ButtEndz Twirl

[Cosmic 178]

Previously used: Oggie Ergo, Tacki Mac Ribbed Wrapped Command

Weight Barely weighs anything. Some weight up top would not bother me, to make my stick a little less blade heavy. This is not the responsibility of the grip though. Regardless, weight is a non-factor. n/a or 10/10

Balance Again, due to weight not being a factor, balance is not impacted. n/a or 10/10

Grip There are also different size and shaped bumps on the grip, which seem to allow the hand to lock onto the shaft with this grip. I like alot of grip for my top hand, so that I do not need to waste energy squeezing the stick too hard when forechecking. 10/10

Feel Because the wrap is so thin, I have a newfound feel on my stick that I had not previously experienced with the Oggie Ergo (I did not like how soft the rubber was, and how much flex was coming out of it) and Tacki-Mac Ribbed Wrapped Command (very thick, dulls the feel). I just got back into playing after a 17 year layoff, so this is a welcomed, newfound, and appreciated experience. The knob is extremely, thin, like the Tacki Mac Kane. This can cause some durability issues with my gloves, but no big deal, I can just get them re-palmed if necessary, and is a sacrifice I am willing to make, in order to get the stick feel and control that this feature allows for. 10/10

Durability You will notice in the pics that I leave a bit of space between the knob and the top of the shaft itself. This is due to my having ripped through my first grip, because my hand was inadvertently pulling on the grip, wrapping it over the shaft. The top of the shaft then tore through the grip, rendering it pretty well useless. I had to tape it up to hold it together, by which time the point of the grip was null and void.

As I was dealing with this issue, Rob emailed me and asked how I liked my grips (I did not initiate this exchange of dialogue, well done Rob), and I told him what happened. He sent me a replacement free of charge. So, Customer service 10/10.

Durability score pending. It is possible that I simply did not install the grip properly, or maybe I did, who knows? Regardless, I am giving the grip a bit of space at the top so that when the my palm pulls the knob toward the top of the shaft, it has room to move up, without getting pulled over, and sawed by the top of my shaft. Even with this space, however, the knob is still getting pulled up. I think that if these grips were somehow engineered like golf club grips, so that the rubber formed a wall at the top, preventing the knob from getting pulled, then this problem would be solved. Or, I can superglue the top of the grip, and see if it holds.

It is worth nothing that these grips do not lock onto the shaft, in the way that my Tacki Mac ribbed wrapped commands did. The Tack Macs, once on the stick, seem cemented on (which I like). The ButtEndz do not really lock on, but they do not slide around either. There just seemed to be a bit of variability at the topf of the grip, where the knob is.

pending/10

Overall I'm happy with it. I do not see any way to improve upon this design, and this is my grip of choice and I expect to use this grip for a long time coming.

Edited July 16, 2015 by Cosmic