Bluefire M1 Review

So for the last week or so I've been testing the Bluefire M1 on my backup blade. I decide that for this particular rubber it would be a disservice if I relied and reported only my initial impressions for a couple of reasons.

There have been a lot of rumors circulating around including one that the only thing different int he rubber was the colored sponge.

Not true.

The first thing I noticed was the rough grainy texture of the sponge with the enlarged pores. Quite bigger than the pores on the earlier rubbers like tenergy and the acudas.

The overall sheet was seriously heavy, I would put the weight at. The same as Tenergy05 which makes it a deal breaker for me as I'm notoriously not good with heavy rubbers.

The other thing that jumps at me is that the sheet reeks of chemicals; specifically it smells of the very stuff that most of the Europeans have been tuning their tenergys with. I have a bottle and I can confirm,it's the same stuff!

This gives some clues as to why the sheet is heavy and perhaps also why tenergy is so heavy. These sponges are laced with oils or boosters maybe?

So how does it play?

I found M1 to have a softer feel than I expected. The sponge hardness is 47.5 which is the same as Acuda S1 but for me it felt a bit softer. I felt the top sheet was really tight and thin, much gripper than its acuda predecessors to the touch. The overall feel was that on every stroke or serve the sponge was always engaged which gave the rubber a very consistent feeling.

Looping with the M1 was very very easy. It produces a very consistent brush loop with a very predictable output for input swing. I didn't find it to be the fastest or the spinniest rubber, it's about the same speed as T05 and maybe about as spinny but I think it's arc is less pronounced. My practice partners seemed to have less difficult blocking my loops even though whenever I powered through with maximum force they would block off.

I think the M1 is superior in power drives but still falls behind the S1 in this area.

I didn't like the fact that, like t05, I had to work a bit harder for my points than I did with the Acuda.

I can see why Bluefire is touted as a being close to T05; they share similar characteristics, perhaps this was by design.

Services were good but unexceptional, I got more spin than from Acuda turbo but way less than Acuda S1,my current favorite. I didn't find that the top sheet would bite into the ball like Jap rubbers or tacky Chinese rubbers do,and this resulted in less spin output than I wanted.

So petermoo, is this your new forehand rubber? (drum roll, drum roll) Absolutely not.

I'm not looking for a tenergy substitute, this rubber is similar though. Down to the very weight.

I prefer the Acuda S1 better more powerful drives and spinnier services.

I can't play with heavy rubbers. I failed with H3, Tenergy, and now with Bluefire. If all the high performance stuff is all going to be this heavy, you can safely rule me out.

In summary, Bluefire M1: good consistent looping rubber, great drives, good serves, decent spin, heavy weight , nice pretty blue smelly sponge.