Vaughn VE8 gloves

[ArdeFIN]

As mentioned on some earlier thread I got my hands on a quite new pair of VE8 gloves, only Pro so no Pro Carbon which from what I've seen is only a bonus.

The catcher glove is in pretty good shape, only the lacing around the pocket has been worn out which was the reason I got these rather cheap.

Nice to have such new gloves and see what's been invented into these as earlier Vaughn gloves are already familiar.

Catcher is well broken in, really smoothly and precise operating. I had no experience except quick hand in for 590 style glove and was interested to see how it would work for me. What I've read this glove design is Vaughns clone for the CCM Premier. As I'm not a fan of 600 I had some precaution but this VE8 is really what I like. I seem to like all the Vaughn gloves though. Opens really wide and pancake and closes like butter. The finger plastic is sticking inwards at the break edge for some reason so that needs some attention.

First thing to notice the cuff is almost straight copy of CCM atleast from what I remember. I have no CCM gloves at the moment to compare though. Some twist is included to make it a bit more Vaughn.

So open up the glove and see what's inside then. Only pictures of padding and plastic but these are the most interesting.

Finger plastic is normal and not broken which it shouldn't be at this age. The outer edge is strenghtened with extra plastic strip and some thin HD foam over it. Just the same as CCM is doing here, except CCM is using felt/foam only in single layer.

Cuff is padded with HD foam where CCM uses same shape but made from styrofoam.

And the plastic is the same shape, wrist strap goes through and as in CCM here the plastic is starting the crack the same way.  Excellent copy job!

There's also a crack at the thumg area which had some effect on the rigidity but I didn't notice it earlier. Maybe the thumb protector gave enough support so it didn't bend too much to notice.

Winegar bath is going on to get rid of the smell and dirt. And then some new plastic and ready to put things back together.

[ArdeFIN]

Washed up and made some new plastics and then struggling to get it back together.

The plastic, made some minor changes to the shape to better follow the jenpro. I intentionally left the strap openings away and will only route the strap under the HD foam and not through the plastic at all.

The next step is to prepare the felt/padding for the palm. As the glove is pretty new still there's nothing broken or worn out. The felt layer is pretty thin but there are an extra layer of HD foam sewn into the palm fabric both sides (top and bottom) so a total of three layers of padding.

The biggest issue I noticed before dismantling was that the edge of the finger plastic was pushing through to index and middle finger knuckle area on palm side. That was propably because the felt was sewn multiple times to make the break line work better. Opening the sewing wouldn't help much anymore as the felt is pretty slimmed down. So I just added a slice of that Poron like foam material to cover the edge of the plastic.

What remains to be seen after extended use is that how the sheet is holding on as there will be quite a rubbing in between materials because of the break line.

Before I got the padding into the glove I noticed that the thumb area could be somewhat thicker to meet the height of the cuff foam so I added the same foam material over the felt of the thumb too. And left a slight gap to the pictured slice to make sure the secondary break line will have room to operate.

I also cutted the felt away from the edge where lip of the T is installed to get rid of useless extra material. Not really any saving weightwise or nothing but just for doing it. It's a bit easier to put together when there aren't too much of different layers in there.

And so the perimeter is laced and all I need to do is webbing and attach the backhand protection. Almost done!

The feel of the glove is very pleasant, I'm really looking forward to see how I manage to catch anything with this thing. If I do then these gloves will definitely be keepers.

 

[ArdeFIN]

Short version of it for now as it's getting late here. I'll just let you enjoy the refreshed glove. It's a bit stiff but very well workable and the tennisball test was succeeded easily. The blocker remains decisive whether I'll keep these or not. 

I'll add some pictures of before operation if have any decent ones. There shoudn't be much of a change but some anyways.

Edited January 11, 2023 by ArdeFIN

[SaveByRichter35]

Dude you do wonderful work.  Too bad you're not in the states, I would definitely send you some gear for a refreshing when needed.

[ArdeFIN]

Thanks. These days the shipping over the Atlantic is just too expensive. But maybe in the future when commercial flights are up again. And ice rinks are open, damn it.

[ArdeFIN]

Took the blocker apart too just to check the insides and see how it's being made.

The design is pretty nice and almost everything is laced in or velcroed. And very easy to take apart.

What you can't remove from the base are the glove itself or palm, sidewall and that pillow next to thumb. And the last only because someone figured it to be attached by a jenpro tab to the tab connecting glove thumb to the sidewall.I actually laughed a little seeing this. Would be easy to fix and all but then again the glove is in good condition so I'm not going to do anything with it yet.

To be exact the sidewall is double layered where the inner one is for thumb and back and the outer layer is what is the sidewall actually.

You shouldn't get anything through from here.

The palm part is tightly sewn in as usual except for the Warrior blockers. 

One picture from the base layer and fly to open the plate section.

The plate itself is the weak part of a blocker and more than usually broken and always molded to puck modified shapes.

In this one the softer foam part had divided into four and was glued back with contact glue. The harded HD foam layer was starting to crack at the lacing which the VE8 blocker seem to do and as you think the mechanics involved it's not amazing. PUR glue was used here to fix the cracks. There might be some better glues for this but that's been doing decent job and I had it available. The 1mm plastic sheet was also glued topmost but hardly no glue will attach PE plastic and with all the pucks it'll give up sooner or later.

Same as with the Pro Carbon the plastic is only to the lacing which is kind of interesting design as you still take some saves to the upper section and there is no support from the plastic then. I'll add a layer of 1mm PE here that will cover the whole face area.

Also used some spray contact glue and attached the softer foam and HD foam to each other again as was from factory.

[ArdeFIN]

While the blocker is in decent condition I won't do any repairs. The palm is pretty worn already because of some grip tape used on the paddle by previous owner but other than that nothing really needs attention.

Except a tiny hole in the side of the pinky because of the awkward design where the elastic strap is only on one side of the finger and twists the fabric almost 90 degrees.

As there is a lot of the mesh fabric I could cut the worn part away and sew it to the palm fabric which made it perfectly snug for my pinky. Then I cut the second elastic and moved it to the opposite side of the finger to even the pull. And it works like a charm! 

It works so nicely that I took an advance and made the same mod to the index finger also. It wasn't that badly worn yet but was going to. And no more of that issue either!

I have to say that maybe it's the slightly added snugness or that the fabrics are staying in place but the feel of the palm increased a lot. And I mean a lot. I had to take a paddle outside and shoot some pucks to feel it out. It actually felt so good that I took my SLR2 blocker and made the same pinky mod there too.

Pretty much the same result, a lot more feel to the paddle and control of the blocker. SLR2 has different style on the index finger where the fabric is rounded to between the fingers to prevent wear and twisting. That works too to give some kudos to Vaughn here.

[ArdeFIN]

Then what, well it was only to fill in the plates to the side wall and main blocking area and lace all in.

It'll be a pleasure to take these gloves to ice whenever we get back. One more reason to wait towards it!

I left the front panel intentionally half cleaned to accentuate the graphics which I like. Just wish these gloves were white-black themed.

The palm area looks bad and it is worn pretty much. But I have never so far worn that area myself so I'll see how it fares when I get to use it.

Edited March 20, 2021 by ArdeFIN

[ArdeFIN]

Update here just that much that I have to say these gloves are really nice pair to use and from the beginning they were like I've used them for a long time already.

Ofcourse if the catchers angle suits your hand. I liked the feeling, soft break and pancake opening of the catcher.

Blocker is a blocker, didn't really feel that much different compared to my SLR2 blocker that I could tell which one is what. Definitely will be holding these gloves in the house.

[Maxpower29]

Ya I actually love this glove so much I found a new one same color on clearance last week and ordered it. Its the procarbon but basically the same. 

The blocker I really like the feel but The angle is a bit much. Im a vaughn guy and I found the SLR was too much from what I like so I got this one but its not my favourite blocker but still decent