ArdeFIN

Just to test you all I didn't write the usual "that was it and then to the next glove or project". Well actually it wasn't done yet but I only found that out after attaching the backhand protection and took the "complete" pictures and all. Here's one: And another. Nobody notices anything fancy and neither did I. So after shooting the pictures I took my newest collective and tried it on. Felt good before I closed the glove. Then it gave me this and felt really stiff compared to previous tests before completing. After a bit of tinkering it was all good for closure. So what the hell was going on? First noticing this: So backhand protection is somehow wrong. Then I opened all the straps and it worked again. All straps are far from where they should be at. And then glove closed looks like this.

None to closure if it is cut properly at the break lines. About catching is bit more difficult to say, but more protective should be the result and you should still feel the puck so that you know where it hit. If not into the pocket...

All of the fixing and inventing done it was finally time for some building. This naturally included some new holes for the T ends and this and that but everything went pretty smoothly anyways. This is the first setup to see if something has gone really wrong. Nothing really problematic was found and everything seemed to work as planned... A bit of frustration was when I got this far and found out that the T is still folding a bit in. No matter how I tried to fix it with simple tricks. I also made a lot of comparing to my other gloves where there is no problem with that. And could not find anything that could be done to fix the issue. That said it really is only a few millimeters of changes to certain places and it would work a lot better but when you don't know where to cut or make a new hole it is difficult. It's not really big problem as you can see the issue isn't noticeable with pictured opening, but then again the glove opens now to a full pancake and then T folds and could cause some pucks slipping to the outside of the pocket. But yeah you should catch the puck clearly inside the pocket and not with the outer edge... A little odd feeling with glove now is that my fingers are pointing weidly inside the glove. This is evident when putting hand into the glove as it takes a moment to find the right spot and then there is no problem. But this wasn't there before the modifications and nothing was done that should have any effect here. Then the pocket was just the same old. Once again I enjouyed making the Brians style webbing. It just is so simple and straightforward. And quick to do.

The felt was the next as I had the other layers pretty well aligned and hopefully working. Cannot say anything about that yet from what I've learned so far it should. So inserting the felt between and align as many holes with outlines aligned I marked the holes that didn't match and punched new ones with 5mm punch. For 3mm lace this gives a nice space for error and has basically no negative effect for protection. The heel area was messed up. Holes to be used are circled. Black dots were from first mockups and appeared to be far out from actual fit. Notice also there is a lot of sewing and holes from sewing that was before. I changed the angle of the closure to match that of how the glove had actually closed in previous use. Brians has and interesting approach of trying to make the glove close at the line where there are openings cut through. That is at about where I had my knuckles but trying to close the glove with just at that line didn't feel good at all. Actually really weird and difficult. Really artificial and not at all what my hand would do naturally. That could just be me though as I was able to use that with slow motion and careful movements. Just like we do when we catch pucks flying 60+mph. Then it was T time. The T had that Brians legendary fold-in opening which I tried to remedy with cutting the excess top edge from the lip. AS the pocket lace is done through there too I had to move the holes on all support layers inside too. Tocise the really sharp corners on the plastics that were already cutting through the top jenpro. Shaved them off a bit too. In the picture below nothing is cut except the T is "fixed". Then some cutting done. The thumb side was cut shorter some 10mm more and the angle on the thumb side end was cut a lot as the closure of the glove changed a bit due to other mods and the T then folded as in 580 glove but to the other direction which wasn't really nice. But that was due to the reinforcement being too long and that pushed the break point of the T off. First finger side. Then thumb side. When the pocket opening and the T looks weird it can be because the materials have bent to some odd shape from tapping the glove open against blocker or something else.

That changes the game a bit, but it still has been a glove for a long time unless it was custom built for Bunnyman not that long ago. But it is certain that the protection has gone up anyways. Is the Reactor 3 SR or Pro level glove? Hard to google info as "reactor" give a lot of info for newer series and limiting to reactor 3 or 5 or 6 only gives a few hits. Hate the time before internet for everything and online catalogs.

Hell I thought I couldn't find a picture of a Reactor 3 glove but there was! Thing is that your Reactor 3 has been a glove for a long time and the padding aswell as other materials have been set and compressed and all. So yes, any new glove will outperform your Reactor 3... But that said, many of the SR level gloves can still be a disappointment. If you aim for the Pro level glove it'll propably be good.

So get rid of the extra material and all of the holes, then make a new set of holes matching the inner layer. Inner layer had some ripping on the perimeter lace holes which were fixed by moving the double layer jenpro a bit towards the edge and new holes made. T had already pulled the lace halfway through the holes so double layer reinforcement was added there. This is practical here as that area isn't involved to the golve break so adding two layers of jenpro don't change the closure at all. Some other holes are a bit pulled too but I hope that with the new fitting of the layers the holes are a lot closer to each other and will fare a lot better without fixing them now.

I just hate everything that is supposed to be pretty straightforward then turns into a full scale operation with all kinds of difficulties that should've not been there. There is a lot of excess material which I can't figure any reason to be. Just useless and when I tried to lace the perimeter to see how things are it came out awful. Would've been better with all the padding and plastics in but not good. Thumb side is good, there is everything needed and that's all. Fingerside then... Then from heel side looking at the same area. Needles are on the holes that should be laced together to get the idea. Then I have the needle through holes that should be (and were from factory) laced together. The shape of the layers are a few holes offset? After some settling and measuring and trying to fit the holes and shapes and all. This is the extra material. And one hole too many on the outer layer. Brian's gloves are said to feel good and work very well. With all this. How good they would be if everything was done; may I say properly?

The sleeves can be updated without sacrificing any mobility. But it needs some sewing and some padding to add there.

Local shop here in Finland told me it's probably going to be delayed over to the august-september timeline...

Definitely would have a good use for one Bunnymans flumpy projects. But without those it's easiest to get the best working parts and try to fit them together. Not the cheapest way to go though.

Going for the Hyperlite chest part? What's wrong with Warrior? On Warrior you could swap the floaters easily as they are velcroed almost completely? I don't have any experience with Hyperlite nor X3 but when I had Warriors GT Pro I never had any tramas with the chest part being not protective. The arms were bad exactly on the mentioned elbows.

So did you end up getting something completely different? Or back into Axis? How did you like the (short) transition from Axis to EF? Should be a bit different feel in them.

In the picture I'd say the catcher is pretty much on the point covering most of that side and high enough. Gravity helps to bring it down when the shot is going low on that side. The blocker isn't really where you would want it to be. It's tied to the body and not in a position to move anywhere. I'd like it to be more forward and more in angle against the shot. Not 90 degree angle but maybe 75 degree and covering the corner of the beige sticks. And while there once again getting the gain from the gravity to move down if needed. I wouldn't mind the stick blade in this situation at all as you have your pads blocking the ice and directing the puck to corners. Personally I've had most problems with my blocker being out of place and mostly as in the picture leaning to my body or pad and from there I've never been able to move it out to make a save. And when I've been able to hold my blocker out in position to cover the side and ready to move more freely I've made easy saves with puck deflected nice and easy towards corner. It's kind of annoying how easy it is when it's done right and how difficult when there is a small flaw included. One could compare this to player scoring or not. You just have to be in the right spot and have your blade ready for the puck and it's easy to score while another day it won't work no matter how you try.

Actually I only commented on your custom set plans and didn't think of those mentioned V7 pads that much. SLR3 pads are with cornerless knee blocks btw...

One picture of the marinated vinegar soup. After this bath I rinsed everything for three different pure water sets until the water stayed pretty clear. Then I added a "whitening" dirt remover cloth detergent (Oxy clean might be close to that) and let it soak for few hours. After that I used some classic hand wash skills. Then again three times of rinse with water until clear. At this point the inner fabrics were still brownish so I just thought I'm not in a hurry with this one and added a sport detergent and let it soak for over night. Then again the hand wash with and old tooth brush to clean the small disclosures and all and then excessive rinse for so long that the water stays clear. Takes a lot of time and effort but now the glove is clean and fresh again and you can feel it when the glove is ready. After all the washing and drying process I started to look the parts through. First notification is that the felt on this glove is super thin, soft and airy. I would say it's 4mm thick but it's a bit of a quess since it really is soft. The structural lacing has been somewhat off from where it should've been and that is why there are a lot of wrinkles here. Part of the reasons the glove wasn't closing really well. Closed but it felt like it wasn't willing to. The felt layer was a lot out of place too what was already visible on the dismantling picture. Brians has made some cuts to the break line they designed the glove to operate at. Atleast for my hand it isn't there at all and from wrinkles on all layers it seems that none(?) of the previous owners were able to use the glove on that way. The liner is on the picture to show a straight line and the glove has been closing on the seam next to liner which propably has led into a bit stiffer operation too as the glove was supposed to bend only a little on that line. Then I measured the holes comparing the felt and palm jenpro. There were slight offset but not much and a lot less than I expected which was good. Black dots simulate the holes on jenpro. One hole is somehow not there at all right at the heel area. Then I settled the felt over and marked one of the holes with a paracord needle to hold things on place. The thumb area goes quite far off the edge but that is a normal thing to happen thumb is actually located at over the line of holes. In this design there is no holes on the jenpro so problems here! But eh, how can I check that the holes would match each other as there is a mismatch on the amount of them at the heel area? And then I tried to figure out how they should be aligned to get even close. Or to get some idea where I need to punch a few new holes. Geez! These two holes should match the first two holes on the felt layer. One is close but to the other hole. Can't figure how these holes should align. Some new holes are needed and luckily I'll only need them on the felt layer so it won't be visible if I have to make a few and then move them for some reason. This picture visualises the difference on the break lining between felt and the inner lining. T spine is attached to the hole on the left ("TS") Didn't take any pictures but I also tried to fit the top layer over the felt and nothing but more problems. Not that bad though as there are no holes on the jenpro layer so I can punch new holes to the felt. Only just have to figure how all of the layers should fit together to match everything properly... Really sucks how much there are problems in a simple glove like this. And all this is from design as all of the holes in every layer are made with an automated cutter. No wonder these offshore gloves are not so good. But why is it worth to produce this s***? Or not to make these properly with parts fitting together easily.

Look for pads that have the knee blocks top corner cut out. One reason I jumped for G5 is that. And it definitely helps that much. This is kind of weird evolution as on Warrior GT pads the knee block is smaller and I have no problem hitting it. Now the G5 block is bigger, corner cut and I still have no issues hitting it. Only asking for what is the purpose of the bigger block anyways?

From what I see there is a lot of excess lace only that could be tightened out and nothing is actually broken. If that lace is the structural lace of the pad then it might be difficult to pull out all of the slack and get it sealed out with a knot. But still shouldn't be a major problem anyway and more of a manufacturing/quality issue that should be sorted out by CCM QC. If it was designed by me I'd definitely have a separate lace for the knee block attachment to sort this kind of issue and be able to open up or tighten things when needed.

Basically on a catch glove you should be able to make consistent and identical parts from which the glove is then built in a very strict order and style even to a level where you have certain ready cut laces etc. So you should produce almost 100% identical gloves no matter where you make them or by who. But if the design is just that much off or not all of the parts are ready made then that leaves the chance for differencies. We had a Goalie Day at local shop where all of the major brands were displayed and some reps also were there. I already regret that I missed the CCM and Warrior booths as I was in a bit of a hurry. But I visited True for pure interest in their products. They had three gloves (580-590-600 surprise!) and whole sets for those. I think 12.2 and 20.2 lines. All of the gloves had soft palm and pretty easy closure regardless of Game Ready or Pro palm. But the main issue for me with those gloves were that I was only able to open them for like 10cm and the rest of the opening had to be done by pushing the T in. And this all is because of T being so stiff. Sure the stiff T will aid the closure too before the plastics bend so much that the closure looks and is somewhat off. This same thing I found out when I opened the almost new P2.9 glove to see what the heck is going on there. The palm is super soft but still the glove feels stiff as a thick rubber sheet. Just the same feeling was with Bauers Mach gloves. The True rep told me that they ship materials from Lefebvre(?) to offshore factory to assure the material quality. And said in the same phrase that it still doesn't provide the quality that is made in LeFebvre factory. This refers to the first lines I wrote above for the production quality. All in all, if I remember right about the feeling of new CCM gloves from few years ago they have improved a lot. The Eflex3 gloves were stiff from 3.5 to Pro and the overall feeling was stiff back then.

Started this glove as it seemed to be only a dismantle - see through - back together project with nothing stellar to happen and do. Just a minor rip on the jenpros that are an easy fix when the glove is dismantled into pieces. Then the findings from the inside are some mis-matching on the break Interesting build with half of the lacing hidden inside. Yes it keeps the palm area nice and clean but also lets the jenpro to greate a sort bubble underneath. Ecopro foam I assume covering everything from thumb to wrist area. That slide in the middle is awkward and just doesn't fit in there. But isn't anything that couldn't be made better. This was interesting structure as usually the plastic is up to the cuff or cut off at the cuff curve. Propably a build I'm not going to do in the same way as the plastic is really difficult to mold into shapes used here. Also the bent edges that make the plastic stiffer have been broken as they usually do. Similar effects on Bauer and CCM gloves atleast. So this simple open and learn experiment just got into normal scale of repairs. The filth gathered inside the glove is once again disgusting. The original color of the fabric is revealed from under the lacing. Even the nylon lace is in the same brown color and infused with the smell. So basic measures of cleaning the gear. First of is the 24 hour bath in cold tap water and some vinegar. About 2% mix if you wan't to know. Some mixing in between for a few times and then a good hand wash with some sport detergent.

Good point there. And that misread shot is very evident as the shooter didn't really do well with his shot, except making a goal.

@RedX I didn't point that "lace the strap" writing to you but all readers whatsoever. I quoted you only for that picture of not very naturally sitting pads.

Is the above picture of your pads? They just don't look like really fitting well. Toe straps are being stretched a lot and into a upwards direction? I'm not saying that it is wrong or cannot work but it looks like the setup is stressed in a wrong way or stressed in a situation where there should be no stress on pads. Sure the picture is cut so we can't see what is happening above. About the laces in the pad. There is very minimal stretch in that lace and the extra lace is from the professor strap tightening the pads lacing through the whole pad. On Bauer and I think some other brands nowadays are using hidden lacing that leaves the face of the pads laceless. That requires hidden loops that attach to the face material some way and I would avoid making any extra stress to that structure just in case. From all that said I would suggest using any other method than the structural lace of the pad to attach the professor strap.

You could argue that shot not being really cheap, while it was something that should've been taken out and not let in. The shot was from close distance so only chance really for goalie is to read the blade and react (and hope). The shot was a bit awkward from shooters position and stance which might've had some influence on reading the shot. And the shot itself hits the "perfect" spot right inside the skate and pad on the catcher side where it is difficult for goalie to move stick or blade to cover. And again there is no time to do that kind move if it doesn't come from reacting to that shot. That said it was a crucial goal that a winning goalie would've not given and had kept his team a chance to win the game. The defence before should've not given the chance for that goal either but was maybe a bit exhausted and didn't even touch the puck before got tackled out.

I don't think he let in any cheap goals. Maybe a few of them would've been caught with better luck but there were also some good saves. And still Edmonton isn't falling only for their goaltending but they have to improve their defence to be a winning team. They have the capability of scoring thats for sure.