What do YOU do with your sticks that are on their way out?

[Scotty 8]

What do you do with your sticks when you know they're dying, cracked, or partially broken? Are you the type to try to milk them until they snap or do you just get it to bite the bullet and take hard shots or flex it until it snaps?

I find after my game tonight that both of my sticks that are a month old are going to break soon. My month old One95 shaft has a white crack down the internals and my brand new original Easton Cyclone shaft I bought off Ebay took a heavy slash tonight that shredded the Kevlar and turned the graphite white underneath from stress. :( I knew about the Cyclone, but just came home and noticed the One95 like that too. Time for a new stick or two. Snap them or milk them?

[Xtra 0]

Depending on how bad the crack is?

I usually milk them and try and make them last. Like, I'll put a mark on my handle to let me know which one is the busted one.

If it's a minimal crack on a blade that wouldn't really stress it to the point it'd snap? I usually use that stick for passing/set ups and try and take as minimal shots with it as possible during a game. I mean don't get me wrong, if a one timer or slap shot must be taken? I do it. But I am the type of guy who cares for his sticks till they're completely useless.

So, I milk them.... If the crack is HUGE? and they're basically near-useless? I break them myself. step on the broken part with my skate and it's done. No point in keeping something that is going to hurt your performance.

[CAmmon 2]

I would just use them till they break or are unusable. Get a new stick to take though in case they both break on the same game though.

[grider18 0]

I have a supposed 100 flex Easton Stealth, thing is very flimsy now and can only be used for snappers, relegated to pond and or street hockey. You gotta know when to move on when they start to go on you.

[sickwilly 37]

I put epoxy on the trouble spots and fire away. I also get a new stick ready to go ASAP.

[Jarick 5]

I'm too much of a gear whoor to get to that point, I've really only broken a couple blades due to long-term use :lol:

[wetwilly17 6]

since you didn't state that you noticed a decrease in their performance, why not keep using them until you feel their performance isn't up to par? and yes, have a replacement ready.

[MorePower4me 0]

I put epoxy on the trouble spots and fire away. I also get a new stick ready to go ASAP.

This is my plan (still use wood, but hanging out here is making me a gear whore... :( )

Has anyone epoxied in a carbon fiber patch? Raw material is very cheap in the quantities we'd want (a few yards should last years!) and even a very basic layup/material knowledge (namely which direction to lay your weave) should let you keep your kick/flex points.

It will certainly add a few grams of weight, but if I can keep my $200 stick for 6 months instead of 3 (or 12 instead of 6) at a cost of $5/fix, well...

And I doubt my rec level skills will notice the extra 20 grams anyway.

[TBLfan 25]

Typically they sit on the "stick rack." Chips are no big deal, epoxy them. Cracks are typically a different thing, you can feel those.

[Chadd 916]

Personally, I just make sure I have another XN10 with a P31 blade taped up and ready to go in my stick bag so I can switch when the time comes. I also start breaking in the new one in pre-game warmups.

[chippa13 1844]

Once I start feeling a stick softening up, either during play or when flexing the blade, then it makes its way to the stick graveyard in the basement, never to be heard from again.

[jcp2 2]

They end up in my garage in the "bad" stick pile, from which I hope to one day make a chair or bench out of. At least that's what I tell everybody who asks.

[JR Boucicaut 3804]

They hold up plants in my mom's yard.

She's got Easton Aluminums, Kohos, Sher-Woods...

[chippa13 1844]

If I ever get around to building the man-town in the basement, those sticks will be the legs of barstools.

[shotty 7]

if the blade goes soft or cracks, i just snap the blade off and be done with it. it was especially easy with the synergy SLs... they would mostly crack at the heel and i could rip it off my with hand.

typically, if there's some issue with the shaft where i foresee a break, i just stop using it.

[yrhmblnr8r 69]

If you still like the feel of it, milk it for all it's worth.

Once it's dead to you ...

[goblue9280 33]

Keep bringing the cracked stick as a backup... when a teammate needs to borrow a stick, let him use your cracked one so when he finishes it off, he feels so guilty he buys you a new one. jk... I'm not really THAT guy.

I'll keep using a stick with a minor crack... at least for dryland work. There's always a use for broken sticks around the yard... or build a hat/coat/equipment rack out of a few of them.

[DavidT 11]

I'll use it until it can be used no more.

[Brian Harte 1]

Use it until it breaks.

then get a new one.

[pias09 0]

Typically I'll use it til its nearly done and then if its just the blade going I'll cut it and throw another blade in and its my odr stick or if its the shaft its off to the cousins house as he uses them for street hockey as aunt and uncle don't like buying him things that aren't "useful", such as hockey equipment.

[Scotty 8]

X:60 shaft and Warrior Dolomite HD blade... Here I come. Guess I can always bust the Z-Bubble back out past that if I need another backup.

[Chadd 916]

They hold up plants in my mom's yard.

She's got Easton Aluminums, Kohos, Sher-Woods...

I have a broken Salming holding up my tomato plant.

[floatingice 0]

I usually play with them until they break. If a stick is cracked and does't work, then you retire it to road hockey.

I'm not sure what I'd do with these expensive CF sticks.

So far my sticks are:

Bauer XX (broke in shaft)

Bauer XX

TPS R4 (77 flex)

Bauer XVI (102 flex broke above blade, cut it a bit replaced with Coffee blade)

Easton Synergy ST (broke, warranty replaced)

Easton Synergy ST

So I have 4 sticks. The TPS R4 is my backup for the Easton Synergy ST because they're the same length and same curve (sakic/nash) and the bauer xx is a lindros and so its my backup for the XVI w/ coffey blade. Coffey blade rules...But the stick is a bit short since I had to cut it. Luckily I used to play with a much shorter stick so matches up with my XX.

I use them for shooting outside sometimes, since they're shorter - off some plexiglass.

I recommend trying to build a 2 piece. It can be fun, and a cheap way to keep your stick alive.

[jcsynergy 0]

well..... once my stick is on it way out....what comes around goes around...your sweet XXXX/S17/one95 nightmare comes alive. Those who thought it was cute to slash .... suddenly don't like the return.

[fatwabbit 93]

just keep using it... I found a crack in my mission ti pro (prostock) some time ago... kept using the stick, shooting slappers etc, and the crack hasnt changed much... I've been using it for about 6 months since I've found the crack...