‘Avalox’ is a brand of Swedish blades specially made for Chinese players. At the beginning of 1980’s, Chinese National Team was trying to adopt European topspin technics into the playing style of Chinse players. However, it was revealed that the domestic blades those were used by Chinse players were not suitable for topspin of European style. Therefore Chinese National Team wanted to supply European-made blades to its players, but it couldn’t work out smoothly because of the circumstances at that time. To solve that situation, in 1987, three persons from Sweden, Japan and Malaysia collaborated to make specially made blades for Chinese National Team, and established ‘Avallo Malaysia’ which is the company that deal with new products for Chinese National Team under the new brand – ‘Avalox’. At the beginning two models were developed – ‘P500’ for topspin with pimples-out rubber and ‘P700’ for fast attack with pimples-out rubber. Those blades have been used by many famous Chinese players such as Ma Wenge, Kong Linghui, Want Nan and Want Tao, and have achieved excellent result in international competitions until the late 1990s. And afterwards, Avalox added ‘BT (= Blue Thunder)’ series to its blade range. (Currently the official name of the brand isn’t ‘Avalox’ but ‘Avallo AVX’. That is because of the trademark dispute in Chinese market. To continue the business in Chinese market Avallo Malaysia had to change the brand from Avalox to Avallo AVX. Currently the name ‘Avalox’ is only used for the Swedish blades. And, new brand ‘Avallo AVX’ is applied for all models including Swedish blades. For that reason we can see two brands – ‘Avalox’ and ‘Avallo AVX’ those are printed on the head of Avalox blades made in Sweden.)

‘Ruiba Bloodwood Carbon’, which is also called simply as ‘Ruiba’ or ‘Bloodwood’, is a fiber blade that is rare in the Swedish-made blade range of Avalox. It is an inner fiber blade whose top layer is hard Bloodwood and whose artificial material is thin & soft Fleece Carbon that is inserted between the middle layer and the center layer. Avalox explains that ‘Ruiba Bloodwood Carbon’ provides the power of a carbon blade without losing the ideal feel of pure wood blade. The concept of ‘Ruiba Bloodwood Carbon’ is that the hardwood top layer gives high speed to the ball during light hitting but the blade hugs the ball very deeply when hit very strongly while the Fleece Carbon suppresses the energy loss for increasing the propulsion of the ball. Avalox ‘Ruiba Bloodwood Carbon’ can be recommended for the players who mainly play with topspin and counter-topspin at close-to-table area.

Avalox ‘Ruiba Bloodwood Carbon’ is a carbon blade made in Sweden. And, it is also a hardwood blade. We may expect very hard feeling from the combination of hardwood top layer and carbon fiber. But, ‘Ruiba Bloodwood Carbon’ is sufficiently soft and very easy to use at close-to-table area.

The plywood construction of ‘Ruiba Bloodwood Carbon’ reminds us of the Swedish carbon blades such as Yasaka ‘Ma Lin Carbon’ and Donic ‘Waldner Carbon’, but the most important difference is that its top layer isn’t Limba. The top layer is Bloodwood, the middle layer is Limba, and the center layer is Ayous. Thin & soft Carbon Fleece is inserted between the middle layer and the center layer. Overall thickness is around 5.5mm. (The catalog data of thickness is around 5.7mm.)

The head size of ‘Ruiba Bloodwood Carbon’ is around 157mm x 150mm.

Simple description is printed on the foreside of blade head. ‘Ruiba’ is shown in bold text as the name blade, and ‘Bloodwood Carbon’ is being dealt as the subsidiary name of this blade.

The width of FL (flared) handle is around 27.5mm (at head side) ~ 28mm (at bulge) ~ 27.5mm (at the middle of handle) ~ 34mm (at the end), and the thickness of FL handle is round 22.3mm (at thumb) ~ 24.6mm (at the end). The size of ST (straight) handle which isn’t shown in the picture is around 28mm (width) x around 23mm (thickness). The transparent lens at handle looks similar to that of Stiga, but a bit smaller. ‘Avalox’ logo and the text that this blade is made for Professionals are shown in the lens. But, the name of blade isn’t shown.

There isn’t metal plate or plastic lens at the end of handle.

Printing isn’t applied at the backside of head. However, at the backside of handle, there is the lens that is very similar to the lens at foreside of handle.

‘Made in Sweden’ is printed in the backside lens.

One important feature of Avalox blade is that entire edge of head is smoothly rounded. That luxurious finish is also seen at the Swedish blades of Yasaka.

The shape of FL handle is different from that of Butterfly or Stiga. The bulge near the thumb isn’t clearly shown, and therefore the width at bulge is smaller than the width at the middle of handle.

‘Avalox’ is also called as ‘AVX’. (In fact current official name of brand ‘AVX’ or ‘Avallo AVX’.)

Avalox ‘Ruiba’ (left), ‘Blue Thunder’ series (middle) and ‘P’ series (right) are the Swedish blades in Avalox blade range. All of those blades provide excellent feel and extraordinary ability of control.

Following are the performance indices of Avalox Ruiba Bloodwood Carbon (avg.weight = 91.8g) :

– Ep = 1.60

– Ec = 1.38 (Ec/Ep = 0.86)

– Vp = 1.09

– Vl = 1.15 (Vl/Vp = 1.06)

Please note that above are average values and can be updated by further measurement.

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