We may think of hard feeling and very high elasticity when we think of carbon blades. Although that image isn’t as strong as it once was because currently the mixed woven fibers such as ALC or ZLC are widely used for table tennis blades, in the past it was common knowledge that carbon blades are hard and provide extreme elasticity that can be excessive for all-round players or non-skilled players. However, table tennis manufacturers have attempted to use carbon fiber, which was considered as the most advanced material at the time, in a wider variety of blade products. And, one of the blades developed as a result of such attempts is ‘Grubba Carbon’ which appeared in the late 1990s.

‘Grubba Carbon’ is the carbon blade of Butterfly Europe named after Andrzej Grubba of Poland, one of the representative all-round players of the 1980s. Butterfly Europe had been selling the all-round blades of ALL-~ALL class with the name of Andrzey Grubba. The blades could be treated as ‘Grubba’ series, and the carbon blade which was added as the top product of ‘Grubba’ series is ‘Grubba Carbon’.

The graphic design of ‘Grubba Carbon’ follows the common design theme of the Butterfly Europe blades in 1980~1990s. (The Butterfly logo and text at foreside printing has once been changed to new ones shown in this picture.) The most important feature of the graphic design of Butterfly Europe blades of 1980~2010’s is the speed indicator printed at foreside of head. And, the speed sign (‘ALL+’ for ‘Grubba Carbon’) is also printed in the foreside lens.

The construction of ‘Grubba Carbon’ isn’t the 5+2 ply outer or inner construction which is common in most of current fiber blades but the traditional 3+2 ply construction which was common in 1970~1980s. The top layer is Akazie, and the center layer is Ayous. It is very unique that the orientation of the grains of center layer isn’t vertical but horizontal. Woven carbon fiber is inserted between the top layer and the center layer. Overall thickness is around 4.7mm. From its very thin construction we can expect that the elasticity of ‘Grubba Carbon’ will not be that high.

TTGearLab have only ST handle version. Its squared ST is the common ST handle shape of Butterfly in 1970s. The top and bottom of ST handle are completely flat, and that makes us feel that it is squared. Its width is around 28mm and its thickness is around 23mm. This shape has been applied for many Butterfly blades such as ‘Power Drive’ and ‘Hermoso’. And, it is also being applied for ‘Timo Boll ALC’, ‘Timo Boll’ series and ‘Mizutani Jun’ series. (The actual shape of each model can be different. And even the size of the same model can differ by production lot. Sometimes thicker sometimes thinner. However, the basic shape of this handle hasn’t been changed.)

‘ALL+’ is considered as quite high speed-class as that of all-round blade. However it is astonishingly low class as that of carbon blade whose fiber is woven carbon fiber. The characteristics of ‘Grubba Carbon’ are its low elasticity and very high level of control. But, it can produce higher power than the pure wood blades of the same speed class thanks to the high energy efficiency of woven carbon fiber.

The brass Butterfly logo plate is applied to the end of handle since ‘Grubba Carbon’ is the Butterfly blade of 1990s.

Recently, the constructions of fiber blades have tended to become somewhat uniform due to the influence of the popularity of certain products. But, it would be desirable that more variety of constructions are applied to blades, to satisfy the various needs of players who have various personalities. In that sense, the blades such as Butterfly ‘SK Carbon’ which inherits the traditional 3+2 ply construction are considered as the products with important value.

Following are the performance indices of Butterfly Grubba Carbon (avg.weight = 79.4g) :

– Ep = 1.35

– Ec = 1.26 (Ec/Ep = 0.93)

– Vp = 1.15

– Vl = 1.32 (Vl/Vp = 1.15)

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

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