Review by rokphish2 (published with permission)
The Ignito is one of three of the Xiom's Novus Carbon
series. The 5 ply blade is made of Kiso Hinoki - Energy Carbon - Kiri -
Energy Carbon - Kiso Hinoki at 6.2-6.3mm thickness.
Here's an excerpt of the description of the new Energy Carbon material I
got from Xiom:
"Energy Carbon of Ignito is new material. It looks like ordinary Carbon.
But, it is softer than normal Carbon though it isn't classified as Soft
Carbon. Many makers are selling Soft Carbon blades in which Carbon
Fleece or Uniaxial Carbon is used. In general, Soft Carbon means uni-axial
Carbon. Carbon fleece is another name of uni-axial Carbon. But, Energy
Carbon isn't such material. We just made it softer and reduced the
internal energy loss. Less energy loss means that more energy is
transferred to ball at impact. So we named it as 'Energy' Carbon."
The made and finishing of the blade is superb and very smooth. The only
flaw I see is the cut on the logo on the handle is not very straight,
but it's a very minuscule overlook. If I were to rate it on the
finishing/make of the blade, I would rate it at 99% (-1% for the
finishing of the logo area). Now, if you look at the picture, there's a
location on the head where the color of the grains/head are different.
About a little left from the middle part, going long from handle to the
tip of the head, the small section's color is whiter/paler than the
rest. Same place on the back side also, but smaller. I was going to
deduct some points of these as well, but I'm not too sure because I
don't know much about wood/wood grains. I don't know whether these are
their natural condition, manufacturing mistake, or something else.
The head is about the average size, the size according to Xiom's
specification are: 158x150.2 while the handle are 100x34x24 for the FL
(which I have). First thing I noticed when holding it was how nice and
comfortable it is on my hand. The handle is wide and thick enough, about
as good as my Hurricane blades FL handles. It's certainly wider and
thicker than the Korbel FL & Wavestone FL handles which I also have. The
head is about the same as my Hurricanes & Korbel blades.
The weight quoted for me is 83.5g but when I weighed it using my dad's
weight for his medicines, it weighed at 84g. Close enough to the quoted
weight.
I've been playing with this blade for one week (four times at about 2-3
hours each time). The rubbers I put on the blade are: Hurricane 3
Provincial 39 degree and Sriver EL Maximum. The H3P felt medium hard on
the blade while the EL felt soft (too soft for my liking). I played with
this setup for 1 night. I then switched the EL with Prashida Tokyo 2
(which are a little bit harder than the EL – played with this setup for
3 nights). Tokyo 2 felt a little nicer, not as soft (but still feel a
bit too soft). So I would think that a little harder rubber would do
well on this blade. I might try it with Sriver L later on.
Okay, here's the very concise summary: After playing one week with
Ignito, I decided to compare it with my Korbel, which has H3P 39 degrees
with Cermet 2.1 on. At Sunday after playing about 2 hours with the
Ignito I switched blade. I picked up the Korbel and played with it to
make out the differences. After playing with Korbel for 5-10 minutes, I
put it down and played with the Ignito for the rest of the day. I don't
know for sure, but when I used the Korbel, it felt awful. Hits and loops
were terrible and felt terrible as well. I lost confidence after about
10 minutes playing with Korbel and not getting the good feel I used to
have with it.
Now, this is just a preliminary comparison. I now have put the same
rubbers on the two blades. H3P 39 degrees + Sriver EL Maximum on both
Ignito & Korbel. Just haven't had the chance to play with both to make
the comparison just yet. Maybe next week because this week I'm pretty
busy with the preparation for my cousin's wedding this weekend. And
because this week I'm planning to play exclusively with my Hurricane
King blade fitted with H3P + Tokyo 2 PT. I have been using the HK at my
training sessions (twice a week @ 1 hour) and play with the Ignito 4
times a week @ 2-3 hours. But this week I plan to use the HK only. Next
week I'll continue with the testing and comparing of the Ignito-Korbel
(playing/switching both blades on the same nights).
Okay, going back to the Ignito. Here are the preliminary/first
impression I have on the blade:
It feels good when I'm hitting. It doesn't have as much vibration as the
Korbel and it has that crisp/sharp feel when I hit. I feel more
confident hitting when using this blade. On loops, I feel that I could
make fast/loop kill shots which are low very easily with it. Even faster
and lower than when I use the HK using the same H3P rubber. It does lobs
and drive/control loops too, but the easiness and fastness of the fast
loops really impresses me.
The blade like I said feels crisp/sharp while provide good amount of
dwell time for me to impart good amount of spin on the ball. I feel the
blade has low throw. The ease of looping low loop kills and also when I
hit and drive I could put the ball low and short and even long but low
easily with it. When I used the EL for that one night of playing. I
noticed that several people got tricked several times by the amount of
under spin I made while chopping and serving than usual when I used EL
before. That is, the under spin is heavier than when I usually use EL
before.
One of the downside I feel is that when I moved back far from the table.
I have to exert more energy than when I use HK. Ignito having low throw
doesn't help when playing at long distance away from the table because I
need to use more power for it to clear the net. Either that or I open up
the blade and make a drive/lob instead.
Blocks are effortless.
I usually don't smash on FH, so I don't know how it does altering
between loops and smashes. I smash on the BH and even with soft sponge
rubber like EL/Tokyo 2 (I feel the rubbers much softer on this blade
than when I use the rubbers on Korbel), when I smash, it generates good
speed and power. Enough to make the kill.
I was playing a couple of nights with the Wavestone before I got the
Ignito. I think it has some similarity in feel. Wavestone is faster I
think but feels less sturdy/stable. The Ignito has better balance and
overall gives the more solid feeling. Maybe I should do a head to head
comparison with Wavestone instead of Korbel. That way, I'll be comparing
both composite blades. I was planning to use the Korbel just because
it's more popular blade and that it would be easier to get the
comparison from that perspective (as a common standard). What do you
guys think?
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