Sanding your blade

[MLSman 22]

I can certainly see a pro tweaking a stick until they like it....then giving their finished product to their sponsor to do a production run of their customizations. Anybody who takes playing hockey seriously, from beer league to NHL, will "tweak" their gear. The move from wood sticks to composite materials has not changed this element of stick customization...it just made regular consumers more reluctant due to how costly mistakes can be.

I use two piece sticks, because I like to tweak and experiment with the toe and the lie of my Easton CNT blades - play with both Forsberg and Yzerman (usually have two or three of each) - to get the best feel. Carbon gets nice and flexible with a heat gun, and minor bending when hot has not significantly affected the durability of the blades from my use. I still have all 4 blades I bought at the start of the season...no breakage yet.

I too sand my blades to get rid of the finished coat. Not only does the tape adhere better, but I am able to get much more control on the toe of my blade on backhands. I also wax the exposed part of the toe....keeps the toe dry and get better lift for the high backhand....yeah...I spend way too much time tweaking my stuff.

[Allsmokenopancake 0]

WOW he said he goes throguh 120 sticks a year ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh that is insane

During a caps/thrashers game, they said that last year the team spend $250,000 on sticks for their players, and that a lot of that was on Kovalchuk, who snapped them like twigs.

Locker (Craig Laughlin, caps color guy) said that he was speaking to Kovalchuk about it, and he said the Russian league was so different when he broke in there. They were given 2 sticks each at the start of the year, and if they broke, they had to buy new ones, or if they couldn't afford them, their families had to buy them for them.

Some difference

[TBLfan 25]

They can also get whatever curve they want yet tweak those from time to time as well.

good point. IDK, I don't see the point of changing the lie. I would think that it would make more sense to just tell the company to adjust it. The curve I could see being changed and I could definitely see sanding the coating on the blade off.

But then again after X amount of times adjusting the blade the same way I'd make a change in what I get.

[LkptTiger 1]

It is the angle between the blade and your stick shaft

I should have indicated that I was being sarcastic. I've been playing the game since I was four, and have been in and around this/these boards for years now. I, and most of the people here, have known what lie is for quite some time.

Then again, your post was much more pertinent than a lot of the other stuff I see on here on a daily basis.

[hyprlte 0]

I'm looking to invest in a heatgun. Any particular models I should peep?

i bought a black and decker heat gun for $35 at home depot

[flyerman 0]

A lot of pros sand/shave their blades to either change lie or to make the blade thinner. I saw a lot of Preds players shaving the heels in order to make them thinner.

I have an Easton Synergy ST with a Gaborik curve and the lie is too high for me. I am thinking of shaving the heel down to lower it to a 5.25. Any advice in doing this? e.g. should I use really course sand paper or some other type of tool? And will this compromise the blade?

[avery16 5]

i had a few sykora game used sticks.. he goes to town on them, sands the blade, just the toe off to make it square, curves the toe, at the top he shaved down the buttend, and it looked like he tried to shave down the composite of the shaft as well..

[flyerman 0]

Thanks, but that doesn't answer my questions.

[Zac911 317]

funny how good the technology is nowadays and still players cant resist the urge to pick up some sort of tool in an effort to make the thing better. sometimes your own worst enemy is in your head.

one more thing... alot of pro stock blades don't come laquered. the lacquer for the most part is for the retail crowd... it has to be pretty. generally the only thing that makes pro stock better is the process in which the blades are made... ever wonder why original retail synergy blades were so PINGY? the new Mission Ti Pro and Ti this year are a Matte Finish.... no clearcoat on the blades either. very nice finish! shameless....... i know..... i put my hands together and pray for change!

[flyerman 0]

Can anybody answer my original question? Can I shave off some of the heel of my Easton Syn ST blade (prob, 1/4"- ish) without compromising its integrity significantly? If so, what is the best method to do this? I've used sandpaper on wood blades in the past, but not sure with a composite blade.....

[HockeyJR21 0]

the smyth curve on my warrior has a weird toe shape and i wanted to sand it down to make the toe rounder. would this be ok? also how should i do it?

thanks

[DamnLocust 0]

to flyerman:

not gonna work, you'll pretty much kill the blade/shorten it's lifespan dramatically. Shaving that much off is going to get you through the carbon fiber and into the foam. even if you seal it up with epoxy, I don't see the blade lasting very long after that.

hockeyjr:

you might be able to take a bit off the edges, but the same holds true as with taking away from the heel. the toe is just as bad in terms of it going bad after the modification, as the torque generated from shooting will split it right in half.

[flyerman 0]

not gonna work, you'll pretty much kill the blade/shorten it's lifespan dramatically. Shaving that much off is going to get you through the carbon fiber and into the foam. even if you seal it up with epoxy, I don't see the blade lasting very long after that.

Okay, thanks a lot. It prob won't end up being a 1/4", but it still sounds like your advice would be the same. I forgot about the foam core.

[HockeyJR21 0]

hockeyjr:

you might be able to take a bit off the edges, but the same holds true as with taking away from the heel. the toe is just as bad in terms of it going bad after the modification, as the torque generated from shooting will split it right in half.

thought so thanks