Customer review for Donic Waldner Black Devil Carbon Balsa

External Review for Donic Waldner Black Devil Carbon Balsa on April 21, 2010

Been using this blade for 3-4 months. During that time, I've changed the rubber/sponge combination a few times to get an idea of what to use to optimize the blade. For reference:

Setup 1: Desto F3 1.8 FH/BH
Setup 2: Hurricane III FH / Hurricane II BH (and vice versa)
Setup 3: Sriver EL FH/BH
Setup 4: Bryce FH / Sriver EL BH
Setup 5: Tenergy 05 FH/BH

Going by the review ratings:
Speed - Yeah, this blade is SPEEDY. Ludicrous speed. Whatever you describe for speed, I will use that to describe this blade's speed rating. If they had a higher number than 5, I would probably use it. Fastest blade I've had.

Control - This rating is reflect MY capability to control the blade. The rubber/sponge setup could determine the control to a degree but you really need to be an advanced player to control this blade. My coach, for example, could pull off very nice touch shots with my setups. I could not. So the control is there; but I feel you need to be very advanced and very committed to whatever shot you're trying to do. So quite honestly, if you aren't VERY good, I'd think a bit before choosing this setup. Very little dwell time means you better know what you're doing.

Hardness - you don't see this rating but we're asked to rate it. This blade is hard. Of course, that contributes to the speed; there is very little dwell time at all. This becomes VERY evident if you play a softer sponge and the ball gets to the blade itself. Harder sponges may "slow" it down but it seems to me that the blade makes the sponge faster than what you might normally expect on another blade.

Weight - Light. I weighed mine and it hovered right at 80g. At the time, I wanted a light setup. However, when using some of the heavier rubber/sponge combos, the blade will get head-heavy very quickly. I've seen as high as 185g and the lightest was 152g with the setups listed above.

Build quality - seems to very well put together. It has a very nice look to it. Only complaint I could find was that the handle wasn't what I was hoping for. I ordered it in a ST configuration. An equivalent Butterfly ST handle is more square-ish; this blade's handle seemed more rectangular and didn't really meet my expectation of what an ST handle should be like. I ended up doing a gauze wrap (like tennis players use) and modified a thin tennis grip over that to get what I felt I wanted.

Value for the money - Not the most expensive and not the cheapest. If you want a full out attacking, offensive, take-no-prisoners blade, this should fit the requirement. The blade weight might seem to say not so fast but put the ball on the blade face during a full out swing and you'll see.

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