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glued toe cap with side panels on the boot and sewed with the liner through the boot glued the heel pad in place. I still didn’t understand its purpose, apparently a purely design decision, which also raises the heel above the holder by about 1 mm, making a landing with a large forward inclination for many years I have not used the boot strap and, accordingly, I do not use the Lundi loop so I did not replace the piece with Lundi's loop leaving open space with lots of pure carbon an attentive eye could notice in the photo from the previous post the captive nuts in the boot as well as the fact that when replacing parts of the side panels, I made the pieces of leather longer than they were now they began to go on toe cap and close pairs of holes for the lower eyelets yes, yes, I decided to abandon the laces. I really liked the experience of using homemade skates with buckles instead of laces. and the point is not only in the speed of putting on / taking off, but above all in the possibility of fine adjustment of the degree of tightening. Literally online.) so another buckle donor was bought again, the experience of using homemade skates showed that due to the rigidity of their boot, one buckle in the middle of the boot on the bend of the leg is enough. she tightened both the bottom and the top giving unsurpassed mobility of the leg when bending forward the main significant drawback of this was that the entire load from the leg went to a single buckle and the pressure from it on the leg increased greatly, which led to discomfort. at the same time, the upper part of the boot of homemade skates was noticeably stiffer than the upper part of the True boot so I decided to make two attachment points like on Konekt by moving the lower buckle lower and for the upper part using a strap like in Konekt for this I took a strap from donor ski boots, cut it removed someone else's logo and replaced the Velcro I immediately abandoned the top buckle like on Konekt because it was extra weight, I didn’t have a buckle with such a short loop and I didn’t see the advantage of using a buckle there because the Velcro fixed it perfectly and also allowed me to change the degree of tightening then screwed the upper strap onto the boot it turned out like this note how wonderfully the chrome buckle harmonizes with the VH logo haha to be continued...

it's time to glue. Here we go the liner was completely torn apart and almost destroyed. replacing it is not a problem. the problem was that the foam under the liner was also destroyed in places so you have to make new foam but the main problem was that these skates were made for a specific foot. not my foot. and the foam used in them was very thin. the foam I usually use is 4mm. True foam is much thinner, about 2mm. I didn't have one like that. speaking of Foam True - I really liked it, soft and elastic at the same time, it resembles rubber in production, the foam is glued onto a liner wrapped around the molded foot, layer by layer. then all this is glued into the boot with one element I will have to glue each layer separately, as if from the outside to the inside, where the liner will become the last layer the problem with the foam of the desired thickness was suddenly resolved. Even when I wanted a homemade Bauer Konekt I bought old skates of a similar design. who would have thought that their liners would have foam of the required thickness, and even so perfectly preserved the main target was "do no harm", so I tried to copy the original exactly the first layer was the back in the shape of a semicircle cut out a similar piece and glued then the same thing but outside the boot after I cut the True foam in half and transferred its outline to my foam having received such a set of pieces and pasted into boots made of softer foam that will take shape better when baked made the ankle True's noses are known to have bits of foam in them to keep their toes from touching the composite shell from the experience of using my homemade skates, I know the usefulness of this solution and repeated it at the same time, both True and my homemade skates did not have foam on the sides of the toes and my experience decided that this was wrong. which was fixed, the foam is glued around the entire perimeter of the boot for the liner I bought tight jersey its thickness made it possible to hope for greater durability, and its elasticity allowed it to be reliably glued to a very complex foam relief tucked the edges of the liner and glued it on the outside of the boot how it's done by True By the way, in the previous photo you can see a little red True foam glued to the toe of the boot from the outside. the fact is that when connecting the boot and toe cap, I found that there is a gap between them. for a snug fit toe cap to the toe of the boot, I glued this foam, which will give additional protection to the toes I refused to "lower" the tongues in the toe cap due to their excessive thickness putting pressure on the toes. but I didn’t refuse the very idea of additional protection of the toes from above and neutralization of the negative space and stuck my 4mm foam from the inside on the top of the toe cap work is moving towards completion. to be continued...

after the tongues, I replaced the Velcro with toe caps my sewing machine can sew plastic, which is very pleasing ready the leather on the side panels has been worn off cut off cut new pieces out of the skin. I did not have large pieces of leather that would allow me to cut out whole pieces of such a complex shape, so I made them in two parts. this is what most manufacturers do to save material. then sewed into place and sewed the side panels to toe caps on the wrong side of the side panels was found ... never guess masking tape Apparently he stuck there with a boot build quality? no, have not heard to be continued...

it's time for sewing. i love to sew. I sew almost all of my gear by hand. but recently I bought a sewing machine, so now I do some of the work on it. even at the first fitting, I really liked the True tongues. thick, dense, well-fitting leg. they are made according to the "classic" technology - felt and top decorative trim. and if the felt was in good condition, better than the felt of the Bauer tongues I used for my homemade skates, then the top trim was quite worn Velcro was also out of order. separating the top from the felt, I saw that between them there are two more layers of foam - soft and medium density True tongues are longer than I'm used to. this is due to the fact that the Velcro fastening to the boot allows you to change the length of the tongue by "lowering" it down into the toe cap. which increases toe protection and removes negative space. I tried it and realized it's not for me. the toes were cramped, the tongue pressed too hard on them. so it needs to be shortened. At the same time, I liked the Velcro fastening itself. leave him cut off the felt separating the torn parts, cut off the top trim sewed on a new velcro in the upper part I also sewed a loop of nylon slings. just in case. let it be)) transferred the complex shape of the tongue to a new material cut and sew it and on the other side as you can see in the first photo, the greatest wear was in the middle lateral parts - places where the tongue rubs against the eyelets of the boot the most to protect these places, I sewed on pieces of thin soft leather, as is done, including on the tongues of True skates of new generations ready I sewed the felt and the top by hand, because due to the nature of my sewing machine and the lack of protruding edges of the felt on my machine, this was impossible to do to be continued...

I'm assuming it's from your glove

start repairing shoes the sole had many holes due to the installation of various holders, which lost their shape and collapsed. also the sole was very thin and could not hold the rivets firmly using the most important and necessary material for each manufacturer of custom composite skates - masking tape, I sealed the holes from the bottom filled the holes with resin and glued pieces of fiberglass, making the sole thicker and stronger cleaning out all the paper I also glued pieces to problem areas where the carbon fiber cracked - inside and out, strengthening them in fact, the resin is transparent and the fiberglass is white. using a toner for resin, I achieved the effect of "carbon look" so that the patches would not stand out much, although these places will be hidden - I just wanted to)) after drying, I carefully sanded the edges of the patches, paying special attention to the inner ones, so that they would not later protrude and move remembering my problems with homemade skates when they rubbed my foot with their hard edges, and also considering the experience of True, who cuts out the side on new models I did also. pasted magic masking tape, defined a new contour of the top edge and cut after which, using adhesive tape as a template, I transferred the contour to the second shoe, making them the same to be continued...

As far as I know from multiple sources, the custom skates were made exclusively at the factory in Winnipeg. and yes, you are right, the build quality of these particular skates is zero. and the "nuances" shown by me are not a consequence of operational wear, but a disgusting assembly. as for the heel lock, it is really excellent. better than the bauer and almost as good as my homemade skates. ha ha. As for the high wear of the foam, it is not only in the heel area, I believe that the point is also that these skates were not made for the previous owner and did not fit him perfectly. judging by the amount of wear, I guess there were a lot of owners about rigidity and support. surprisingly, it is excellent.

the most interesting part for me is how is it made? in the last topic, I showed how skates of the lower price category are made. now I'll show you how to make custom skates for a thousand dollars From a video tour of the True Skate Factory, we know that the toe cap and side panel are glued to the composite boot with conventional shoe manufacturing glue. so rebuffing the seams connecting the liner and the side panel, I easily removed them and expected to see a beautiful carbon shell there and I saw... the fact is that custom skates are made from several pieces of carbon glued to the foot model and it would seem that everything would be fine if these pieces overlapped each other. but in reality there were gaps between the pieces with some kind of white base which in appearance was a fabric with a very rare weave and naturally did not have the strength of carbon fiber, which led to its split in appearance, it resembled the so-called "sacrificial fabric" used in the manufacture of composites to absorb excess resin. the screenshots from the video above show that something similar is used by True for the production of skates. it is on this white base that the layers of carbon are glued but why did it remain uncoated in my case? it's a mystery to me stripes of dry, non-resin-impregnated carbon fiber were visible on the sides having a suspiciously regular even shape. and next to them are pieces of paper, which turned out to be ordinary masking tape / paper tape - whoever is more accustomed to call in the manufacture of composites, masking tape is used as a fastening of the edges of the carbon blank before it is impregnated with resin, since the carbon threads are not fastened by anything and the blank quickly crumbles into threads, losing its shape. or as a separating layer, since the resin does not adhere well to paper in this case, the first option takes place when pieces of carbon were applied with edges fastened with masking tape. and then they simply "forgot" to remove it and the carbon was not saturated with resin. wtf? how is that even possible??? but that's not all. painter's tape was also used here in the second option - as a separator between the foot model and the composite boot (it can be seen on the screen below) as well as the use of masking tape to fasten the edges of the carbon blank and judging by the photo of my skates below, they also "forgot" to take it off he was everywhere. throughout the interior masking tape even became part of the design, replacing carbon, which was missing draw your own conclusions in addition to these "nuances", the boots had carbon fiber splits in the front moreover, the last photos show that this part was subjected to grinding - presumably that cap did not "fall into place" which thinned the carbon in these places and led to its breakdown over time the carbon from the side parts from the eyelet area generally peeled off and was torn off by me. underneath it was... ordinary PE plastic a close look at the production video of the skates showed that True was using plastic to reinforce the heavily stressed area of the grommets. and I don't see anything wrong with that. carbon coated plastic and the bad thing is that, like masking tape, PE plastic has poor adhesion with resin and over time, the carbon simply peels off from it, which happened. even perforation of plastic will not save for better penetration of the resin into it something like that... despite this, I still consider True skates of this design to be the most "advanced" and after their restoration I will be happy to use them to be continued... finally a few more photos not included in the text

something tells me that the previous users were far from alone)) the problems of the internal part are not only and not so much from poor care (although this is not excluded). I will tell you about it soon

Hello again as I mentioned in my topic of homemade composite skates when they were ready, I managed to buy a True 2 piece of my size very cheaply since in this topic I will often mention the previous topic, including the video that I posted there, I will leave this link to it the skates were in the "patient is more dead than alive" state But has it ever stopped me? lol here are some pictures from the seller and my skates upon arrival skates were on CCM holders. one blade was shattered they weighed over a kilogram mostly because of the holders I refused such holders when making homemade skates, True will also have a Vertex holder boots without holders, laces, tongues and insoles weigh 492 grams, which is already very pleasing condition was age appropriate. the leather of the side panels was worn everything was much worse inside - the Clarino liner was practically absent, and the foam also got instead of soles there were scraps of some paper I will talk about this "paper" in more detail in the next part. I'm not a big connoisseur of the True range, but I assume this is one of the early 2 piece models that were made to order and not supplied at retail. if i'm wrong please correct me if this is really custom, then I'm very lucky, because the skates fit me perfectly. Of course, not like the ones I made from the cast of the foot, but very good. to be continued...

as always fantastic work. I admire your patience, accuracy and attention to detail

The black laces are awesome! especially black skates. you made me think about

in the process of working on the project, I set myself the task of mastering a new production technology for myself, creating a working model and testing it in the real conditions of a hockey match now, after a few ices, I can confidently say that I have succeeded. yes, there are certain flaws, but the design works and shows itself perfectly in real hockey. all the "surfaced" nuances will be taken into account when working on a new pair of skates. desire to create just a few days after the completion of the project, a video was released in it, Mr. Van Horne himself tells and shows the technology of composite skates, which I also used. release this video earlier, maybe it would be easier for me, but in general, I did everything the same I also received a package the other day. yes, these are my True 2 piece skates. my first True skates I bought them in a conditionally "live" state for a completely insignificant price. and again, the irony of fate - having received them earlier, it would have been much easier for me with my project ... I already completely disassembled one skate ... so there will definitely be a new project. so it's not the end of the story Thanks to everyone who read and supported. if you have something to say or ask, i will really appreciate your feedback the end Or the start of a new chapter...

for the first time I brought them to the ice on July 7th Initially, I wanted to go to public skating to try out new skates in a relaxed atmosphere. but it didn't work out in time. so I took them immediately to training impression I’m afraid I don’t have enough words that also need to be translated into English to describe the sensations and emotions from the new skates I can say that the "WOW effect" has been achieved the second in my life after the change of equipment. the first one was after switching from Brians Opt1k pads to 1S pads sensations were strange and enthusiastic on the one hand, I did not feel the skates on my feet as if they weighed nothing. they did not regret anywhere. felt comfortable in soft socks on the other hand, I felt their rigidity. I felt ice through them. as if the holders were just attached to my feet all movements on the ice, shocks in the BF became stronger and sharper the buckles held and did not interfere with the rotation of the pads but there were also unpleasant moments. I rubbed the outside of my left leg very hard the main reason was a snug fit to the leg (for which they fought, as they say). which, due to the thin, rigid upper edge, led to damage to the leg but on True there is also a thin edge I began to deal with the problem and looking through the photos accumulated before working on the project, I saw that in True's boots the composite in this place does not reach the top, but a cutout is made in it OK. I opened the side seam and cut the composite while the leg healed I was forced to return to S29. and this quick transition during the week (I play 2 times a week) from one model to another showed how different they are. I used to know purely theoretically from someone else's experience how hard boots change skating. Now I have experienced it myself and can confirm that it is so. the pain in the legs reappeared, the movements became "smeared" and sluggish once again bringing the upgraded skates to the ice, I realized that the problem had not gone away and there were two reasons. one is that using the donor Bauer X700 made of plastic in the sidewall trim, I automatically made the edge hard in this way. the second reason was my desire to improve the support of the foot and I made high sidewalls. as on the skates of the player, higher than on the skates of the goalkeeper. and when bending the ankles, the leg rested on the high edge opening the side seam again, I cut off about 1.5 centimeters shortening the height of the edge this was done on the outer edge, I left the inner edge unchanged and got Bauer's "asymmetric boots" in the photo S29 with steel and "new" without, so it seems that the height is different. in fact, I adjusted the height to Bauer's skates the next ride showed that the problem was gone - I rubbed my leg lower than before. lol. So something needs to be done with the thin edge. again (for the hundred thousandth time) having dismantled the sidewall, added soft foam to it specially making it higher than the sidewall sheathed with a liner and sewed all the parts. the photo shows that now I have a soft sidewall rising above the hard plastic part if the leg heals, I will try them again on the ice this Friday to be continued...

I refused to make a boot with a movable ankle, but I really liked the idea of \u200b\u200breplacing the laces with a buckle. in addition to fastening speed, you can easily control the degree of tightening and it will always remain unchanged the ski boot buckles I used by design also had a fine adjustment and a steel wire loop like the Konekt buckles. but unlike them, my buckles had a plastic frame around a steel loop which securely fixed the loop in the buckle and avoided the sadness that some Konekt owners have known I started installing the buckles at the "Koho view" stage, starting from the bottom originally I planned to repeat the construction of two buckles as on Konekt but after trying on the boots after installing the lower buckle, I realized that they are so stiff and perfectly fix the leg that the upper buckle is simply not required the only thing is that having abandoned the upper buckle, I moved the lower one a little higher, to the bend of the leg already on the "Bauer look" after which it was the stage of installing the holder with steel marked and drilled holes for it studying reviews and reviews, I often saw that on True skates, the rivets holding the holder are loosened. which was explained by the too thin sole of the boot. to avoid this, I made it thicker by adding an inner sole made of plastic from Bauer skates holder in place I used solid aluminum rivets, which are much cheaper than similar copper rivets and much stronger than conventional semi-hollow steel Well, here's what it looked like at the time. the use of only one lower buckle allowed for a better flexion angle than the S29 and I think it's better than Konekt the weight of the finished composite skates was 987 grams. not a little, but my task was to reach a weight of less than 1 kg. and it succeeded weight S29 932 grams it's very funny that the difference was 55 grams ... exactly as much as the weight of the buckle finally, I baked skates in the oven and put it on his feet, wrapping it with stretch tape, as Mr. Van Horne showed in his videos baked for 10 minutes at 100 degrees, then sat for about 20 minutes while they cooled on their feet to be continued...

Trav ordered a Konekt with a hood

Before, I also knew about this difference only theoretically. The understanding came after a quick transition from hard composite skates to my old Bauer S29 and back again. The easiest thing to understand is that in hard skates you can fully play hockey with 3 top eyelets unlaced, but not in soft skates. p.s. please don't check this because on soft skates it can cause injury

Toe cap from Bauer was glued into the boot. it's time for the exterior I have always loved the white color in the finish of the skates i got a white genpro from old koho and began to fit to his boots cut to size, began to make a template for the sidewalls for the manufacture of which I used genpro from liners of ski boots bought as donors of buckles then sewed all the details together and glued on the shoes in order to avoid thickening of the overlapping seams, stitched the parts end-to-end and this method spoiled the whole result. I really didn't like how it looked up close. I'm not an artist or a designer and it's hard for me to "invent" and "draw" something original I was very disappointed with the result tore the fuck off and started making sidewalls out of Bauer parts again and at the junction toe cap used thin plastic from ski boot liners. there will be additional protection for this place after which I glued my liner and began to sew parts on a sewing machine I will say right away - I liked the new look "from Bauer" even less than "from Koho" frustrated, I abandoned the project for a while to be continued...

then I started making tongues from the very beginning I decided to make them from foam and not from felt since I do custom, I decided to abandon the velcro fastening like True, which allows you to adjust the tongues but at the same time I decided to leave them long so that they go on the fingers, which will ensure a tight fit and the absence of "negative space" I had an old Koho 260 - my first goalie skates. they were no longer repairable and I dismantled them for parts took centerpieces of tongues koho sewed to them the side parts of microfiber then sewed with the wrong side of microfiber glued protective plastic inserts to the foam here is the result tried on composite boots with tongues but no insoles. the foot does not fit into the shoe and it is cramped in it. wtf? got upset, tore the tongues and threw it aside as a result, I took felt from tongues Bauer and sewed the middle to it from Koho using plastic inserts from Bauer and yes i finally bought myself a professional shoe sewing machine which should cover all my gear sewing needs to be continued...

I am loser! it turned out that I do not have a single picture from the process of making a composite boot. I must have been very busy with the process. Sorry There are two main ways of making a composite - "wet" and "dry". At the same time, "wet" also has two technologies. the so-called "manual lamination" when the layers are placed into the mold by hand The disadvantage of this method is not very good adhesion between the layers and an excess amount of resin, which increases the weight of the product and reduces its strength. because the "drier" the laminate, the less resin it contains, the stronger it is The so-called "vacuum infusion" method is deprived of these shortcomings, in which the filler layers are placed in a vacuum bag from which air is pumped out, which tightly compresses the layers and then the required amount of resin is injected, which makes the product light and durable this is how the speed skate boots from the Discovery video above were made well, aerobatics is autoclave production at high temperature and pressure. pressure also compresses the layers, and high temperature is needed to activate the resin, which is already initially impregnated with a filler called "prepreg" in the right volume. this is the same "dry" method that is used for the manufacture of parts requiring high strength in the aerospace industry, motorsports and more. most expensive but best quality for myself, I used a combination of the first and second methods - I laid out the fiberglass impregnated with resin on the foot model prepared as shown earlier, after which I pulled a vacuum bag over everything and pumped out the air. the use of fiberglass rather than carbon fiber is due to its greater availability since carbon fiber for use in small quantities is much more expensive than fiberglass. again, I had never worked with carbon before - a very capricious material and there was a great chance to ruin everything and throw it in the trash the use of vacuum avoided the main problem of manual lamination - poor adhesion of the layers. which leads to this yes, you guessed right, these are the heels of True skates. and I was shocked to see it. but the main shock was from the fact that this is a mass phenomenon. I often saw True skates for sale with broken heels or with already repaired ones. people involved in the repair of skates said that this happens precisely because of the poor adhesion of the layers and the ingress of air between them, which violates the strength of the composite I am not a great specialist in this, so I will not argue that the reason for this phenomenon is a violation of technology, but the fact remains I wouldn't blame True for this. I am a big fan of what Mr. Van Hoorn and his team do and I understand that those who do nothing are wrong. I just tried to avoid a possible problem of this nature because I am not a professional in this field at all and I did it for the first time a day after the polymerization of the resin, I removed the resulting boots, while the model of the feet had to be destroyed in order to remove the boots from them after trimming the edges with excess fiberglass, I got something like this not so beautiful smooth and shiny but almost the same it would be more correct to say - not at all such a beautiful lol that required additional processing to bring it into a more or less "decent" look to be continued...

you mean like Henrik?

I am sure that everyone who reads my topic was waiting for all this theoretical part to end and the real action to begin. lol go! so, building a skate from the inside out everyone knows that in addition to the foot itself, the insole and tongue are also placed in the boot to take into account this additional volume, I glued a layer of foam imitating the insole to the model of my foot as I said earlier, the sole of the boot is not flat and therefore the foot impression was taken on a specially profiled platform. in my case - insufficiently profiled. haha attaching the holder, I discovered this shortcoming which had to be corrected with an additional layer of foam. everything is ok now I also marked the approximate shape of the back with a marker further from tongues from ski boot liners and some foam formed imitation tongues while studying information about Konekt, I read that its liner is made of microfiber - a material that is very resistant to abrasion and perfectly absorbs moisture i took the microfiber pieces and wrapped my foot models pulled tight and sewed them on and cut off the excess marked with a marker the places where the tongue passes and where the side foam should end and began to form the inner foam above the ankle, where the foot goes into the shin, the narrowest place and for its tight fixation it is required either to narrow this part of the boot, which will lead to problems with putting on / taking off, or to apply a thicker layer of foam, which all skate manufacturers do I glued one layer of foam there over the ankle, making the desired shape of the cutout in the back. then pasted another layer exciting the previous one as well as the ankle bones and finally the third layer covering the entire side part I used regular foam with a sticky side, which I always use for repairing equipment, ditching the special thermoformable foam. because initially I build according to the shape of the foot, completely repeating its relief and additional molding is not required. which allowed to reduce the cost of foam by more than half after which I wrapped everything with stretch tape, preparing it for the manufacture of a composite boot to be continued...

if everything is clear with the manufacturing technology of other skates - a hundred layers, a ton of glue and a kilogram of nails, then VH / True skates are made a little differently foam liner glued into a monolithic composite "shell" on which the outer trim sewn with the toe cap is glued after which the edges of the liner and the outer trim are sewn together but the most important thing is the order of manufacture. as Mr. Van Hoorn keeps saying, his skates are made from the inside out. a liner is attached to the 3D model of your foot, completely repeating the entire relief of the foot, then a composite "shell" is molded, which will also fully correspond to the foot and after it there is already a decorative finish this is how my skates will be made to be continued...

thanks for the feedback. I am pleased that my modest works are of interest. it will be even more interesting)

I thought about it when I found out that the liners can be bought separately, but now I have a problem with buying equipment and not only Bauer. again, this is a bum project aimed at making skates at a minimal cost and not involving the use of new parts. maybe someday I will do something with ready-made Bauer liners