ice wear and tear on composite blades

[cause4alarm 7]

When I used to use wood blades, I'd always replace the tape whenever it was worn out. I used tape to protect the fiberglass coat from stripping off and allowing water to seep in and damage the wood.

Do untaped composite blades wear down much from constant friction with ice?

[fatwabbit 93]

dont think so, but if you are worried, you can use wood varnish or a thin coat of epoxy.

[Ankles 3]

Untaped composite blades shouldn't wear down on the ice any faster than taped composite blades, but why you would use a blade without any tape on it is beyond me.

[davezilla 0]

but why you would use a blade without any tape on it is beyond me.

tape wears down pretty fast on the bottom of blades.

Anyways, I don't think it'll be a problem. The tape might slightly protect the blade from cracking due to slap shots.

[cause4alarm 7]

Part of the point behind my asking the question is that in olden times (wood blade era), I'd replace the tape whenever I wore through the tape and the bottom of the blade became exposed. I was just wondering if I should feel the need to replace my tape as often now that I use composite blades.

So far though, I haven't noticed any particular wear and tear on the bottom of an exposed composite blade from ice friction.

[Duder84 0]

this may just be me, but I seem to wear out tape faster with composite blades. The bottome always wear out much quicker when I use a composite blade than when I use a wood blade.

[TBLfan 25]

melt some wax into the tape along the bottom of the blade and it will last 3-5 times longer.

[Hockeydog 8]

Yeah, what TBL says! I use a hair dryer to melt wax into the tape,really does last a lot longer. The top and sides get torn up before the bottom since I started doing that.

[jimmy 194]

Carbon is the only substance that has a zero co-efficient on ice. In other words, you can drag it on ice forever and it won't wear. It's the slaming on the ice that's the problem.

[Eddie20 0]

Carbon is the only substance that has a zero co-efficient on ice. In other words, you can drag it on ice forever and it won't wear.

0 coefficient of friction?

Aside from that, carbon doesn't actually contact the ice does it? Wouldn't it be the resin? (not sure here, never owned a carbon blade)

[Mac! 0]

A composite blade will chip alot more without tape though.

[Fire0nIce228 1]

I think it would only have a 0 coefficient if it was sliding across ice as smooth as glass constantly. We all know that isn't the case, its the slamming and the other things that chip it, hitting grooves in the ice and such.

[jimmy 194]

Carbon is the only substance that has a zero co-efficient on ice. In other words, you can drag it on ice forever and it won't wear.

0 coefficient of friction?

Aside from that, carbon doesn't actually contact the ice does it? Wouldn't it be the resin? (not sure here, never owned a carbon blade)

Yes of friction. A better explanation below:

"Properties of the instability of Compressional Alfvén Eigenmodes (CAE) in tokamak plasmas are studied in the cold plasma approximation with an emphasis on the instability driven by the energetic minority Ion Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ICRH) ions. We apply earlier developed theory[N.N. Gorelenkov and C.Z. Cheng, Nuclear Fusion 35 (1995) 1743] to compare two cases: Ion Cyclotron Emission (ICE) driven by charged fusion products and ICRH Minority driven ICE (MICE)[J. Cottrell, Phys. Rev. Lett. (2000)] recently observed on JET[Joint European Torus]. Particularly in MICE spectrum, only instabilities with even harmonics of deuterium-cyclotron frequency at the low-field-side plasma edge were reported. Odd deuterium-cyclotron frequency harmonics of ICE spectrum between the cyclotron harmonics of protons can be driven only via the Doppler-shifted cyclotron wave-particle resonance of CAEs with fusion products, but are shown to be damped due to the electron Landau damping in experiments on MICE. Excitation of odd harmonics of MICE with high-field-side heating is predicted. Dependencies of the instability on the electron temperature is studied and is shown to be strong. Low electron temperature is required to excite odd harmonics in MICE" :-)

[cause4alarm 7]

Thanks for clearing that up.

[Eddie20 0]

Carbon is the only substance that has a zero co-efficient on ice. In other words, you can drag it on ice forever and it won't wear.

0 coefficient of friction?

Aside from that, carbon doesn't actually contact the ice does it? Wouldn't it be the resin? (not sure here, never owned a carbon blade)

Yes of friction. A better explanation below:

"Properties of the instability of Compressional Alfvén Eigenmodes (CAE) in tokamak plasmas are studied in the cold plasma approximation with an emphasis on the instability driven by the energetic minority Ion Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ICRH) ions. We apply earlier developed theory[N.N. Gorelenkov and C.Z. Cheng, Nuclear Fusion 35 (1995) 1743] to compare two cases: Ion Cyclotron Emission (ICE) driven by charged fusion products and ICRH Minority driven ICE (MICE)[J. Cottrell, Phys. Rev. Lett. (2000)] recently observed on JET[Joint European Torus]. Particularly in MICE spectrum, only instabilities with even harmonics of deuterium-cyclotron frequency at the low-field-side plasma edge were reported. Odd deuterium-cyclotron frequency harmonics of ICE spectrum between the cyclotron harmonics of protons can be driven only via the Doppler-shifted cyclotron wave-particle resonance of CAEs with fusion products, but are shown to be damped due to the electron Landau damping in experiments on MICE. Excitation of odd harmonics of MICE with high-field-side heating is predicted. Dependencies of the instability on the electron temperature is studied and is shown to be strong. Low electron temperature is required to excite odd harmonics in MICE" :-)

no clue what that says and how it says that carbon has a coeff. of 0 on ice, but I find it pretty hard to believe that carbon is frictionless on ice. It might be essentially 0, but I can't see it being 0. But my physcis is a bit rusty.

[TBLfan 25]

I'm also rusty on physics but I would think that; even then when downward pressure is applied it's not going to be a coefficient of 0, even if that force is gravity(unless we are playing in a vacuum)... And certainly not when the ice is chewed up from skating on it.

I've seen composite blades wear on the ice, once the finish is gone the wear on the actual composite is noticeable.

P.S. Maybe it's because I'm tired... maybe it's because I'm on pain killers but I don't see how this:

"Properties of the instability of Compressional Alfvén Eigenmodes (CAE) in tokamak plasmas are studied in the cold plasma approximation with an emphasis on the instability driven by the energetic minority Ion Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ICRH) ions. We apply earlier developed theory[N.N. Gorelenkov and C.Z. Cheng, Nuclear Fusion 35 (1995) 1743] to compare two cases: Ion Cyclotron Emission (ICE) driven by charged fusion products and ICRH Minority driven ICE (MICE)[J. Cottrell, Phys. Rev. Lett. (2000)] recently observed on JET[Joint European Torus]. Particularly in MICE spectrum, only instabilities with even harmonics of deuterium-cyclotron frequency at the low-field-side plasma edge were reported. Odd deuterium-cyclotron frequency harmonics of ICE spectrum between the cyclotron harmonics of protons can be driven only via the Doppler-shifted cyclotron wave-particle resonance of CAEs with fusion products, but are shown to be damped due to the electron Landau damping in experiments on MICE. Excitation of odd harmonics of MICE with high-field-side heating is predicted. Dependencies of the instability on the electron temperature is studied and is shown to be strong. Low electron temperature is required to excite odd harmonics in MICE" :-)

...has anything to do with wear on a composite hockey blade.

[jimmy 194]

Thanks for clearing that up.

Looks like you're the only one who got it. ;)

[fatwabbit 93]

maybe pucks should be made with a carbon composite outer shell? nevermind...just thinking aloud...

[cause4alarm 7]

maybe pucks should be made with a carbon composite outer shell? nevermind...just thinking aloud...

Forget pucks, I want my skate blades made out of it!

[Ankles 3]

I wasn't trying to say that tape never wears out on a composite blade, but you don't necisarily need to retape every time you skate like a wood blade. Tape does wear out due to friction and i find myself retaping almost every skate, even with a OPS. I was trying to say that using no tape just doesn;t make sense to me, especially with a compsite blade because it will be harder to control the puck with a nice smooth blade.

[the_joe_cat 0]

I agree with the waxing, wax is a players best friend. Keeps the tape in tact a lot longer, and also keeps snow from sticking. I think if you didn't tape a blade, the puck would slide off very easy as well.

Most chipping happens on faceoffs, or battles along the boards, tape isn't going to stop that but it sure will help. Being a centerman, I always tape the whole bottom around the toe, and over the whole top, before I start taping the blade from heel to toe. It really helps keep your blade in tact longer.

Also, is the tape wearing evenly on the bottom of your blade or more towards the heel, or the toe? If so the only problem may be that you have the wrong lie.

[tryandstopme 35]

Also, is the tape wearing evenly on the bottom of your blade or more towards the heel, or the toe? If so the only problem may be that you have the wrong lie.

what does it mean if the stick is getting more wear at the heel? would it be necessary to go up or down in lie to fix that? sorry i don't know jack about lies. i use forsberg/modano clone curves.

[CapsFan 5]

You need a lower lie.

[tryandstopme 35]

You need a lower lie.

i think the lie on my current blades is a 5 so there aren't really that many options out there for lower. its noticeable, but not horrific heel wear so i'll just suck it up. thanks for the response

[CapsFan 5]

No problem. Since it might be hard to find a lower lie, you might consider cutting the shaft to shorten the stick. That would bring the wear closer to the center of the blade. Just cut in small increments to fine tune.