Made a 2 Full Right Sticks into 2 Regular yesterday

[DocShawn48 7]

Okay we have had two Koho 490 23" goalie sticks in our Hockey Association gear cage for a few years. As you may have seen, a full right stick is worth about 40% of the cost of a regular due to a much lower demand so selling them to purchase much needed regular goalie sticks wasn't viable. In a time crunch with a goalie clinic starting in four days with kids needing sticks, and the nearest pro shop 3 hours away, I had heard of tales of goalies, in the "before time, the long long ago", bending blades from full right to regular and knew this shaping is the same process that goalies sometimes use for custom sticks and decided to give it a try.

First, depending on the material your stick is made of, this may junk or weaken your stick. If you're still on board, research exactly what your stick is made of before even attempting. Composite one piece goalie sticks are molded at a very high temperature and the nature of the weave in the material makes this an unwise decision unless you're simply shaping a stick as a template for several custom sticks to be made from. Also the materials will dictate what method would be best to shape the blade of your goalie stick. I didn't find too much information on doing a modification to this extent but most of the resources I did find mentioned vaguely a heat gun for wood and fiberglass, and hot water with foam core sticks. Any resources that mentioned composite sticks specifically talked about the high temperature needed to mold them, and a heat gun would likely shape the stick, but make it unusable for actual ice hockey play.

The Koho sticks I shaped were two 490's made of wood (ash) reinforced with fiberglass along the paddle and blade. This made shaping them in my garage with a heat gun plausible. So here's how I did it.

First I put two large vice clamps, one slightly lighter than the other, about 2.5" apart, the grip extending congruent with the blade, on the toe of the blade. The lighter vice clamp was placed above (closest to the top of the blade, extending from the toe of the blade) the other clamp. The idea was a homemade LeClaire curve. Both sticks had a full right generic mid curve. I wanted to do a heel curve with a slight twist, opening the face up slightly for playing the puck and since I was making it up as I went along, why not, plus I happen to favor the LeClaire curve.

I placed the paddle long ways on a cinder block using my knee and shin along the paddle to hold it in place. The face of the stick curve was placed facing up with the clamps attached and extending from the toe. I used a cinder block because, flipping the stick over, I noticed the height was perfect for the handle of the clamps to rest on the ground once I got the paddle to start to bend.

The sticks were never used, no tape on the blade, seems obvious, but thought I'd mention it.

Using a heat gun with the output set to 1400° and keeping it about 3" above the blade with constant slow movement to keep even heat over as much as possible over the entire blade, both sides. The weight of the large clamps provided the pressure on the toe of the blade and, after a few minutes, the blade slowly started to bend downward. When the blade started to actually bend I could begin to focus heat on areas of the blade I wanted to shape according to the curve I wanted.

After about 10 minutes of focusing the heat to slowly get the curve I wanted, I removed the heat and placed a weight along the top of the paddle to keep the stick in place while it cooled. After 30 minutes I removed the weight and the clamps and inspected my work and before starting the second stick, taped the blade and did a field test with a few hits from both a green biscuit and regulation ice hockey pucks on a large practice mat. No issues with the integrity of the blade after 20-30 hits each from a green biscuit and a regulation ice hockey puck.

Repeated the process on the second stick and used the same size and weight of vice clamps and did a closed mid curve on that stick.

They'll both be issued out in a few days for a 6 day goalie clinic so I'll post any updates if they crack or don't hold up.

Pretty simple process, however these sticks were wood reinforced with fiberglass. Any other material might require some extra research and a change in method.

I was and am pretty proud of my work, mostly because I had no clue what I was doing really, and the sticks turned out well.

In a time pinch with no real means of obtaining a goalie stick, and you have a stick the opposite curve of what you need, nothing to really lose, I'd recommend this to a desperate goalie coach.

If anyone else has any first hand experience in bending or shaping a stick in a garage, feel free to share. Especially on different materials, the methods you used and the results. I have a few pics and once I figure out how to post em, I will

[Gummer12 134]

http://modsquadhockey.com/forums/index.php/topic/32356-how-do-i-post-a-picture/