Cutting a standart shaft, top or bottom?

[Sisko 0]

Having my first composite shaft, I was thinking about it a bit..

About a traditional shaft if I need to cut a fair amount of lenght (say 6")? My thinking is like, if I cut 6" from top, wouldn't mid-flex point travel well to the top hence dis balancing a stick terribly? If I cut at the bottom, does it mean a flex point lowers itself? If I cut 3" at top and 3" at bottom, would a stick more or less maintain its charracteristics? Or am I completly missing an important variable in this equation?

Could you pls comment on my assumption? Thanks.

[sickwilly 37]

I'd stick to cutting the top end. Some shafts are marked what the flex would be if you cut at a certain point.

[ponder 0]

Cut off the top only. The main reason a stick feels stiffer when you cut it is that you simply have less leverage/torque (not sure about the proper term here) with a short stick than with a long one, with any flexible material it's way easier to bend a long piece than a short piece. Take something like a bic pen, try flexing it with your fingers close together, then try again with your fingers further apart, you'll be able to flex it a lot more with your fingers further apart, same thing with a long vs. short stick. A standard shaft is gonna stiffen up similarly with 6" cut off regardless of where you take those 6" from.

And a mid flex stick doesn't actually have some sort of soft area in the middle or anything, it just flexes in the middle because that's where any fairly uniform shaft will flex. Low kick shafts taper at the bottom so that more flex occurs lower down, but mid kick shafts are fairly uniform throughout. When you cut 6" off the flex point will move, since the flex point for a mid kick, uniform shaft is always just gonna be a bit below your bottom hand. There are exceptions, the S19 shaft for example is a traditional shaft that has a very visible built-in lower kick, but if your shaft looks uniform throughout, it probably more or less is.

[shotty 7]

what he's asking is if the flex dynamic of the shaft will be altered by cutting too much off, and it depends which part of the shaft the flex is engineered into (if any). we know for certain that the flex will not be in your top hand, so if you cut everything off the top, you know that you wont be altering anything in terms of kick point... however, the more you cut off, the less leverage you have and the less flexible (stiffer) the stick becomes.

[mtc 0]

the stick will become stiffer but the flex point will still flex at your bottom hand so its fine. As long as you can handle the stiffness of the stick, ur good

[Scotty 8]

what he's asking is if the flex dynamic of the shaft will be altered by cutting too much off, and it depends which part of the shaft the flex is engineered into (if any). we know for certain that the flex will not be in your top hand, so if you cut everything off the top, you know that you wont be altering anything in terms of kick point... however, the more you cut off, the less leverage you have and the less flexible (stiffer) the stick becomes.

Do today's standard shafts even have engineered kickpoints? It was my understanding that standard shafts have mid kickpoints simply due in nature to their shape/design. Or maybe those are just the old school standard shafts.

[Chadd 916]

Do today's standard shafts even have engineered kickpoints? It was my understanding that standard shafts have mid kickpoints simply due in nature to their shape/design. Or maybe those are just the old school standard shafts.

You can absolutely engineer a kickpoint in a standard shaft. I can't tell you if a particular stick does though. I say be interesting, cut it out of the middle.

[Scotty 8]

You can absolutely engineer a kickpoint in a standard shaft. I can't tell you if a particular stick does though. I say be interesting, cut it out of the middle.

I know it is possible, I just didn't know if any manufacturers actually did it.

[ponder 0]

As I said above the S19 shafts are a standard shaft with a low kick point, but it's very obvious visually from the design, the S19 shaft basically has a bit of an elliptical taper down low, then changes back to standard shaft shape so it can accept a standard blade, same idea as the old Z bubble shafts basically. As for other sticks, who knows, but I know from experience that most mid kick sticks do seem to flex mostly a bit below wherever you place your bottom hand. Totalones are apparently softer in the middle, then stiffer down by the blade, not sure how noticeable an affect it is though. My feeling is that most standard shafts are pretty uniform throughout, but I could be wrong.