Vet88

You are right until you get to your last sentence. You should be feeling less bite when the internal angle of the edges are flatter.

I just don't get this. This area can be punched but it takes time and care and I suspect this is the real reason why they don't want to do it. In a later post you say the sore area is just behind the pinky toe, this area isn't hard to punch especially as you only need to move the side of the boot by a mm or 2 to give you the relief you are after. Maybe call round other shops in your area and see if they will do it? Or try a rebake but this time you put a 4mm - 5mm thick pad on your foot where the sore area is so it helps to push the boot out in that area. Or try to punch it yourself at home, for the cost of a c clamp and some other basic materials you can do it yourself and take the time and care needed to do it.

I'd try hot glue first, it's not going to destroy anything it comes in contact with. If that fails then maybe 2 pot epoxy, it will hold anything as long as it doesn't destroy it.

imho what you have found is a garbage test for length because so much of it is wrong. 1 finger, wtf.... If you want a manual test for length this is how - take a hb pencil with you, this is all you need. Pull the laces out of the skate (this is important, it stops the foot from binding on the sides of the skate and tongue), now pull the tongue right out and flop it forward. Put your foot into the boot and slide it forward until the toes just brush the toe cap. Bend slightly forward in the skate and with your pencil, see if you can slide it down the back of the heel between the heel and the boot (orange arrow). If you can slide it down then that skate is at least a 1/2 size to big for what is considered an optimal length fit - when you lace up the heel is pulled into the heel pocket by a couple of mm and this is how far your toes sit off the toe cap. Be it a brannock or a scanner or whatever other tool the shop may want to use, I have never had this process fail for length. Once you have your optimal length, some skaters like more room in the toe cap and will go up half a size, it's all down to personal preference from this point. And for those volume issues you are having, these will fix them regardless of what skate you buy : https://www.greatsaves.org/product-page/skate-lace-eliminators Or make your own so you can customise them to your skate, there are a number of threads here from skaters that have eg

Reviving this post and taking into account flare blades, which is the best edge checker you have seen or used, regardless of price?

Here is the link of 3 photos, one is the clamp underway. Another is the items I used - a puck, a piece of wood as a base for the wedges, 2 wedges, a piece of wood (in the background) that I inserted on top of the wedges so as they slid in they didn't damage the underneath of the toe cap or tongue. And the last photo is the toe cap, you can see where the tongue joins and it lifts upwards by just under 2mm. This is enough for it to stop pressing hard against my forefoot. Ideally I should have sanded the wedges to fit the shape of the side to side slope of the toe cap but I was in a bit of a hurry and this worked as it is. https://imgur.com/gallery/1RB15a3

I have the same issue, where the tongue inserts into the toe box. Bauer have lowered the height of the toe box compared to previous models of vapors. I've fixed it by using wedges on top of a puck and a clamp, I needed around a 2mm lift where the toe box starts. I had to leave the wedges in for 5 days to get it set, heat may have sped things up but I prefer to do it slowly over time. I can post a pic of how if you want to see it.

I didn't know Hyperlites came in a D, I thought all Hyperlites used the sizing Fit 1 - 3. Mine are a Fit 1 and my experience is the toe box is smaller in height than any Vapour or Supreme D size I have ever worn or tried. For a Fit 1 I have to raise the toe cap / tongue insert area, it is much much lower in height in this area. I have used powerfoot inserts for the last few years and there is no way I could ever put these into a Hyperlite Fit 1 toe box. Now that you have dropped one eyelet, try another one down....

Did they explain why? Other than wanting to upsell you into a new pair of skates, punching is about the most common thing you can do to skates to fix hot spots etc. Now if they were too tight across the forefoot I might not punch them, I'd do a stretch. I'm curious as to why a LHS would tell you a punch is not a good idea.

Because it's a perception problem for China and this is ingrained in their culture and direction. They don't want to be seen to fail on the world stage and getting their asses handed to them by the US would be viewed very poorly. Other countries wouldn't care, god help us if ever our national team qualified, we would love to go even if the score was 20 or more (which it would be given we are div B II) but the chinese see it very differently. For example look at the non blue ribbon events they focus on in the Olympic games, it's not because they are historically good at them but so they can win more gold medals than any other country.

Have you had any skaters get you to work on the toe box height (where the tongue slides under) and was it successful? I can wear a Fit 1 but the toe box is really tight on the top of the foot and I'm considering trying to lift it a little. Other than using a wedge I'm kind of lost how to do it as none of the usual tools really apply.

I'm 58 so it's never to late to start stretching. Watch the following vid, the basis of my strecthing routine is similar to this but first I start with 20 minutes focused on the gluteus medius and IT band, not so much stretching but strengthening and conditioning, these muscles and tendons are so important for hockey. I'll post a link to the group of exercises I do later on. Then I'll spend 40 minutes stretching, this is the stretching vid, you could pick any off youtube from a figure skating coach working on eagles of box splits. It's advanced stretches but I just went for it and keep pushing it hard, my range has improved dramatically.

The downside to getting the best players in the world to a tournament you are hosting, if your team isn't up to scratch it's going to get hammered. As Kunlin Red Star is basically the chinese olympic team and they are getting spanked in the KHL, the olympics could get very very ugly for them. https://apnews.com/article/nhl-sports-united-states-olympic-team-italy-olympic-team-germany-olympic-team-8bd57017d8155e28349998c56a398457

I can't stress how important it is to keep stretching your hips / groin etc for the rest of your hockey playing days. Over the last few years I wasn't doing any stretching and my hips gradually got tighter and tighter to the point I'd find it hard to pick a puck up some days after a hard practice. I was seriously considering giving up playing and winding things right back to just a couple of coaching skates per week. 2 months ago I worked with a top figure skating coach to put together a stretching program, 1 hour every night without fail (even if I have to drag myself off a sick bed) and I'm back to pain free skating. If you had told me 5 years ago that I would need to stretch just to keep skating I'd have laughed at you, now I'm a convert.

McJesus doing his stuff again, those 2 lateral crossovers as he enters the zone are what do the damage, now he has more speed than any of the 4 players in front of him and he just blows past them. Yes, he has great hands and great balance and all those other attributes but the ability to go from slow to fast in just a couple of steps is what elevates him beyond any other player atm.

I'd be willing to bet it's the shitty material the rivets are made of. For the sake of saving a fraction of a cent they are using a sub par rivet. My bet would be if you got the rivets replaced with a decent rivet at just about any pro shop the problems of loose and rusting rivets would stop.

If your toes are jamming and it's not a length issue (when laced up are your toes touching the toe cap?) then it could be a volume issue. You lace up yet your foot can still slide forward when you hit the boards. If this is the case you might want to try sliding a piece of felt or another tongue under your existing one and seeing if that takes up any negative space. For myself, I found the AS1's to be around 2mm shorter than Bauers for length ie I had to go up 1/2 a size to get a similar fit for length.

What fit are you in?

https://www.binnieshockey.com/shop-hockey-accessories/custom-ultra-shot-blockers

This is the indicator. Looking at your tongue, does it tend to twist to the outside as you skate? If so this is because your foot is rolling in the boot and over the year the boot is breaking down (opening up) and now the foot is making contact with the eyelets. Replacing your boots is really the only long term solution but for a low cost fix try one of these:- stitch the loop half of a velcro patch to your sock, glue and or stitch the hook part of the velcro to the back of a gel pad. Now the gel pad wont move. Or, using medical tape, tape the gel pad to your foot (this is the quickest and easiest). Or buy eezyfit ankle booties. Or buy bunga lace bite booties like these and slightly rotate them on your foot -

I gather you are talking about the cast iron bunion stretcher? https://footfitter.com/collections/boot-stretchers/products/footfitter-ball-ring-cast-iron-bunion-stretcher

Last I heard was 9/16 but that was a few years ago.

Its why any half decent fitter should put you in a Brannock first and manually measure your feet and then use this as a check against the scan.

A few years ago (I think around 2012 or 13) we measured 2 Mission and 1 Bauer skate oven, all 3 heated to 180. Never tried a CCM oven or anything made recently.

My recommendation when you do this is you leave some lace in and tie it up, say the first 3 eyelets only. This helps the boot keep the correct wrap shape around the top of the foot as you drive the puck into the toe box, so instead of opening up the upper portion of the boot the stretch occurs on the sides which is where you want it to happen. Good call on the puck though, I have used them many times to widen a forefoot area or toe box.