‘Signia GF’ released in October 2024 is an inner-type fiber blade of ‘Problade’ series which is a high-class blade family of KTS (Kim Taek Soo). As the initial ‘GF’ in its name expresses, its artificial fiber is glass fiber which provides very natural feeling close to wood. Its construction is identical to that of ‘Ngineered H’ which is strongly recommended for entry players. But, ‘Signia GF’ is made with higher quality and higher-class appearance when compared to ‘Ngineered H’. That policy is similar to what DHS is doing – for example same blade construction is applied to high-class ‘Hurricane Long 5’, middle-class ‘Fang Bo B2’ and entry-class ‘Power G5’. ‘Signia GF’ fits for modern all-round style or continuous topspin which lays emphasis on stability of rally, and KTS is recommending ‘Master G52’ for skilled players and ‘Hyve’ for entry players as the standard combinations.

‘Signia GF’ is an inner-type fiber blade whose artificial material is Glass Fiber (= GF). It lays emphasis on natural hitting feeling and high stability. ‘Signia GF’ shares the same graphic design with ‘Forge 3k’ which was released together with ‘Signia GF’. Two models are distinguished from each other by point colors. The point colors of ‘Signia GF’ those are applied at the foreside of handle are yellow and burgundy.

‘Signia GF’ is an inner-type fiber blade of 5+2 ply construction. The top layer is Limba, the middle layer and the center layer are Ayous. Glass Fiber is inserted between the middle layer and the center layer. Glass fiber is a less elastic than arylate fiber or aramid fiber, but instead it gives much more natural feeling close to natural wood. Overall thickness is around 6.1mm. This construction is identical to that of cheaper ‘Ngineered H’. However, because ‘Signia GF’ is made in Japan, its quality is much higher than that of ‘Ngineered H’.

The size of head is around 157mm x 150mm. There can be small differences by piece.

This FL handle is completely flat on the top and bottom, and it doesn’t have bulged section between the root section and the narrowest section. The width of FL handle is around 27mm (at top) ~ 26mm (at narrowest section) ~ 34mm (at the end), and the thickness of handle is around 22.5mm (at thumb) ~ 24mm (at the end). The unique FL handle whose top and bottom are completely flat reminds us of the handles of old Butterfly blades such as ‘Gergely’ or ‘Primorac Carbon’, although the FL handle of KTS blade is rounded at the edge differently from that of ‘Gergely’. Although this FL handle isn’t a wide or semi-wide handle, it provides quite good stability thanks to the flat top and bottom.

The Tiger Face ‘金擇洙(Kim Taeksoo)’ logo which is also applied to the top blade family – ‘Problade’ series – is printed on the top of the foreside of blade head. And, on the bottom of blade head, the logo of ‘Foundation’ series, the name of blade model, the name of artificial fiber, the construction and speed sign are printed. In the standard of KTS, the speed sign ‘OFF’ means that the blades is for offensive play by topspin, and the speed sign ‘OFF+’ means that the blade lays emphasis on speed. The speed sign for ‘Signia GF’ is written as ‘OFF+’, which may seem inappropriate, but this was because the testers evaluated this blade as being ‘suitable for aggressive offensive play’ during the development process. However, that may cause confusion about the elasticity of this blade, so the speed sign will be corrected to ‘OFF’ in the future according to KTS.

The aluminum plate that includes the Tiger Face ‘金擇洙(Kim Taeksoo)’ logo is applied at foreside of handle.

Aluminum logo plate that includes KTS logo is applied at the end of handle.

The printing is applied also at the backside of head. But, there isn’t an aluminum panel at the backside of handle. That is the characteristic of KTS blades made in Japan. The KTS blades made in Korea or China have aluminum panels at both sides of handle. But, the KTS blades made in Japan have aluminum panels only at foreside of handle. Even the coloring of backside of handle is different from that of foreside of handle. And, SG which is the initial of ‘Signia’ and ‘Glass Fiber’ is engraved at the backside of handle.

On the backside of head, the kind of artificial material is printed at the center , and the information of brand and the product name are printed at bottom.

Three inner-type fiber blades of KTS ‘Problade’ series were released in October 2024. All three models are made in Japan. Among those three, ‘Core ALC’ (center) is almost same as old ‘Exclusive Core ALC’ made in Korea. The detail of graphic design was slightly modified as the country of origin changed from Korea to Japan. ‘Forge 3K’ (left) and ‘Signia GF’ (right) are high class versions of entry models – ‘Ngineered K’ and ‘Ngineered H’ respectively. Strictly speaking, even though ‘Forge 3K’ and ‘Signia GF’ made in Japan were released later, those two are regular models those have been originally planned, while ‘Ngineered K’ and ‘Ngineered H’ made in China are cost-saving products based on those two. The relationship between two high-class models and two entry models is close to the relationship between DHS ‘Hurricane Long 5’ which is a high-class product and DHS ‘Power G5’ which is an entry product.

‘Forge 3K’ (left) and ‘Signia GF’ (right) lay emphasis on power and control respectively. Both of those two provide high level of balance. Two models share the basic concept of graphic design. The appearances of two models are distinguished from each other by the point colors at the foreside of handle. The point colors of ‘Forge 3K’ are burgundy and dark blue, while the point colors of ‘Signia GF’ are yellow and burgundy.

Both of ‘Forge 3K’ (left) and ‘Signia GF’ (right) are inner-type fiber blades. The artificial fiber of ‘Forge 3K’ is 3K Carbon Fiber which provides very high level of elasticity, and the artificial fiber of ‘Signia GF’ is Glass Fiber which provides natural feeling like wood. ‘Forge 3K’ (left) is the fastest one and ‘Signia GF’ (right) is the softest one among three inner-type fiber blades of ‘Problade’ series.

‘Signia GF’ is an inner-type fiber blade which provides especially natural feeling and very high level of stability. Its overall characteristics are close to those of thin 7-ply wood blade of classic construction, and therefore even the players who don’t like the feeling of fiber blades can use ‘Signia GF’ without problem. However, thanks to higher energy efficiency provided by artificial fiber, ‘Signia GF’ provides higher power in offensive play from mid-distance when compared with all-wood blades with similar elasticity. ‘Signia GF’ is basically recommended for the players who play mainly with continuous topspin or play in modern all-round style. Because its elasticity isn’t especially high, ‘Signia GF’ isn’t recommended for the player who lay emphasis on power. However, because it provides unexpectedly high speed when the player play with block and smash at close-to-table area, it is worth considering for close-to-table players. Because of higher quality and the origin, ‘Signia GF’ is more expensive than ‘Ngineered H’. But entry players can also consider ‘Signia GF’ as a standard blade for starting because its price is still in reasonable range.

Following are the performance indices of KTS Signia GF (avg.weight = 85.6g) :

– Ep = 1.67

– Ec = 1.61 (Ec/Ep = 0.96)

– Vp = 1.22

– Vl = 1.17 (Vl/Vp = 0.96)

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

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