ArdeFIN

I just have to start this out right now as I'm pretty exited for some reason which I don't even know. For some time now I've been after some black pads with white sewing to make a nice pair with my Eflex3 gloves that are really good looking and work very well too. And to make a bit more difficult I need them in about 33+X" size. Finally a pair of really decent looking Reeboks came to sale at local recycling store where I've bought gear before. Asking about 200 euros they were not cheap but not that expensive either. And they really are in very nice shape so I pulled the trigger so to say. What I was a bit unsure of was that these are oldies already and from the era when pads were heavy, being light wasn't any target yet. The other thing was how would they be in stiffness arena? Should be the more stiff model but how stiff that is actually and after use over the years. The web findings were not very logical on these, the XLT pro is with one internal break and these should have two? What. These ones had all the thingys with'em including thigh boards and all the leather straps. And they really are in excellent shape. Seems like the previous owner was someone like me, taking really good care of the expensive equipment. The left pad is already ripped off of the unnecessary parts. The size of these is the sweetspot to me which is 33+2". I've tried CCM Eflex500 before in size 34+3 and my knee was on lower edge of the landing pad. With these it should be close to the middle, maybe a tad under. To compare to something is naturally against my Warrior R/GT 33+1,5" pads which are almost perfect in size. Only +2 or +2,5 would be desirable if anything. As you can notice there is a lot more than 0,5" in the length difference, 1,5" would be close. Knee pad is a tad higher on Reeboks as it felt when trying these on. It's also in a different angle which makes it look a lot higher in the picture. So the weight is a concern. Which I'll address right away by weighting the start weight at 2900g for one pad. I've got some plans on how I wanna try the pad out so I took all the extra straps and thigh pads out for the starters. 270g of weight in those parts already. But then to the real project on these. Throw out some ideas and opinions for the leg channel. I'm not planning any huge modifications but more trying to do things as much in the original state as possible. The strapping is one thing to upgrade, some elastic and whatever. And to say it out the Warrior setup is working really well and I cannot point one bad out of it. But I'm not going to copy it as is but implement the best and try some other things in too. If I ditch the boot strap, what should I do with the flaps on the front of the pad? Those are two layer flaps and hard to cut out decently. I don't need them for anything then and no retrolook or whatever needs in here. Throw in some mindset and I'll add some more detailed pictures of the leg channel in a few days to help seeing what's involved.

Here we go, new sheet of jenpro is cut and ready to start the building. I don't recall seeing double support "leather" before. Usually there is only one layer and it has been well enough. But I thought that it's been made like that and I'll leave it be. Jenpro sewn in. Easy part of the project done Then there is the hard part of it. Sew the jenpros another long edge to the T and then add in those extra supports. I found it really tight to bend the whole package and it would need some break-in. So I took the 3mm punch and made some holes to add some give to the areas that should bend easily aka. break line in the middle and the bend point at the finger side. Thumb side was already very soft and thin so I left it as is. It appeared that the support layers are infused with something that makes it very stiff material to sew. I broke two needles and after some more struggle I removed the white layer with knife from the hole line. And after that I was able to use the sewing machine with the hand wheel to make the sew. The next thing I checked with the 2200 gloves T to see if I have to through this same operation but luckily it's ok'ish I shouldn't. But I got it done and the result is very decent. No picture of it yet, sorry.

Then to the T, which has the usual damages. This is where it begins. The end of the spine is pretty bad looking, but still good enough to be refurbished with reasonable effort. (focus missed on picture) Cracked Jenpro at the bend point on the finger side. Actually the jenpro was cracked almost the whole length in the picture. I was about to just replace this end part but after seeing the lip being damaged it was no use to repair just that short bit of it. So dismantle the thing and make a new one.

Note. Here the glove changed to V6 2000 and the 2200 project is continued after this sidewalk. Sorry. Some basic work done with the outter palm fabric, fixed the area around where T is attached and added some new binding while there. The old was so worn. Inside those stiched lines there is 1mm thin carbon sheets. I have no idea what those give to the glove except weight but there they are hidden. Would be somewhat reasonable if the next layer inwards was padding but it isn't, there is the finger plate and after that there is felt. One last photo on the backhand fabric, that is in good condition and only two brass eyelets have popped. Have to renew them just for the looks, and the nylon there will last better that way too. Next thing is to look towards the T and then the plastics errr. the carbon at finger area is ok but the thumb plastic might need some attention.

Always interesting design is this break line. Who in this world would design a knot under the index knuckle? The worst spot to get the puck any ways and with that knot making a spike through padding. Ouch. Carbon is used to protect the thumb also. Atleast it's light weight. This part has been taking some action on the pocket edge (lower on the picture. Needs some smoothing.

Some pictures from dismantling the 2200. Didn't know that Vaughn had this carbon thing already on V6 series. Here the normally curling edge of the glove is reinforced with 2mm plastic and it's held pretty well. Foam over and under the edge, and atleast it's lighter than felt. Would make a better protection if felt was dropped to half of a thickness and replaced with some foam. The edge of the carbon board is quite fractured, see what I can do for it. Should be heated up to melting point and pressed back together. Atleast I assume it's normal plastic of some sort infused to the carbon sheets. Basic findings on Vaughn of this era. The thumb area felt is not installed very well and is getting layered which affects the break area operation. Easy to fix and improve though. Some plastic pushing in to the break area too and only lacing holding it back but not too well done here either. Designer problems but seemingly not too easy to make these things work properly.

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.

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.

Can you take a few more pictures of the shoulder area under the floaters. There seems to be quite a lot of extra padding compared to my non Pro Carbon version. You should be able to find the weak spot of the C/A by pressing the padding at the area you got the stinger. And ofcourse you must be in the position you were then. Would be plausible to get the puck to shoulder as you are in the picture but remember that shirt is also pushing the C/A together atleast a little. And the flaps won't fly open then either. For wrist positioning I think that is everyones own opinion. I do want and like my wrists covered well but not so much that the gloves are affected. But that thing is also personal to each other. Put in short it's a combination of protection, mobility and comfort. Have it so that it suits you best. The sizing of the Vaughn C/A is smaller than Warrior. I fit a size M Warrior R/GT Pro just the same as this VE8pro in size L.

If I can approx that right the spot you got it is just where I have the lacing now. And there is actually no padding at all under the shoulder floater. I have to add something there too as I'm going leave the second shoulder cup out. I got one with my Brown C/A to the same area and exactly on the lacing there too. After that I made some improvements, lesson learnt but seemingly forgot it already. The easiest way is to add some MD foam of maybe 15-20mm thick over the whole length of the seam between chest and arm parts. In my project unit I have it a bit easier to do as I now have the lacing where I can attach the extra foam to. If you go look at my Brown C/A project you should find one solution there, atleast I remember I added some pictures of added padding in there.

All of these are refurbished, some are also modified, added padding etc. Most extreme might be +100g from original. LT90 V3 7000 V5 7500 SubZero

All weights in grams, scale is cheap but pretty accurate. Refurbished V6 1100 Refurbished VE8 "Original" V6 2000 "Original" V6 2200

These gloves go into the same topic as one is the two piece cuff and the other is surprsingly the one piece cuff. Both are heavily used but still in rather good condition and the jenpros and sewing need only some repairs and nothing major. The plastics propably are already breaking and might need new ones. But can't really tell from outside of the gloves. There are some similarities with these gloves but also some unexpected differences, nothing really remarkable but still. As for background I have a V6 1100 already in my collection and can do some comparison between these to see how the overseas production is and what are the key savings made here materialvise. 2200 Pro is the first and two pictures of the beginning state tell you a lot. Looking at the break line you can tell from the picture that the closure of the glove is terrible. The outside looks like it's been laying in a storage floor for some time, I believe the nylon fabric should be white... I'll try some Oxy clean in collaboration of the winegar to see if I can brighten things up atleast a little.

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.

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.

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.

Took some pictures of the attachment of the arms. As simple as possible. All of the lacing and added tabs are on the outside just to make sure they don't start rubbing my shoulder or my underwear. You can notice from the second picture that I moved the shoulder cup a bit inwards as the lacing moves the whole arm outwards. The previously added 10mm LD foam is all the way up to the shoulder too to add some protection here. Have read of some bruises in the shoulder area on Vaughn C/As.

How about this little sad and pitiful creature who is called Muru (=dear/darling/... in english). She is just over 3 years now and knows how to receive some petting from us. For those thinking about, yes it is Coton.

After adding some jenpro strips to the shoulder area and getting everything together I noticed there is definitely more on the sleeves which is what I wanted. Also the forearm part is working well, even with the wrist strap not overly tight it can push the sleeve towards elbow when needed so the mobility is very good. The elbow cups and the attachment of them needs some more thinking now when the factory made connections are modified. I'm thinkin of using the rubber lace to have some extra movement but still could keep the floaters and elbow cups tight around which is the way I like them. This adjusting and measuring is pretty difficult doing by myself as I have to wear the unit while trying to figure out what is in the right place and what should be changed and to which direction. Have to give credit to Vaughn that this area of the C/A has a lot of possibilities with only changing the way things are laced together. Inside edge of the floaters needs a little more stiching but my machine is struggling with the amount of layers of fabrics, and also the binding a just too narrow to sew it nicely. Hopefully my local professional has better machinery for this job. The 10mm LD foam added gives a huge difference in feel of protection for the arms, now I have a feeling I can face some slappers too without being afraid. The elbow floaters have few weak spots still, which I can't do anything but add an extra layer under there. Hopefully I can make it without killing the mobility. One picture of the thing hanging around. I've tried to move the floaters a bit closer to my neck to cover more of that area but not a huge success yet.

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.

Noticed one weak spot at the belly area. The flap that gives you a bit more freedom here is not overlapped with the rest of the padding. Actually only the bindings are over each other. That leaves a big gap where almost whole puck can hit your belly through without anything but those bindings softening the impact. Also that flap itself is so thin and poorly softened that a good slapper might bruise your belly through it. If I remember right in the SLR C/A this flap is bigger in size but how about the over lapping on edges and the thickness of the whole pad?

Two pictures to clarify. First is for the webbing where the orange lace is keeping the bottom line in order and when your relace the perimeter you just follow the orange lace from loop to loop. T is from Vaughn VE8 which is pretty close copy to Premier even at the pocket. Second one is about the lip. Again the same VE8 and the plastic from the thumb side. This glove has been used heavily but the plastic is still barely together. You can cut this strip so that I fits in between the break of the lip and the line in where the lip is bending at the (thumb) end. I'd do a bit shorter than too long so it won't grind the jenpro insideout. And clean the cutted edges for the same reason.

I opened the whole glove when doing the webbing. CCM laces the glove with a single lace around the perimeter so you have two choices here. Cut the lace at the break where the spine is attached or dismantle the lace from either end of it and then add some new lace when putting things back together or redo with the same single lace. Edge lacing itself is pretty simple task, just take a bunch of pictures on both sides before you start so you can verify things later on. Paracord needle is helping a lot but you can do it with melting the end of the lace with a lighter and mold to a needle like head to get it through the holes. Webbing if you don't want to relace again you can skip with some lace in the loops on the perimeter side. If I had picture of it you would understand this one better Add-om: I don't actually know the reason you would like to open the perimeter if not to loosen up the glove. You might be able to get enough extra lace by opening both ends and re-tie a knot with as much slack you can make. And then roll that slack through the perimeter to the break area. You don't want too much slack in there. And if you are to open either end of the perimeter (looking from the break) I'd suggest the thumb side for it's shorter and more simple to put back together. And while there I would cut the lip plastic or replace with a shorter one to make the lip work more freely. I'll be back later if I could take some pictures about these.

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.

Would those of you who have used one of this or similar design Vaughn chestys tell me at which areas have you got stingers in wearing these units? As getting a stinger on arm isn't really precise to understand the real weak spots in the design. What I've seen with this unit now is that I would expect to get some at the area of the elbow floaters which are really poor in design. There are always weak spots but are there any that repeatedly get/give the beating.