My new Lebesson arrived in the mail today from Ooakshop.
To me the handle is a big deal and its a horrible feeling to order a blade and upon the first hold you feel its just not quite right. I had this feeling with the Yasaka Extra but not the Lebesson. It fit snugly in my hand at all the right spots. Its quite a mild Anatomic shape and doesn't kick out as much at the end like the Extra which made it lose that snugness. My Appelgren also has a nice feel but a different shape, slightly more oval compared to the Lebesson. Note that these are all really minor differences and just a personal thing.
The feel of the handle is quite smooth and feels really nice. I was expecting it to feel a little more woody like a Samsonov Alpha which seems to be finished quite rough but this was finished very nicely. The shoulders were quite sharp, as many blades are so needs a bit of a sand.
What was interesting about handle is that of the 4 other people that tested it, 3 of them noticed that the handle was longer than they are used to. Its about 5mm longer, all of them liked it, despite being regular flared users.
There's not pics on the net of the anatomic version of this blade so here's some. With a coat of varnish, it looks really nice.
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There's some contrasting comments about the head size of this blade and that its compact. My measurements showed it was 154 x 150 which is roughly the same as my Appelgren and Yasaka Extra give or take 1mm which are pretty interchangeable with rubbers.
However there is one interesting thing about this blade in that its thicker than the other two blades near the shoulders. What this means is that gluing rubbers from those other blades means there is about 2mm of wood showing each side of this one making it illegal. It would be very difficult to cover up with edge tape. I've tried to stretch the rubbers a bit down the bottom and its come up ok...just but far from ideal. As the rubbers only have 3 months or so life and I'm not doing any tournaments in this time I'll get away with it but just take care if buying this blade and plan to swap around a bit.
I am used to quite a light set up at 162 so asked for a blade between 80 and 85. Mine was 85 which is fine. After I made up the bat, it came in at 174. A touch heavier than normal for me but still probably light/medium in weight for double inverted.
Audible Plink/Donk Test: In the plink donk test (bounce a ball on the blade and a fast stiff blade makes a plink, a slow flexible blade makes a donk), the Lebesson did have a higher tone than both the Appelgren, which was clearly lower, and the Extra though not by much. Purely on that test I'd say Lebesson is slightly quicker than the Sweden Extra which is ALL+ so it may just fall into the Off- range or as suggested above, maybe its still in the ALL+ range, but then again I've also heard the Extra is nearly Off-. Either way its all a bit subjective but the tone is clearly lower than the Stratus Powerwood (faster Off-) and the Xiom Offensive S (Off) so its around that higher ALL+ or lower Off- range.
The Feel:It feels harder than the Appelgren however that is probably one of the softer blades around and not everyone likes that feel. The Lebesson is a bit harder but no where near say the Xiom Offensive S and many other OFF/OFF+ blades that do feel quite hard. Interestingly, I find the Yasaka Extra to have a harder feel to it, more so than the Lebesson which is also similar the the Samsonov Alpha. When I first used the Alpha, I felt it was definately quicker than the Appelgren but didn't have a harsh change of feel which would need a major adjustment, I felt I could move across quite easily. I feel the same about the Lebesson.
The first thing I noticed with my Yasaka Extra when I first played with it a couple of years ago was the crack that it made on offensive shots. Was a little offputting at first and I never really liked that sound. Others also commented about it. The Lebesson doesn't have this. Its just normal.
The next bits are a bit harder for me to comment on as the rubber I've been using is different than I've used in the last few months.
Previous: Regalis Red/Gewo Flexxon
Tonight: Baracuda
Backhand was the same with me taking the Xiom Europe DF off my Appelgren which I'd been using.
I'll make comparisons to the Appelgren as that is what I was directly comparing against tonight. I'm assuming that the points I make about the Lebesson is probably very similar to the Samsonov Alpha and likely the Yasaka Extra.
Serves: Often you might not notice a lot of difference with serves as it tends to be the rubber that make the difference and that was the case most of the time. When I did a fast cross-court backhand serve however I did struggle to keep the ball fast and flat as it seemed to jump off the blade a little more. Will need to adjust.
Looping: Definitely more speed (rubber or blade??) as my playing partner (Rob) was having less time to react. It made his fishing more difficult. Not so much speed however that I was powering them past him or had balls going long off the table a lot. I'm not of the ability where I can say this is better for looping than the Appelgren, the Alpha, the Extra etc but it was quite easy to use along with those others.
Blocking: The blocks had a little more zip on them than with the Appelgren which was both good and bad thing. The Lebesson blocks gave my opponent less time and were more direct however when blocking a stronger loop I found that I was sending balls a little long. With the Appelgren, it seemed to absorb the speed and would just keep landing them on the table. In fact it took some time to adjust when we were trying to do a loop to block rally as the Appelgren would dampen the speed which broke my partners rhythm. Which is better for blocking then, the Lebesson or Appelgren........ neither, they just do it different. More control with the Appelgren which is its weapon to keep the ball on the table however it won't rush a better player.
Chopping/Pushing: I don't mean really professional chopping, just an intermediate like me sending some backspin the best I can. Its no real drama with the Lebesson but as you would expect, when coming from a slower blade, this one sent a few long that I just assumed will go on. Not a problem though but an adjustment will be needed.
Summary: This blade was easy to use. When we talk of sensible blades for beginners to intermediate I think this falls in that category. Its no speed demon but no slow coach either. Nice feel, not to hard, not to soft, just in the middle. In fact I'd say thats probably the case for every category, in the middle. Its high ALL+ to low OFF- in category and thats exactly what you are going to get but with a slightly longer handle, a wider shoulder and at AUD55 (USD45) a great price.
When talking of blades in the ALL+/OFF- category, I'm really not sure why this blade doesn't get a mention, though in years to come, maybe it will.
Thanks for reading.
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