Skate punching question

[ThisisBen 0]

Is it possible for the top of the toe cap to be punched/stretched?

I have Tacks 9090's in 6EE and they fit quite well in every area except in the area where the toe cap attaches to the tongue.  Volume is fine, I pass everywhere(just barely at my bulbous instep) with the pencil test.  forefoot and mid foot width is good(can be punched if needed), and the heel is almost perfect(an issue I've always had with Bauer Nexus's cavernous heels).

My problem is that It seems that the top of the Tacks toe caps are flat and don't slope upwards the same way the eyelets do. As a result, although it feels nice to have very little negative space between the top of my toes and the toe cap, I have uncomfortable tightness where the cap ends and the tongue begins.

If this is something common and done regularly, that would be great(got these at a very good discount), otherwise, I guess my search for new skates continues(wish I could try supremes in fit 3 but they are literally out of stock in my size everywhere).

[Vet88 674]

10 hours ago, ThisisBen said:

Tacks toe caps are flat and don't slope upwards the same way the eyelets do. As a result, although it feels nice to have very little negative space between the top of my toes and the toe cap, I have uncomfortable tightness where the cap ends and the tongue begins.

This is also a problem with Hyperlites except they make it worse with a ridge there. I know of 2 attempts to raise the end of a toe cap that had success. One guy I know with Hyperlites got a potato (of all things) wrapped in plastic and wedged it into the toe cap. It took about a week but he got enough relief to stop the pinching. I'm not happy with this method because if you jam too much pressure into the top of the toe cap I believe you risk separating the toe cap from the sole. With my Hyperlites I used an Irwin bar clamp to clamp the toe cap / tongue area, the middle of the inside clamp presses the toe cap upwards whilst the end of the outside clamp presses down onto the middle of the toe cap and holds the toe cap in place relative to the sole. With a gentle application of heat, the end of the toe cap bends upwards as you tighten the clamp, it only has to move a small distance to get relief. The downside of this method is you have to bend the tongue right over to get the clamp on the toe cap and the clamp presses down onto the tongue. I didn't do any damage to that shitty (imho) Hyperlite tongue but I don't know how it would go with a tongue in another skate. Can post a pic of the clamp on a boot if you want to see how I set it up.  

[ThisisBen 0]

9 hours ago, Vet88 said:

This is also a problem with Hyperlites except they make it worse with a ridge there. I know of 2 attempts to raise the end of a toe cap that had success. One guy I know with Hyperlites got a potato (of all things) wrapped in plastic and wedged it into the toe cap. It took about a week but he got enough relief to stop the pinching. I'm not happy with this method because if you jam too much pressure into the top of the toe cap I believe you risk separating the toe cap from the sole. With my Hyperlites I used an Irwin bar clamp to clamp the toe cap / tongue area, the middle of the inside clamp presses the toe cap upwards whilst the end of the outside clamp presses down onto the middle of the toe cap and holds the toe cap in place relative to the sole. With a gentle application of heat, the end of the toe cap bends upwards as you tighten the clamp, it only has to move a small distance to get relief. The downside of this method is you have to bend the tongue right over to get the clamp on the toe cap and the clamp presses down onto the tongue. I didn't do any damage to that shitty (imho) Hyperlite tongue but I don't know how it would go with a tongue in another skate. Can post a pic of the clamp on a boot if you want to see how I set it up.  

Pic would be great! And thanks for the ideas, I'll try it out and see how it goes.

My next skates to try is/was going to be the Ribcor 78/80k's in EE.  I've heard that they fit wider and deeper than the Tacks. Any info/knowledge regarding that?