Timo Boll ZLF-cs Review

So after hitting with this blade for a few weeks, I thought I'd give my 2 cents on it.  With the gigantic boycott butterfly movement, I'm sure this will appeal to everyone.

For testing I used Tenergy 05 1.9 on forehand and Tenergy 64 1.9 on backhand.

To start off, I cannot believe how slow this blade actually is.  I was expecting a lot more punch from the ZL fiber but compared to my Firehand-cs, this blade is a snail.  There's plenty of speed on it, but you can't expect power shots without a decent swing.

Feel:
This blade has quite a nice feel to it which is somewhat unusual.  I generally enjoy playing with purely carbon blades for the slightly dull/metallic feeling which resembles a golf club.  The ZLF has a much more woody feel, but in a good way.  The blade is almost vibration free, but it maintains an organic feeling to it very much like a non-carbon arylate blade.  When compared to my Innerforce AL-cs, the ZLF feels a bit stiffer.

Looping:
If you haven't hit with one, I would recommend hitting with an Innerforce AL at some point because it provides you with some cartoonishly high dwell time and as a result, high throw loops.  The ZLF seems to be an improvement on this as the spin is quite similar, but there's a touch more speed and a little less dwell.

Blocking over the table:
Here's an issue with this blade which is going to take some adjustment.  The higher throw doesn't allow flat hits or low blocks quite as easily.  What seems to be better for me is a counter-loop.

Final Thoughts:
This blade is probably my favorite for playing against defensive players so far.  The higher throw makes looping against chops much easier though the cost seems to be more trouble looping against attackers.  I've found this blade fits the niche of a player who likes to stand several feet back from the table and attack with heavily spun loops.  This actually makes me somewhat curious as to how the Innershield-ZLF handles.  I can't recommend this blade for over the table players and as a result, I cannot recommend the cpen version for traditional styles.  I'm having a great deal of trouble just keeping my over the table backhand flips on the table since they're going so much higher now.  Fine craftsmanship from Butterfly and I look forward to sampling more of their blades in the future.

Side note on this one:

Has anyone been able to find something that sands down the zylon fiber and the wood equally?  I always get a little bump of zylon on ZL blades when I sand the edges.