ArdeFIN

A bit of a long joyrney from Tampere especially on these times of Corona. We'll see if we get to play hockey before Christmas if this disease is spreading faster and faster again.

Well you can sit down and watch television while getting used to your new armour and get ready for the games in the future.

5 hours ago, ThatCarGuy said:

The 2S Pro set is finally together in all its glory

Together with duck tape mind you but together nonetheless. Padskinz will be applied Monday or Tuesday and likely won’t be posted

Like that color scheme and graphics. Simple and a bit different somehow.

I got myself into a situation where I had to buy myself a new mask, Bauer NME IX. New unused for half of the new price. Having my REY CK still in painting (for half a year now!) I thought I'd better get another for now. NME5 moves to the reserve -position. Remains to be seen if the REY will fit me well and which of the masks will take the regular position.

Picture from web for those of you who haven't seen a Bauer mask 

Good looking thing. Would be nice to see this IRL.

It keeps me amazed why those big two Bauer and CCM build "NHL only" gear and sell regular customers something downgraded from that. Invest a lot of money to design something special for those few NHL guys (and maybe AHL etc) and then spend some more to design something completely else for regular customers. Like we don't face hefty slapshots or close range snapshots.

I like the idea of those doubled shoulder floaters and that chest and belly area paddig. Good job.

I just might get some ideas from this to my own VE8 project.

Then the bicep protection.

Outside foam 10mm

And inside foam 8mm

Missing the total thickness picture but that should account to 20mm.

So it definitely is light but protection is lacking badly. The perforated foam would make the inside more breathable without giving out anything in protection. The foam outside the plastic softens the rebound but that's almost it. If this armour was to be used in ball game where there is a big surface hitting you it would work pretty well I think. But against a puck with such a small hitting surface the energy will come through.

I'm planning to add a 10mm layer of soft LD foam and maybe layer that up against arm with a 4-6mm densier foam but not with an HD. That setup should create some airbag in between which should dampen the strike energy.

I'll get some more pictures of the arms when I get to that phase.

Then the thickness of the materials. Plastic is the common PE and 2mm thick. Enough for the job. Profiled with a few waves for rigidity.

For the fore arm part:

Total 16mm

Inside foam 8mm

Perforated foam on the outside 6mm

Here's two pictures of the hand protection, first both parts from outside, forearm closer.

The structure is simple and ... well ... just isn't enough. But it's light anyways so something is good.

Forearm part from inside.

I'd do this just the opposite way for the foams. The perfored one (and thicker on bicep) to inside and solid to the outside. Also I would thinner the outside even more and move the thickness to inside foam and add some extra there.

I've been looking for this opportunity for a long time and now I have it. A few months pickup used VE8 Pro non Carbon size SR large.

I'll see this unit through in no full review but more in a technical viewpoint. And for Mods I'll do some modifications atleast for arms to improve the protection. Something else might be done too when get deeper into this one.

First impressions for a quick try on and visual and finger point feeling through. Fits like a sweater, very soft and mobile. The shoulders appear bigger than in all the pictures I've looked at where this is like very slimmed in unit. New NHL spec is like this? The arms are the weak part for sure, just some HD foam and plasticcy like molded part to make the shape. This just can't work very good! Elbow floaters are interesting, technically I don't understand why the soft foam is on top and the HD foam/plastic is under that? I would do it just the opposite. The floaters are half detachable as one side is laced in. Nice for doing those mods. Chest as a whole, sternum and belly are "normal", not the thickest ones but atleast mediocre. Shoulders are a bit on the low side of protection, cups or plates almost are very thin and leave some open space that potentially can be hit by puck. Here I'll add some extra material in multilayer style, overlapping biceps and (underlapping) shouldercup/floater. Propably I will get some advice here from my Warrior GT which is very well done at this section. Shoulder floaters are thick but narrow and might get some rise from shoulder add-ons too. That is something yet to be designed better.

One thing on the downside for this topic is that the unit is black base color, so it'll be a pain to get you pictures that tell something.

Comments are welcome and conversation and suggestions. 

Oh well mine is old and I bought it used so there was no problem modifying and customizing mine. If your is new, I'd get in contact with Brown to get their opinion in too. They might have some ideas or get the C/A fixed if there is something not right.

Well there aren't too many possibilities here. Do you tuck or not?

If you tuck then the chest part as a whole is just a bit too long or tall. My Brown was first going to my friend but he had just the same problem with it that you have with yours. He described it like the chest is making a bubble, arching away from chest. He also tucks like I do.

I didn't take any chances with the unit and cut a row and a half of the padding away from the bottom and it's been working very nicely.

So first thing to do is confirm the right length! I'd do this with pants on too but no shirt so you can observe what's happening when you go down to BF.

Those starting knots are a pita unless you dismantle the whole glove or perimeter atleast. And Warrior is the worst in this view with very tight binding and perimeter lacing. 

Still looking good with your Warrior glove. 

13 hours ago, dreadlocked1 said:

@ArdeFIN

Thanks for the tutorial.  I redid my Simmons 995 with skate lace back in 2010 or 2011 using a guide from the GSBB.  By the time I got my 998 glove in 2015, I had a 3 year old and didn't want to take the time to do it again, so I paid Simmons a little extra to have it done.  It was more than worth it as I had no idea how to tackle the double T and they did a nice job.  Now in 2020, I just got set of Warrior R/GT2 senior gloves and I was excited it was going to come with skate lace.  Unfortunately, the lace job was less than desirable.  The mid lace was a tight spine and the sides were too tight and there was little visibility into the pocket.  Sometimes this is important to me for tracking a puck in some situations, so the instruction above gave me confidence to do a mid relacing and it came out satisfactory.  I ended up redoing the entire glove this week after the test run last weekend, and I'm going to give this a go on Sunday.  The Warrior glove lacing was a pain in the butt to remove.   

Hey that looks very nice! 

I see you changed the style in the mid of the midlane there? Is it in purpose?

You can do a slight re-tightening or equalling the laces after use or two as the skatelace has some slack in it. Yes those Warrior holes are very tight for the skate lace. Just did a G2Pro lacing with single T and extended holes and it was still with some extra work.

Just to say, original Warrior style is very dense with a lot of webloops and with skatelace there is even less visibility through than with normal cord. With forementioned G2 I left one webloop away and it came out very nice. 

Didn't find a picture of my first project glove that was G2Pro too, there I left 2 loops away from original and that with extra thin cord made the pocket look like it wasn't really there. But never did any puck go through, not even close. The puck is still very big when you compare it to your glove pocket webbing.

Edit: found that picture. It is an open pocket  It wasn't that thin of a cord that I remembered. I've used even thinner since, that looks like normal 4mm size.

Had to add this one too 

The lacing in the middle is done with single lace but it would work a lot better with two different laces, one for each "U"-turn. Then I could tighten up the inner one and give some slack for the thumb side lace as it determines the thumb plastic and protection positioning and affects the glove operation too. I don't understand the design idea behind this lacing but it's difficult to modify as it goes through all the layers. Inside (palm-thumb) jenpro is the most difficult to cover two holes and make new ones next to them and that covering jenpro tab is just where it gets a heck of beating from pucks.

(You can see the loose loop in the picture above is the one next to the thumb. The other loop only goes through plastic but not jenpro for some reason)

This project will have to take a rest as the T needs some new jenpro and I don't have big enough part. And also my supplier is waiting for shipment to arrive.

I'll have my time and take a look at one CCM Eflex3 blocker if I can redo the Warrior palm installation. And some repairs too.

There was some difficulties putting the inner lace and get everything lined up. Or not everything, but the holes for the lace on every layer. Oh well the problematic layer is the inside against palm.

On the picture you may notice some pulling on the left side and what cannot be seen is that the lace is routed very different from the original atleast from what I remeber about that and had a few pictures. But with pictures before and all I just couldn't get it done the way I would've liked.

The glove and break are working very well though so I'm just battling myself to leave it be.

Here's one from the palm on outside, the lacing is not as it should, lined with break to edge of the glove.

This also affect the perimeter lacing or the other way around as there is a huge shift with material and holes for the lace. It was so far off that it looked like there was two parts that weren't even meant to be together. And there they are.

Here's one of the cuff attached. I like the Subzero theme a lot, simple yet it "has something going on"...

One from the above. And fixed the strap, only thing giving the fix out is clear white thread that's not smudged yet.

Also added one ½" layer of soft LD foam in the cuff plate as the original HD foam had been flattened and there was some extra space inside  and looked a bit floppy. Now the covering jenpro is tighter and fit.

One last picture showing that there is a bit of a problem getting all that finger area material in. It might have something to do with the small slice of 4mm foam I added to finger area. But the whole finger plastic seems somewhat too big and it's the original one without any modifications. It's being pulled byt the lacing overnight to see if it's only jenpro had shrinken a bit and could be returned to original state. If not I'm just have to cut a few millimeters of the edge to make it fit. It'll most probably last longer on the edge if it's not overly tight there.

It actually is only ½" on the shin and another ½" on the thighrise that makes the 1" total difference there. The G5 should be 1" taller. But also the boot seems longer on G4 than G5.

Well Warrior pads don't seem to shrink over time 

Once again so into the doing of it that I forgot to take any pictures.

It is going back together, I got the plastic done and it formed out very nicely except for the cup shape at the wrist. It didn't like any of my attempts with heat gun so I just used a torch to melt the plastic a bit and then used flat pliers to mold the the soft plastic. Looks awful but should be fine at that spot.

Here's few pictures, one about the palm strap that didn't have enough space to tighten around my skinny hand and the velcro on the other end had torn some binding. Now it's 10mm farther and the other end is an inch shorter and doubled up to form a tab.

The only spot that needed jenpro on this one is the classic boot of the T. Binding hide quite a bit of the added part but that's not too bad. Should do the job.

Some threads were worn out and those were re-sewn for optical reasons.

There has been some issues with the rebuild process and those will be reported here tomorrow or so and with pictures.

Then a small finger stall operation to give more room for my long fingers. Remove a stiching and replace it further. My fingers just reach the edge of the jenpro and now there is enough room there. Brians seems to make short'ish finger areas as I have a Zero G blocker which is with short finger space too. Othervise there is ample room for the hand. 

Same from inside. Notice the green geltec slice there protecting index finger.

One picture of the new thumb plasting being made. It isn't 100% straight copy from original once again but extended a bit there and cut shorter there.

Continuing with the thumb area, again an interesting design flaw.

The thumb loop from the palm view point, and next one from outside.

So the thumb loop should come through that neoprene fabric to make a straight way out. 

Not that much to say or show, make one hole and cut that thumb loop a bit so it can be tightened enough when going through that neoprene which will limit the loop motion from now on. 

Some minor things that needed attention:

Wrist strap was broken some day, or the buckle to be exact. Fixed with nice and quick "tie a new buckle with strap" to the end of the original strap.

Now it's taken apart for washing so it's easy to also attach the buckle to the strap as it is meant to be.

Thumbnail has driven it's way through fabric, foam and to the plastic which has stood up  The round Brians logo on the outside is also gone and needs something to cover the hole.

Fabric isn't easily replaced as it's sewn around and covered with binding also. So take it apart as much as necessary and get the job done properly.

New fabric includes soft foam and I didn't replace that HD foam. I don't think it's needed there, hopefully I'm right about this one.

Fabric is from an old CCM or Bauer thigh pad and feels nice to finger as much as it's needed to. Rest will stay at place when the lacing is done. Some holes for the laces still are to be done when I find the right places, there were interesting design in the placement there.

Brians logo had to go, I was planning for a B-star logo to replace but it didn't work out so I adopted the ice shards theme somewhat and it is now like that.

Few holes are to be done here too. The two originals were hidden under the black spike and were way too close to pocket side and thumb, pulling the plastic and jenpros over each other at the pocket edge. That should be corrected with new hole placement later on.

Had some projects in between but nothing so fancy I'd write up something of them.

Now I thought it would be nice-to-know basis of a Brians Subzero glove.

There are some differences to Gnetik 5.0 glove but except for the skin it's very much the same structurally.

Subzero is a different angle and the pocket style is a bit different to Gnetik but that mostly comes from the break angle too.

Overall feeling of the glove is very Brians-ish which I like a lot. There are those finger loops for pinky and thumb that I need to have (Gnetik5.0 doesn't). Those loops kind of mold the glove to my hand.

Basic issues are there for a long time Pro glove, plastics have some damage, jenpro and some stichings are worn and laces are worn too. Not surpricingly the insides of the glove are in a good shape with usual filth and smell but nothing is worn to mention. Few outer velcros are to be changed which implies the glove has been dried somewhat constantly.

I'm personally biased towards the Vaughn gloves a lot, and also the Simmons one is very much what I like. Hopefully I can add this Subzero to my glove rotation too as I've liked Brians gloves earlier, I have Gnetik5.0 and DX2 on the racks.

This one has already been dismantled, washed and some reparations are done. Quite excited about it. Brians gloves are sort of rarity here in Finland. Those who have'em tend to keep'em and new gloves are quite expensive.

Is "trimmed down" meaning thinner also or just a slight less in dimensions?

I were in between for the shoulder floaters being streamlined in G5 but then again I had no big issues with GT floaters interfering with my mask so I believe that GT2 floaters are better compared to GT which leads to zero issues with them. And getting more thickness and coverage too while I don't think it'll give me a single more save with that extra area on floaters.

 So to get that 1% more coverage GT2 is the way to go? 

Seems like nothing is reasoning for the G5 instead.

I'm in a pursuit for a secondary/backup c/a to take place of my Brown when it needs some update or service.

I'm tempted to Warrior as I have good experience from GT pro and the topics items are further improved from that unit.

I'm towards GT2 of the two but what are the real differences there? Shoulder floaters are different and sternum plate. Color is different, black is cool.

Price is the same for G5 SR+ and GT2 sr today so do I have any reason to choose G5 over GT2? 

On 10/2/2020 at 9:41 AM, ser33 said:

Kiitos

Olkaa hyvä. (=You're welcome) 

Thought I'd add a few pictures of a floating T here too. Someone was wondering how they should do the boot with floating T. Well it's just how nice you want it to look. Make a web as simple as possible, it's actually only the one seam between the sides that needs something else than following those rules you had.

Or, you might go with "single lace" around the whole pocket.

Begin as usual from either side, extend the lace in the boot area with a simple knot or what is preferred:

(I wouldn't suggest to use one lace for the whole job, that would make some 5 meters of lace...)

Follow the rules around the whole T 

If you'd see both sides at once you might notice the lace going sort of backwards on the other side. Only the last column at the lip end of T you have to a little time and copy the other side backwards. And done!

Did this one a while ago and didn't take any pictures while doing it but hopefully you get the idea from these pictures.

Skatelace is the ideal choice for a floating T as it has some give in itself added to webbing so the pocket will look pretty normal. But when a puck will enter with force the pocket will take the energy to flex and the puck is sort of swallowed deep into the pocket.

For me I don't see floating any better over the other choices but it's not unuseable either. Maybe it would be said that any well made pocket style will work if the glove itself works for you.

Then we get to the second cord. It goes through with the same ruleset as the first one but with the addition of crossing over the first cord, a new rule to remember.

Continuing from the previous here is the second cord done. The crossing over is very simple once around and for simple setup I went with forward and around here too. It doesn't do much for the aesthetic in this simple webbing just there has to be some lockdown when the cords go across each other. Looks simple and nice, and definitely can see if the puck is in.

Another one from the inside of the pocket.

Just a short return to the CCM style that was on the glove before.

There is a bit more to do with this style as there are a lot more around the cord points. But the rules apply all the way.

There was a picture of a completed webbing in the Simmons refurbish topic in case someone wants to go and see. I think there was one about the Simmons original webbing too, it was quite complicated so I allowed myself to go with these easier systems.

Ok, now I took the time to take some pictures and take apart my Simmons glove mid lane.

From the beginning, atleast two different ways to start. There is also gloves that have sort of two starting holes.  With those I suggest to take good pictures before taking it apart and copy the beginning  atleast. Or punch a new mid hole and go on. Yes, mid lane is usually if not always started from the lip and towrds boot. 

Still there are possibilities, this Simmons was done with "single cord" meaning there was a knot in the beginning and only one cord run through the mid lane. That is a bit more effort as the cord is very long in the beginning. And should any mistakes happen, fixing them requires a lot of dismantling.

So heres a few tip to the job, in the beginning....

You can use loop style 

Or once through

Then we are in the rules again. Decide how you want it and work regarding. In the picture above there is "CCM style" midlane in progress. It didn't work too well with my cord which is similar to gear cord but without wax so it's sloppy. Gear cord would support the mid lane to stay open and rigid.

So to change it a bit I use the "Varusteverstas" -style which is more simple yet very good alternative and easy to do.

Main difference between the two is that there is only one loop around when coming out from the hole. And again remember that it also makes difference whether you go forward and around or backward and around.

I made the run with inside out on the holes and forward around when changing the side. You can also do this without changing the cords side every second hole! In this method it's easiest to run the cord straight through and then continue with the next. Cord can be quite tight as there isn't much of a need for the cord to be loose.