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I received the new blades yesterday and they look as nice as in the picture.  The handles are a good size, perhaps slightly thinner than what I wanted but very close.  The blades are about 5mm thick,  significantly thicker than the original (which was around 3 mm!).  They look identical but differ in weight (91 and 95 grams) and tone, one (95g) being slightly higher in pitch than the other.  The plies are basswood (core), mahogany (primary), and koto (outer).

They both have a somewhat hollow, boinky sound when bouncing a ball on them, which is something I used to really dislike because I associated that sound with high speed, low control factory made blades.  Prior to my recent experiments with Xiom blades I used to think a good blade had a flat "tic" sound when bouncing a ball on it but I now realize that this is the sound of a blade with low levels of vibration. Vibration damped blades sound nice when hitting the ball but the level of feedback is too low for me.  Most of the Xiom blades I've tried (Amadeus, Ignito, Stradivarius) were of this type: a nice crisp "tic" sound when bouncing a ball on them which translates into a "crack" sound when hitting the ball with rubbers on.  However it also means low vibration and low feedback, sometimes to the point of barely being able to feel the impact at all (as with the Amadeus).

Both blades are higher in pitch and have very different tone than the original Borko so I should expect them to play differently.  My experience with the original however was that it played very differently than what I expected so I'm not sure what's going to happen when rubber meets wood with these two.

In any case, they need to be sealed before I can play with them and then tragically I'm booked up this weekend and can't get to a club.  So Monday at earliest!