ArdeFIN

The palm was surpricingly good with no holes and even the lace had held well. Only the pocket edge had worn through from puck hitting it.

Some jenpro pieces and a bit of color matching and playing.

The main reason for three pieces is that I didn't have single large piece and also the seams between each piece help just that much with the break area flexing.

Quite a lot of seams fixed in the same run. Should be good for a long time now.

I took some bits of felt away as there was a lot of excess. Interesting that the designers don't cut these out in the design process as this is sort of waste.

The binding is worn too but I made it a bit cheap, cut it off, turn upsidedown and sewed back in. Can't tell from the looks and on the outside so it does the job.

As the glove was ready short time ago I took to a real world test yesterday. I did catch the pucks very well, mostly into pocket and only few my palm area. It's super soft and easy to use opens out and closes well as it should right after a full refurb.

But the biggest issue for me is the strapping on the back hand. I just could not make it work with my hand. Too tight my hand couldn't operate the glove and any combination of settings down from that my hand just moved in or out while catching pucks. Also the wrist strap is way too far out from the glove. It touches my C/A sleeve and if loosened completely doesn't hold my hand in the glove which is obvious though. Side note for this I removed the wrist strap from my Total One Bauer as it had the same issue and now that glove is a dream.

It might work a lot better if I moved the anchor point on the pinky side towards my wrist and removed the wrist strap. But with the glove in so good shape and not really looking to keep this one as it's not the best of the bunch for me I'll propably sell it to someone who likes it as it is.

Then back to the story.

Findings from the inside. Both plastics have cracked, finger plastic only on one spot and the thumb side is toasted.

Thumb side plastic doesn't go all the way up to the cuff, but only ends half way and inside the foam plate. The bent edge is a weak spot and has been cut all the way. This same thing happens in all the gloves made with this style. But that is basically unavoidable and the plastics will break no matter what.

Finger side was cut from the edge through some needle holes, weak spot here too and I don't really think that they need the felt to be sewn to the plastic here on the outer edge. None of the other manufacturers do.

The T was looking bad but that was more of the lace work that was done to fix the pocket. Sure the spines were broken at the attaching holes but that a common thing and pretty easy fix. Even without dismantling the whole glove if you ever get into a situation like this. I did have a picture of before, but it wasn't good enough quality to show you anything. Cracked ends were cut with different lengths on top and bottom to interlace the seams. Right side was worse and the top had to be cut one hole longer.

T had a skate(?) cut on the edge which had been repaired by some non-hockeygear and hadn't held up.

The inside piece was also damaged so much that I decided to replace it with a new material. Simple job to do and doesn't consume a lot of jenpro either as the piece is straight edged. I also bent the outer material in so that the existing needle holes were hidden inside and sewed everything back together.

So new project story incoming. This time I had a Gnetik IV which was pretty much done atleast from sellers viewpoint. Paid 30 euros which is not much but, well. Yeah.

Not much that I can describe in words, but you'll get the idea from these pictures. Dirty all over, lots of puck marks too but dirty.

From this side it looks used but not actually that bad...

T looks worn and the skatelaced perimeter goes for a short time but will wear quickly if rubbed against ice.

Finger protection off revels that the T is pretty bad and the skatelace pocket isn't the best art work there is. Working though so no pucks go through.

Did I mention about washing your hands to push this sight further to the future. It'll happen no matter what though but I'd say a good soaking wash and some toothbrush rubbing in the summer break could renew this kind of glove without having to dismantle the glove totally. The stench!  And saying this after the glove has dried and aired in the storage for 6 months...

Boas are worn but still working properly. 

I had the original weight of this glove some where in the database and it was 1045g.

Perimeter size is pleasantly close to the 114cm so there won't be a need to extend the T. And no chance to do it to enlargen the pocket either...

On 12/15/2022 at 3:04 AM, Chenner29 said:

At first glance I thought this was a 580 too

After looking again I'm having a really tough time sticking to that decision

The thumb mold (blue) and finger angle (yellow) look different to me

 

Thumb is short compared to fingerside and the T is folding in on the finger side like Brian's do, though only partly and not the whole lip.

The structural lacing is very similar on the thumb for each of the pictures.

The Capitals one has some very custom setup too.

On 12/15/2022 at 4:30 PM, TheGoalNet said:

all yours if you want to pay for it

Can you do a bit of research about the shipping (to Finland)? It could be reasonable but most likely it won't be.

Premier cuff but not as much angle there. Narrow thumb area and strong curve and concave to the break. T boot is awkwardly looking offset.

Fingerside is longer and in different angle than 590 closing finger tips to thumb. Corner next to T is not cut and T sort of bends over the plate and not on side of it. T is angled towards shooter and not as an extension to the glove.

Custom so it still can be mix and match of anything maybe.

Definitely 580 before 590 and not 600.

On 12/12/2022 at 4:51 PM, TheGoalNet said:

I have an actual Koho 580 for free, it's in rough shape. Fun project if you want to do a refurb!

I would want to do that refurb but the shipping....

On 12/8/2022 at 10:11 PM, indykrap said:

Hijacking a bit - can anyone identify this break? Thought I saw him close it on a save (live) and it looked like a 580, so I guess it's a bit of a test of my eyes haha.

Also, it's a sweet set and I want to see if I can find it one day! haha

580 yes.

While I've been secure behind my Rey Swiss CK mask I've been looking for a new one. Rey while fitting pretty well is made to fit with extra layer of padding so the size is too big for me. And partilly from that but also the super thick structure makes it a heavy weight mask. That added to a non fitting size which makes the balance go off a bit.

So I thought security and joy of playing is worth investing a bit:

A brand new NME VTX S18. So it's been on the shelves for a long time waiting for a use. -50% sale was good enough for me. I've used NME model so I knew it would fit really well. The color was a surprise as the online offer was only for white ones but I asked if they had the dark model available. They had so I chose that over the white. I actually thought it might be the carbon with varnish and not a painted dark grey.

But I do have to say that this color is a beauty to me. And the carbon pattern does a really nice finish.

Only concern is that if there will be any paint damage in the future I believe it's not really repairable without painting the whole mask.

Good old topic to add this short modification.

Begins from few months back when I finally found a RGT2Pro C/A for myself. I had been eyeballing for one for a long time but seemingly nobody isn't really wanting to part with theirs and I do understand that.

Looking the unit through I liked what I saw and got it pretty well setup too. Only spot I was really worried about was the top portion of the arms. Above bicep protection and next to or actually under the shoulder floater. There is only a pitiful flap of less than 10mm thickness, propably made of thin foam and aired plastic that is hard but not like basic plastic sheet is. Here's the plate and you can see the webbing material behind it.

Lifting my hand to the side there is an opening barely covered by that nearly nonexistent plate.

So it took about 10 ice times before I caught one there. Not bad but enough for me to take some action. Made me wonder as I use a VE8 padded shirt under the C/A and there is a padding sheet on that area. The shot was just a crisp snap shot from a close distance.

So I digged into my "spare" parts boxes and found a leftover from an old Reebok 6K hand. It had the side plates on the elbow that were pretty much spot on in size, shape, material and also looking good enough to be added to my almost new C/A. Here they are cut off, edges shaped and the binding replaced as good as possible. Not perfect but will do very well. About 10mm thickness, 5mm soft foam on bottom and 5mm harder foam on top. Almost the same as the original plate on the C/A.

I first thought that I would just sew there to the sleeves but then I realised that I had the hands on the wider setup on the C/A which reveals a nice line of holes where I could attach these addon pads with lace. So no modification done that couldn't be removed or changed if needed. Didn't get any decent picture of the attachment and I'll add one later. 

Here's how it came out. The cover thickness is doubled and all three flaps on shoulder do move regardless of each other which seems to help with mobility. I didn't notice any change on hand movements. This picture is a bit bulged as the arms are pulled forward so that the shoulders push ahead too.

For a comparison here's a picture from internet. This mod doesn't really popout a lot.

Testing this mod protectionvise will propably take a lot of time if I even notice anything anymore. Mobility will be tested anyways and hopefully no problems will occur.

36 minutes ago, ThatCarGuy said:

Would love to build my own tee for this glove but I unfortunately  don’t have the materials to do so. Either way the single tee is staying in that glove since it helps closure that much. Most likely going to sell the glove and blocker though since I’m not a fan of the shape of the glove

Did you check this out already, no need for a new T but just a few modifications that can be made with some sharp cutter like snap off knife or exacto knife. 

Very similar findings on the stiffness that I found on the Premier P2.9 earlier. The T and especially the lip and plastics inside are the major problem.

It is sort of positive thing that Vaughn is making the 1-piece and 2-piece gloves so much different in feel too. You basically have four different gloves to choose from. Ofcourse it's not an advantage if you don't have all of them available to try the feel side by side.

Aleast CCM/LeFebvre were doing the same thing, 2-piece EF3 was a whole different glove than EF3 1-piece.

I have a hold on a Brians Subzero 1-piece and 2-piece so I can make a comparison of those too.

Is it already 2023 when we see a full line of Konekts starting from the hobby level and up? 

I have no real problems with my S29 skates except for the flex on the ankle. That I could see an improvement for me having some ankle pain at times which possibly comes from the limited ankle flex. It's not terrible so I'm not looking to spend lots of money for an experiment.

I thought I'd get a chance to try different angles on Warrior and bought a -50% G3 liner in 90 degree. My G4 has 75 degree.

But as you can see from the crappy gif animation, they are the same except for minor details on stiching etc. Strapping is in a different angle too but I don't think that makes any significant difference to the feel.

I am disappointed. The G3 liners are sold out but I might still find some G4 in 60 degree or 90 degree to make a comparison between these to see what is going on...

Could've made some comparison at local shop but I was more interested in the G6 catcher. The pocket appeared optically massive. Like MASSIVE. Which I consider an achievement since the G4 which I have for comparison isn't really small and has all of the 114cm circumference in use. On G4 there really isn't a lot of surface that they could've replaced with pocket. And Warrior still managed to do it. I don't know if it is a real benefit to have more pocket area but atleast it should help catching the pucks inside the pocket and give a few popouts less.

Off the shelf all of the samples they had were pretty easy to close but opening wide was not possible. But knowing that Warrior has been easy to break in it should be manageale.

1 hour ago, insertnamehere said:

I would imagine if the plate would encompass another knee wing well enough but not quite right, you could possibly heat it up and mold it a bit to your own liking.

Yes you could. And that is where I see Warrior has used some time. The plate has that slope towards the face of the pad which I would say is really difficult to heat mold back to flat which is what most other brands pads are.

Second shaped thing are the long radius curves on the other end of the plates. I don't think any other brand has anything even close.

This put together, if you are able to do that modifying, you make your own a lot easier. And they will be better than modifying those Warrior ones.

1 hour ago, TheGoalNet said:

IMO, I find 600 the least consistent brand to brand. I would make make sure you try on CCM, Bauer, True, and Vaughn if you want that glove. You might like an SLR, but hate a True sort of thing.

I love the Bauer Supreme break. I have tried and struggle to use a CCM600 or a Vaughn SLR

I can confirm this. For me Vapor is a no go, Supreme (Total one and US for me) is delighful. CCM Premier with 590 is good and the 600 Eflex is terrbile. Vaughn VE8 is one of my favourites, SLR I'm yet to test but some recall from SLR predecessor is I didn't get into it at all.

Which only tells that when we try to explain the assortment with too limited choises it's not working. For CCM and their famous numbers it works as they make only gloves that resemble the figures. But so many things change in glove design that when some other manufacturers gloves are taken those famous numbers cannot be used to describe as it just isn't the same in any measure.

46 minutes ago, TheGoalNet said:

I ordered a pair. I have been messing with PPF and will be curious to compare these. Anyone get these to fit on a Bauer? Worried it will not work with the knee block style

Looking at how detailed the shapes are and sort of made to fit G6 I doubt there is a huge chance of making the Warrior plates to fit anything else in easy way. 

From marketing viewpoint it is obvious that the plates won't fit other pads and Warrior has used some time to make sure the plates are shaped so that it is somewhat difficult to make them fit. This slideplate thing is something others don't offer. Yet.

@insertnamehere Here's the most clear and explaining picture of what I've made. A lot more complicated solution than @jerd31 with the edges bent in instead of straight sheet.

This plate is for Vaughn LT88 pads (and similar) which you can tell from the slight curve on one edge. The knee wing on those pads is attached to the pad through curved joint area.

Material is 2mm thick PE which I have in storage for all gear purposes anyway. It's thick enough to hold the shape properly and still very easy and quick to mold with heat gun. Even 1mm would work but I'm not really confident to try it and then again I don't really have a reason as the 2mm is doing fine. I've made one set from 3mm thick sheet but that was a nightmare to mold compared to 2mm thick. 

Polycarbonate (PC) is the next thing I'll try out as I have some available at work to make sample pieces. This is more of test between materials as in all videos the Warrior plates are sliding like butter on a hot pan and my PE made plates slide easy but not really effortless.

Here's a picture of my G5 implementation. A more complicated desing than Warriors and covering the whole knee wing and not just the knee stack.

This is after a few ice times when I sent the pads to Kova Repairs for the core change. While the plates don't really have space to move around they still have the knee wing drawn into them.

I like to use the lace as an attachment, it's easy to drill four holes on proper spots and then route the lace through the knee stack. Doesn't have to be tight but just enough that the plate stays on the right place.

Why I like the edges turned in atleast a few mm? It makes the plate just that much more rigid while it doesn't have much of an effect except holding the plate better on place. And it propably prevents the plate edges from catching any roughness on the ice. I really don't know if that would ever be an issue though.

Some videos of my butterfly slides where I have PE plates on (GT pads but similar knee wing cover). Nothing to compare those to though but you get the idea of slide. Looking at these now makes me wonder even more that the PC might be sliding a lot more than PE.

Can't help but thinking I had a bisnes idea worth of a few bucks on my hands when I first made my PE sliders about three years ago. Should've just invited it a bit more to make it as universal as possible and sell them to every second goalie out there.

But then again remembering that whenever I've shown my plates and telling how nice it is to slide around effortlessly nobody wasn't interested. Before now that Warrior has these out.

Yet following these conversations in many places there's a lot of people who don't believe in the idea at all and try to take it down with "you'll slide over" or "how can you stop" or "you don't need to slide that much" or the classic "don't skip the leg day and you don't need these"...

The basic thing why anything innovative or new is so hard to bring into the business is that many of us are so sceptical as long as nobody (good enough) tries and proofs it to be good. Konekt is similar example, remember the first comments? And still there are comments like why are so many people selling them after a few ice times, there has to be something wrong with them.

Get them plates to try them out at least, I think they are kind of game changers at least from jenpro. I can't compare to Bauer as haven't tried them, Vaughn has good slide on their Quick slide material (same as Brians' Primo) but I would still wrap the knee block with plastic sheet on them too because of the stabile sliding from beginning to end that @CJ Boiss mentioned. Actually I've found the slide to be best when you shuffle your crease in the beginning to have a little snow to start from. Snow on crease is a constant thing after that and no surprises on the slide.

Reading all this hype about these make me wanna try the polycarbonate plastic to see if there is significant difference against my PE plastic ones.

The polycarbonate sounds like it would be sliding even more but then again I do know the difference between jenpro and PE which is already huge.

Would give one more option to this world of better slide if the plastics had different characteristics on slide.

Luckily I have some PC available at work so it's only the molding I have to do. And maybe need some practise before as there might be a bit different behavior between PE and PC.

18 hours ago, CamWardFan said:

, and have to scramble back on very slippery knees. 

You can't do that as there is not enough friction, you have to learn to use your steels to push. Also if you have ankle mobility, you can steer your slide somewhat with your toes even without touching the ice with steel.

Definitely needs some practise, I've been learning this sliding for few years now and develop every time I'm on ice.

2 hours ago, coopaloop1234 said:

Thanks for the pictures. Always neat. 

Though what caught my attention is the side board finger protection. 

G4 had the curved accented protection like the GT and GT2. This looks like it carried over from a G3. 

 

Yes, I removed the bumb as I hate how it forces my paddle to turn against my pads or the other choice is to hold the blocker in odd angle.

On 10/10/2022 at 5:39 PM, ser33 said:

judging by what I see, Hypercomp is the same polypropylene as CURV. just a fancy commercial name. great work as always!

Actually no, Curv from what I've seen is some sort of plastic infused fibermat, but best of them all so far. It has good flexibility but it still hold up the structural rigidity atleast in the Vapor 2X blocker that I quickly examined a while ago.

Hypercomp is more like a normal fiber sheet with resin. In these gloves it is used as a plain sheet and in cathcer it is attached to the plastic in some specific process. That seems to hold very well but the problem is that the plastic that the Hypercomp is added to isn't up to the task. Or maybe it is the Hypercomp that didn't hold.

I thought I had some more pictures of it but can't find them or I just didn't take them.

One picture from pre-assembly to see that everything fits in and are about in the right shape. There is a bit of an issue with the new finger plastic and the fixed edge. The plastic is pushing towards the break line and I might have to add a lace line to where my fingers end inside to hold the plastic in place.

Then a few pictures of the ready gloves together. I'll take them to test round on sunday.

I'm not really impressed with the pocket yet as I used the original laces that are the annoying stiff type that has been used by CCM earlier. Too bad that Warrior is possibly using it too.

I'll propably redo the pocket later with skate lace or if I can source some black lace then I'll use that. I made the pocket with one loop less than the original to make it a bit more loose or easier to see through. Not that I would ever look through the pocket but. Well yeah. 

The other thing is the glove angle, I now have the 75 degree palm and it feels just a little off to a way that I think a 90 degree would work better. I have one 90 degree palm for Warrior available locally but not sure of the model so I might have to check it out if the 75 isn't my thingy. And if the Warrior catcher is what I like at all.