Battleaxe BX7 OPS

[Chadd 916]

Open

[Hooah4 12]

I would like to thank Chadd, JR, Battleaxe hockey, and the rest of the powers that be @ MSH for the great opportunity to long term review the Battleaxe BX7. Since I'm a bit pressed for time tonight here are some quick pics of the stick:

Overall

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Specs:

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Tactile/Shark/Nipple, etc.. grip:

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Blade Profile compared to Easton Zetterberg:

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The stick is overall nicely presented in red, black, white, and silver accents. It presents nicely upon first inspection as not being overly garish but not subtle either.

It has a tactile grip more similar to the Reebok sharkskin than the Warrior nipple grip extending through the bottom hand "zone". Nice carbon checkerboard pattern on the blade. The BX7 is the middle of the line stick and according to the website shares most of the same technology of the higher end sticks.

A little blade heaavy but not like pricepoint OPS. I received a 90 flex zetterberg clone. Of note is that Battleaxe describes their P39 Zetterberg to have a 6 lie. I'd say maybe 5.5 but I'll have to see how it plays. I'm going to slap an Oggie ergo on this one as I have a practice tomorrow night and I'll post my first ice impressions on Tuesday morning.

For more tech please reference www.battleaxehockey.com

[Hooah4 12]

I would like to thank Chadd, JR, Battleaxe hockey, and the rest of the powers that be @ MSH for the great opportunity to long term review the Battleaxe BX7. Since I'm a bit pressed for time tonight here are some quick pics of the stick:

Overall

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Specs:

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Tactile/Shark/Nipple, etc.. grip:

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Blade Profile compared to Easton Zetterberg:

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

The stick is overall nicely presented in red, black, white, and silver accents. It presents nicely upon first inspection as not being overly garish but not subtle either.

It has a tactile grip more similar to the Reebok sharkskin than the Warrior nipple grip extending through the bottom hand "zone". Nice carbon checkerboard pattern on the blade. The BX7 is the middle of the line stick and according to the website shares most of the same technology of the higher end sticks.

A little blade heaavy but not like pricepoint OPS. I received a 90 flex zetterberg clone. Of note is that Battleaxe describes their P39 Zetterberg to have a 6 lie. I'd say maybe 5.5 but I'll have to see how it plays. I'm going to slap an Oggie ergo on this one as I have a practice tomorrow night and I'll post my first ice impressions on Tuesday morning.

For more tech please reference www.battleaxehockey.com

[Hooah4 12]

On the ice for the first time. cut some shaft off and put in the Oggie.

Had the other coach (23yrs old, college club hockey player) send me some light and harder passes. I can say the feedback isn't very harsh through the blade into the hands/arms/shoulders. Blade is lively and not dead. the feel reminds me of the old response+ blades on TPS sticks.

Shots - wristers were nice and smooth. Didn't even notice if the lie is off as the Modo/Zetterberg, etc...is very familiar for me. Snappers were nice. I was very happy with the shooting response. coming off a 85 flex S11 I can feel the much stiffer kick through the hands. I am liking the concave shaft and the textured grip. I've always had a thing for the concave shafts anyway so that's a plus.

I couldn't get alot of slappers off since the ice was crowded and I didn't want to hit any kids (11-13 year olds)in our first practice. Overall, so far so good. No complaints. My personal feeling has always been if you don't have to worry about your stick or ever really think about your actions on the ice - that's where you want to be.

I'll get more action in Friday and Sunday night.

[Hooah4 12]

After a couple of uses:

The stick is still holding up well. Shaft is a bit nicked up from the usual scrums but nothing major cosmetically. The blade is till nice and responsive and not dead at all. Hard passes will give you some feedback and without soft hands they can get away from you. Shots are still nice with plenty of pop. Half slappers are very nice with a good kick for a medium level OPS.

4 uses so far and no glaring problems or weaknesses. I do feel the blade is a bit hot for my liking however.

[Hooah4 12]

Another week of use and some of the paint is chipping here and there but purely cosmetic damage. The toe of the blade is chipping a bit due to some rough board work but there are no pieces missing. I will say that there's definetly a "crack" when receiving passes that without some softer hands the puck can scoot away from you.

Shooting is still pretty nice and I'm geting used to the feel of the stick now.

The 90 flex is nice and right where I want to be for my game. I find myself really laying into the snap shots and half slappers and feeling it kick through. It's nice and broken in now and I feel like I've found the "sweet spot" in the stick.

Battleaxe is to be commended so far on a nice perfroming mid range OPS. It'll be interesting to see where this stick falls retail wise as I like the stick and could see myself buying one if the opportunity presents itself.

[Hooah4 12]

another couple of weeks into the testing and as far as durability and consistency are concerned I cannot complain. I am having some issues with the lie on the Zetterberg clone. Initially the lie 6 didn't seem to be much of a difference but as game situations have arisen I seem to be missing more of the true 5 lie. It's easy to blame the tools and not yourself but I went back to an old Z Carbon hybrid Modano to see if it was the stick lie and not myself and I was correct. Bad lie.

All things considered the BX7 is a nice stick. fit/finish and performance wise it's a very nice stick, the lie is just getting to me and I think in my head I'm trying to adjust too much. I don't eant to cut any more off as the stick flex is just right around 90-95 with the oggie.

I would really enjoy a true 5 lie on this as I think it could make the difference between a good stick and a great stick.

[Hooah4 12]

Update:

After another month of use my only complaionts are still with the lie. I resorted to using "bladetape" to work on the harshness of the blade. It's helped a bit, but the 6 lie is alot to bear for my game. The shooting is still pretty decent, no complaints.

I expect it to start petering out soon as I've been giving it quite a beating. One of the tradeoffs of having the lower pricepoint OPS is that the higher fiberglass content will give you a longer lifespan at the result of performance.

The blade is taking quite a beating with playing D, no suprises there. I have a huge portion of my sticks that look like thye've been shark bit on the toe (eastons, mostly), but the battleaxe has been pretty good. The blade doesen't disintegrate over time, it just seems to lose a bit of itself here and there.

Haven't seen any in store around here which isn't suprising. My part of the hockey world is dominated by what the travle team kids buy. That ususally means alot of Easton and Bauer. Thee's the smattering of CCMs and Sherwoods(due to the 35 and older man crush on the coffey pattern).

My long term impression of this stick is stuck around a 7/10. I plan to wrap up my long term review in the new year if the stick lasts that long.

[Hooah4 12]

This will be my last review as the stick met its demise last night. It broke about 2 inches up from the hosel of the blade(picture if it were a shaft). I don't know if it was from extra stress on that area when taking shots, etc as the lie 6 was putting the blade at an awkward position for me and I may have been overcompensating. It served me well durability wise. the shaft is in great shape with the usual dings and chips from being a D. the bladetape definitely helped with the pinginess of the blade. I would rank this stick as a 7-8 out of 10 overall.

The BX7 is a well performing stick in the lower tier of the OPS market. Of the lower end OPS I've tried it is one of the better performers out there. For beer league it'll be a great addition to anyone's arsenal as it has good pop, and some features you won't find @ this price range. It will be interesting to see if Battleaxe can carve themselves a niche in the highly competitive stick market. Thank you to Battleaxe hockey, JR, Chadd, and MSH for giving me this opportunity.