Sanwei HC. 5

Bought his after checking out my adversary's blade in a league match. he spoke so lovingly about this blade that I had to try one out. My HC5 blade weighs a massive 91g as I specifically asked for the biggest handle which is still smaller than most other flared handles. The finish of the blade is ok but given that it must have been old stock (now superseded by the HC 5S I may have got the best of whatever was left in stock. I used my cheap go to rubbers Sanwey T88 III in max thickness and the results were beyond expectations. Feeling was top notch, only a distant memory of my beloved Stiga from the 1970s compares, but memory is an odd yardstick to use. Switching from a one ply Nittaku Myiabi hinoki my topspins came back to life returning heavy backspin with relative ease. Pushes were easy to control only flat hits and blocks were harder to control. Sweet spot is good but not huge. However this blade cost a third of the one ply hinoki so it is a bargain if you can still buy it for under £20. So good in fact that I had to get the HC-5S (the current version with larger handle costs 50% more) even though I had promised myself to stop ej'ing. Sanwei do have a straight handle version but at a huge cost if bought on their website, if the blade were to be available at a reasonable price this would become my match blade. April 2019 Update: still available from Aliexpress! April 2016 Update (is it really 7 years later?) Aliexpress has this blade with a straight handle in stock!! My Viscaria is anxiously awaiting the arrival of my past favourite!

My HC5 blade only weighs 79g, so mine could feel a little slower than the ones other users have got. In any way, since I normally play Yinhe T-6 blades (light, from 74-79g), I can compare a little: The T-6 is faster, harder and stiffer, but not much. The handle of the HC.5 blade is a little smaller than Yinhe blades but not too small like Nittaku blades. The blade's quality of production seems very good. My Stiga Maplewood blades in the 100€ range certainly had rougher edges. I put a Tibhar FX-S in 2.0mm on the forehand and a Nittaku Narucross ex soft on the backhand and that worked quite well. However, I would not recommend using even softer rubbers on this blade, but would go for medium to medium hard rubbers the next time, like EL-P or EL-S. Topspins were great with this blade, because I had more control than with my T-6 blade. However, on the backhand, pushes and smashes didn't work as well as with the T-6 at first, because of the slightly higher throw. All in all, because I only paid 18,80€ for it (seller from China on an online auction platform), I consider it to be a true bargain.

I play my HC.5 now for about two years. It weights 82 g. I play a Paliio Blit'z max/black on the fh and a CTT national hero max/red on bh. I own another one which I bought about one year ago but its quite different from my first one, even the size is very different. The second one weighs 77g. I will review my better/first blade and the 2nd one if mentioned. The HC.5 has Hinoki as outer plies, but those are very thin, about 0,8mm above 0,6mm (I think it's Koto), followed by a 0,1mm Soft-carbon sheet. In the center is a 3,0mm core. The typical Hinoki-characteristics is reduced because of the thin ply but it is still effective in a softer feeling of the hitting moment and a slightly noticeable acceleration when hitting hard and a nicely controled short play. When pure Hinoki-blades have 5 gears, this blade has 2 of them, but they are not too different from each other. The stiffness of the blade is between stiff and average, because the softcarbon is applied on the core and not under the top ply. Well, it's a really great blade for opening with topspins and strike some harder spins afterwards. Blocking is good, but not excellent, surely depending on the rubbers. Even from the distance there is enough power to strike some good spins. I like that blade, it has a special kind of vibration which is very reduced but noticeable. It's sweetspot is a little bit too low on the blade but I'm used to it now. My second HC.5 feels more like a Yinhe T-6, it's stiffer but also softer, so it vibrates more and it's slower. The blade is smaller, especially at the basis. So this is a hard variation.

Description from Brochure: "Adopted with soft carbon technology that makes carbon blade easy to control" Touch Time: 8 Control: 7 Speed: 8 Speed( idk y there is a 2nd 1 but its in the brochure): 7 Bottom Strength: 8 Thickness: 5.8 mm Off Blade 2/19/2013 FH: Butterfly Bryce Speed BH: Sanwei Gears i can easily loop underspin with ease BH flicking is getting easier and easier 2/6/2013 Just played with it for 9 hrs here is my noobish assestments: the speed of the blade is quite fast but tameable, i did a slow stroke and the ball too went slow, depends on how much speed you want to add every stroke i can always hear and feel the ball hitting the wood if it wasnt for that dull sound i would have loved it i was able to chop from a far with this carbon racket dwell time was high 2/5/2013 just got this cheap blade today FH: DHS Tin Arc BH: Sanwei Gears the sound of the ball hitting the blade is so dull :( very light, smell of hinoki handle is entoxicating, slippery handle bouncing the ball w/ rubber: it seems to click every bounce idk y, youll notice it in the FH Counterhit drill if you want a lot of vibration , you will like this blade. i prefer a vibrating one myself but it is too much for me so i added a hand grip to reduce the vibration. only made a quick assestment for a 5 min trial run, will play it again tommorow