. This was a concern for me, as I prefer rubbers with excellent grip, like Skyline TG3 Neo, despite its weaker control. With JP 02, I now have the control and versatility that I was searching for.

I also experimented with Skyline 3-60, but it provided minimal spin and was very different from the original Skyline TG3 Neo. Additionally, I tried Baracuda, but I found that it had less spin, less control, and was not as grippy as JP 02.

JP 02 offers a wide range of gears; when I hit strongly, it delivers impressive speed. However, it also allows for precision placement right after the net. I believe I will choose JP 02 as my forehand rubber.

I’ve switched to this rubber on my backhand, using a 2mm black on a Boll Spirit AN blade, while using T05 max on the forehand.

This rubber is better for opening loops against backspin compared to Tibhar’s FX-P. It also performs slightly better when pushed back from the table. The blocking capability is impressive, both for passive and active blocks. It has a medium throw angle, which is lower and faster than JP03, without any loss of control.

The loops generated with this rubber are very spinny, providing excellent feel both at the table and away from it.

So far, this has become my favorite backhand rubber.

I completely agree with the reviews above. They provide excellent comparisons between the different rubbers.

I have been using one sheet of rubber since last week, and I really enjoy it on my Bty. Taksim!

I recently purchased Hi-Tech rubber for my C-Pen Bty Chinese UCL. I made a good choice in trusting a rubber made in Germany by ESN.

This rubber provides the control I wanted, along with enough speed to effectively handle 40+ balls. In my humble opinion, Bluefire is a strong alternative to Bty Tenergies.

Blade: Stiga Ebenholz NCT V (CP) (OFF blade)
FH Rubber: Donic Bluefire JP02 Black (Max)
BH Rubber: Butterfly Solcion Red (1.9)

I used to use the Bluefire M series on an ALL+ Donic blade for the last two years, but I felt it lacked solid control. Perhaps I didn’t develop enough technique to fully utilize those rubbers.

After trying various rubbers, I decided to give the Bluefire series another chance, this time opting for the JP series. Before switching to the BF JP02, I had been using the Xiom Sigma I Euro as my FH rubber, so my comments will largely compare the two.

Speed: I would say the BF JP02 is faster than both the Xiom S1E and Andro Rasant Grip when looping, and even faster when smashing. In non-professional games, this rubber offers more than enough speed to finish off points effectively.

Spin: This rubber generates significant spin with proper technique. Its very grippy surface and medium-hard sponge are likely key factors in producing such high levels of spin. The BF JP02 creates more spin than the Xiom S1E and is on par with Yasaka Rakza 7 Soft. Additionally, the rubber does not seem overly sensitive to incoming spin, which is a nice bonus.

Control: Based on my technique, this rubber provides a medium-low throw and a medium-long trajectory compared to the Xiom S1E, Andro Rasant Grip, and Yasaka Rakza 7 Soft. As a result, it offers a lower margin of error compared to those rubbers. Opening loops are more challenging to execute than with the Xiom S1E, but the BF JP02 rewards you with impressive speed and spin. It truly excels in mid to long-distance looping due to its trajectory and speed. Surprisingly, the rubber still maintains excellent control for touch play, keeping the ball short on the table.

In summary: The BF JP02 is a fast and spinny rubber with decent control. Its general characteristics include a grippy surface, medium-hard sponge, and heavier weight—seemingly even heavier than the DHS H3 Neo series. I would highly not recommend this rubber for beginners, as it demands a decent level of technique and effort to make it shine; otherwise, it can be a wild beast that is hard to control.

It is very similar to the JP03 in terms of short game performance but becomes significantly faster when needed.

First, you might expect that JP02 falls somewhere in the middle of the range between JP01 and JP03. However, it doesn’t quite fit that expectation. The topsheet appears similar to the other JPs, but the sponge is much more open-pored. This characteristic is akin to JP01 Turbo, which features the large-pore sponge type, unlike the tight-pore sponge found in both JP01 and JP03.

JP02 feels like something of a hybrid. It utilizes the grabby, grippy topsheet from the JP range, while the sponge resembles Bluefire M2 in many ways, minus the booster smell that accompanies M2.

In the short game, JP02 offers all the benefits of JP01 and JP03. It provides good, easy spin when required, along with excellent control when receiving. For medium effort shots and beyond, it truly comes alive, feeling faster and more ‘slingshot-like’ than any of the other JPs. While it’s not a cannon, it does deliver a great elastic kick that adds a touch of pace to shots. However, in these higher gears, it does lose a bit of dwell compared to JP01, which results in a slightly lower maximum spin potential. JP02 is not as linear as JP01 and JP03, but it is easier to use than M2 or M1.

The throw angle is medium — lower than JP01 and JP03, yet higher than JP01 Turbo. In fact, I would classify this as a softer version of JP01 Turbo rather than a member of the JP01/03 series. Although the sponge is advertised as 45 degrees, the rubber as a whole feels a little softer due to the topsheet. It retains many benefits of softer rubbers without the tendency to bottom out easily.

The only obvious downside so far is a slight jumpiness when blocking heavy, fast topspin.

For me, JP02 is an epic backhand rubber. It is easy to use yet effective and not overly expensive. If JP03 feels a bit too slow and mushy for your liking, this rubber is definitely worth a look.