‘Forge 3K’ 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 subname ‘3K’ expresses, its artificial fiber is ‘3K carbon fiber’ which is used for very fast blades.

(Its construction is identical to that of ‘Ngineered K’ which had been sold for as short time. ‘Ngineered K’ is a trial product for the verification of the construction of ‘Forge 3K’, and had been produced in very small quantity. ‘Forge 3K’ is made with higher quality and and higher-class appearance when compared to ‘Ngineered K’. 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’.)

‘Forge 3K’ is a powerful blade whose artificial fiber is highly elastic, and it is recommended for skilled players who require higher power than inner-ALC blades or inner-ZLC blades but don’t want to use outer-type fiber blades. Recommended rubbers are the top models including hybrid rubbers. (Among KTS rubbers, ‘Master G52’ is strongly recommended for the combination. And, according to the professional players who tested this blade, Butterfly ‘Dignics 09c’ makes fantastic combination with ‘Forge 3K’.)

‘Forge 3K’ is an inner-type fiber blade whose artificial material is woven 3K carbon fiber. It adopts highly elastic artificial fiber for very high power, but at the same time it pursuits natural feeling as far as possible. ‘Forge 3K’ shares the same graphic design with ‘Signia GF’ which was released together with ‘Forge 3K’. 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 burgundy and dark blue.

‘Forge 3K’ 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. 3K Carbon Fiber is inserted between the middle layer and the center layer. ‘3K’ means that 3,000 carbon filaments are bundled together in a single tow of woven structure. 3K Carbon Fiber is much more elastic than ALC or ZLC those are woven with other fibers than Carbon fiber. Because of very high tensile modulus of 3K Carbon Fiber, we can expect very high elasticity from ‘Forge 3K’. Overall thickness is around 6.0mm. This construction is identical to that of cheaper ‘Ngineered K’. However, because ‘Forge 3K’ is made in Japan, its quality is much higher than that of ‘Ngineered K’.

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.

‘Forge 3K’ is also available in ST handle, but only available in distributor option. (So there wasn’t stock of ST version when the samples were measured.)

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 continuous offensive play by topspin, and the speed sign ‘OFF+’ means that the blade lays emphasis on speed. The speed sign for ‘Forge 3K’ is written as ‘OFF’, which means that ‘Forge 3K’ is the blade for continuous offensive play by topspin although it is a very fast blade. In general, even though their elasticity is very high, inner-type blades lay more emphasis on stability of continuous topspin when compared with outer-type blades of same speed range. And, ‘Forge 3K’ isn’t an exception.

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, F3 which is the initial of ‘Forge’ and ‘3K Carbon’ 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.

‘Forge 3K’ is a very fast inner-type blade whose fiber is highly elastic woven 3K carbon fiber. It provides high elasticity comparable to those of outer-type blades, but the stiff feeling of carbon fiber is alleviated by the adoption of inner-type construction. As the result, ‘Forge 3K’ provides higher power than the inner-type blades whose artificial materials are ALC or ZLC, while providing the high level of stability as an inner-type blade at the same time. Its construction looks somewhat similar to that of Nittaku ‘Acoustic Carbon Inner’, but it is much more elastic than ‘Acoustic Carbon Inner’ thanks to its thicker construction. ‘Forge 3K’ can be recommended for the players who play mainly with topspin from all areas of court and lay emphasis on the power and the speed of ball. ‘Forge 3K’ can also be a very good solution for the players who requires the blade that can provide high power but don’t like the feeling of outer-type fiber blades.

‘Forge 3K’ is one of the favorite blades of TTGearLab. And, TTGearLab strongly recommends ‘Forge 3K’ for the players at the same time of some favorite blades of TTGearLab for example Butterfly ‘Ovtcharov InnerForce ALC’.

Following are the performance indices of KTS Forge 3K (avg.weight = 84.4g) :

– Ep = 2.11

– Ec = 1.93 (Ec/Ep = 0.92)

– Vp = 1.35

– Vl = 1.47 (Vl/Vp = 1.09)

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

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