Best way to shave the blade down

[Cosmic 178]

I want to take about a half inch off of my PM9 curve, as well as make it a square toe. Any recommendations?

 

I saw a YouTube video of Brooks Laich sanding down the toe of his blade, but I cannot find it now. Whatever type of saw he was using, I assume I ought to use? Anyone who has recommendation and can recommend the type of electric saw, would be helpful. 

[jazz4all 9]

Try to search with key words : brooks laich stickology. 

I think its more like sanding tool.

[yrhmblnr8r 69]

I've done something similar when the toe of my blade got wrecked digging along the boards. I just made a straight cut with my chop saw, lightly sanded any rough edges, then sealed with flex seal. I also taped over the toe and added stick wax over that to waterproof. 

 

Any such mod will decrease the life of the blade. I had nothing to lose as mine was already pretty badly chipped.

[Neal 41]

You'll weaken the blade significantly by removing the outside edge and exposing the foam.  If you want to have the blade last you'll want to at least seal it and even better reinforce it.  

[jimmy 194]

Best is to take it to a shop that does SRS stick repairs. They can square it off and then reinforce it with carbon fiber and the proper epoxy.  It will then be stronger than new.

 

[Neal 41]

If you choose to do this, I recommend using this epoxy from West Marine.  I've used it to seal and repair chipping on the end of the blades on my True A4.5.  It is a bit more flexible than a typical epoxy which makes it a good fit for a stick blade which twists and bends quite a bit while in use.  And being a marine epoxy it is well suited to a wet environment.  I've thought about adding some of their graphite powder additive but haven't tried that yet.

[Troubadour 46]

On 7/25/2016 at 7:51 AM, jazz4all said:

Try to search with key words : brooks laich stickology. 

I think its more like sanding tool.

Professional player that can get any pattern he wants... Sands his stick down to get a square toe. Why not just request a square toe from Warrior!?

[flip12 699]

3 hours ago, Troubadour said:

Professional player that can get any pattern he wants... Sands his stick down to get a square toe. Why not just request a square toe from Warrior!?

Some guys like to tinker. If you look carefully at sticks on eBay, you'll see evidence of a lot of guys curving their blades as well as chopping them off, shaving them etc. Fedorov used to square the toes off of some of his sticks. Then again, there are those days when they may wish to not square the toe off, and then you've got the option of playing the stick off the shelf.

[icewalker_bg 126]

Exactly, who knows how many they order when they order, 50,100, 200? He likes them but some days he wants to experience different things and so on. 

[stick9 881]

As mentioned, once you expose the foam core you've seriously altered the structural integrity of the blade. I modified a square toe by lightly sanding it to round it off. Everything went pretty well and I only exposed a small portion of the core. The blade went soft really fast and started peeling apart. It never felt right.

[flip12 699]

One could try Composite Patch as a means of avoiding overly premature breakdown. The only problem is the smallest patches are quite large and about as expensive as a composite replacement blade. There's a how to on that page showing a repair to an oar blade. It might make one's stick blade a little less smooth, depending on how much work one were to put into finishing the patch, but it looks like it could do the trick.