Dave Hitchborne replies: Making the Hockey Sticks
The Handle ā The handles of the hockey stick were made of Manila cane, which arrived in its rough state, bent, and about 3m long. The canes were sawn on an unguarded circular saw to almost the correct length, which then had to be straightened by brute force. Each length was held in a Coopers vice and a steel tube about 60cm long with an inside diameter of about 60mm was placed over the end to bend the cane to shape. Occasionally it would snap in two and send you flying backwards.
Sometimes the cane was too thin and so two lengths had to be handāplaned on one side and then glued together and tied with hemp. After the glue had set, short lengths of cane were handāplaned to later be glued to the handle end of the longer canes, to thicken it for the grip. Before that could take place the ends of the cane had to be tapered to accept the short pieces. The short pieces sometimes broke away during turning on the lathe even though they were formed first with a Cooperās knife to alleviate this.
Turning in the lathe was hazardous for all sorts of reasons. Complete lack of dust extraction and no protection for the eyes. The chuck wasnāt āliveā and so over tightening between the centres could cause the ends to smoke from burning and almost catch fire. You had to breathe this in as well. The āendsā mentioned earlier, occasionally flew off and struck you a sharp blow and some times the cane would split apart at the join and fly off the lathe at great speed ā it was quite dangerous work. Iāve seen pieces hit the wall beyond the lathe, run up it and then along the ceiling and drop behind me. After turning, the cane was also sanded in the lathe ā more dust. The end to be glued to the head was then cut to a Vāshape.
The Head ā The heads were either Mulberry or Ash, which had been bent into shape after being āsteamedā. The Ash heads arrived preāshaped, but roughly formed and without the Vācut to insert the handle. The Mulberry heads were almost fully formed, but also without the Vācut. NOTE ā The Mulberry heads did not have the hook shape of todayās heads. The cutāout was marked on the head and the shape was cut out on a band saw. Once the handles had been Vācut, an animal glue was applied and the two ends hammered together and then bound with hemp and tied. Once tied, wedges were driven between string and handle (the inserts cut out of the head of the head, became wedges) and hammered home. This tightened the grip of the head to the handle. The glued components were then left for a day to dry. Later removal of the string cause cuts to the hand. The squeezed out glue adhered to the string and became like shards of glass. The string was used over and over again, until it was unworkable.
The Hockey Stick ā The head and handle were shaped together using a Cooperās knife, a rasp and a smoothing plane, a spoke shave and a scraper. The ash heads had to have the ends rounded with a rasp and then tapered and then spokeāshaved to shape. The rasped end of the head was smoothed on a large sanding disc, which was attached to the same shaft as the unguarded circular saw.
Three cuts were sawn into the handle ends for the āspringingā. The cuts were 50ā60mm long and strips of rubber were glued and inserted into the cuts, supposedly take the shock out of the handle from contact with the head and puck. Next day, the rubber inserts were trimmed back to the handle and then further sanding was done on a belt sander. The dust from the machine was extreme to say the least. A hood attached to a dust extractor inadequately coped at one end of the rollers. The final sanding by hand using glass paper was done in a Cooperās vice, but only after a cabinet scraper was used to remove the deep lines caused by the belt sander. Handāsanding the Hockey sticks with glass paper made your hands bleed. It was very painful in wintertime.
After sanding was completed, a binding of tape was applied from just above the splice at head and handle, to the very end of the handle. The tape was handāpainted with a white cellulose paint to just below where the grip would later be applied. In a small spray booth, which was ventilated only by a small extractor fan, a spraying of clear cellulose was applied to the whole head and the previously part. Once dried, transfers were added and thin strips of coloured tape for decoration. Then more coats of clear cellulose applied. When the paint had dried a length of rubber tubing was rolled onto the handle as a grip. Once positioned, the rubber grip was rolled back, a thin coating of animal glue was painted onto the tape, and then the grip was rolled back again to cover the handle.
I donāt remember how many handles I could turn on the lathe a day, but I could and did shape 48 Hockey sticks.
written 24th Aug 2008 | abusive?
