Lacrosse Stick

[timmer]

Hi,

 

My nephews play lacrosse and its becoming a cool thing to go retro and use a wooden shaft.

This seems like a super simple project, figure out the dimensions, get some wood, cut the shape,

throw on a finish and ship it ;-)

 

Naturally, I started with an afternoon of googling and learned more than I ever wanted to know about lacrosse sticks.

 

1. Lacrosse sticks are primarily made of Hickory. A bit more googling and now I know there are

    Two classes of Hickory,  "True Hickory" and "Pecan Hickory".  Shagbark is a True Hickory and

    Bitternut is a Pecan Hickory - Lacrosse sticks are made with True Hickory, apparently True Hickory

    is both harder and more elastic and has good steam bending qualities.

 

   Q1: Where do you find True Hickory in 6/4?  I live in SF Bay California, but also have occasion to

          visit Rochester NY.

 

   Turns out lots of places have Pecan Hickory, but not many have True Hickory. If they do its usually

   4/4 rough. Sticks are approx. 1 1/8 x 1" - elongated octagon  x approx.32" long. Pecan Hickory would

    probably work but hey I like to use the correct wood if I can.

 

2. Creating a full on Wooden Lacrosse stick is an art form and if you want to learn/see some video

     google  "Alf jacques - Traditional LAX" , Alf is known as a Stick Maker, traditional Iroguois.

     There are some good videos of him making sticks from logs to steam bending to carving and

     weaving the baskets.

 

    I am not going that route, but its always great to learn a little more about the art and see what

    folks were making before power tools.

 

3. I assume the grain direction is important, probably like a baseball bat. I found a place on the web

    that sells wooden sticks and got a few pics including cross-sections, which I have attached. Looks like

    the do attempt to make the edge grain line up with the direction of the ball.

 

    This site laminates sticks, some use purple heart so I would like to attempt that.

 

    Q2. What type of glue should I use for laminating a lacrosse stick? 
           Conditions: a) lots of impact with other sticks, metal and wooden

                              used outdoors, in the rain , snow ...

                              c) I am guessing they bend or flex a bit.

 

   Q3: What type of finish should I use, given the above conditions?

 

thanks in advance for your input,

Tim

 

 

 

[Byrdie]

I was going to mention laminate, both for strength and that it would bring your stick up to the thickness you want if you had to use that 4/4 material.  I haven't looked at the process of making a stick that you posted so what type of adhesive you use is a guess on my part but I'd believe part of it would depend on if you steam bend and it that happens before or after you laminate.  If you steam bend after the laminating has taken place you'll want and adhesive that is heat resistant.  I'm guessing you wouldn't be bending the part that had been laminated.

 

I'm not a big fan of the posters that guess at the answers so I'll stop here, but I would recommend laminating at the very least for the strength.

[timmer]

Byrdie,

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

I should clarify, i am definitely not going to attempt the bending process.

I just put it out there because to me its interesting to see an artisan such as Alf Jacques in action.

 

I am going to make a straight sick, about 3' long with an oblong-octaganal cross-section.

 

If I can get 6/4 stock I can make a couple of sticks without laminating.

This would be functional for my nephews but not too challenging for me.

 

To make things more interesting, I will probably make 6 or so sticks in all.

(2) solid hickory

(2) laminated hickory

(2) laminated hickory with purble heart. I may add some inlay to personalize their sticks

 

Given Conditions: Outdoor use, Rain/Snow/Sun, Temp 30F-90F, Sick to Stick Collisions

 

Q1: Is there a  recommended glue? (i'm concered with delamination)

Q2: Is there a recommended finish?

 

I tried a drag/drop attachment of the .jpg photos but it was rejected ...

 

 

Thanks,

Tim

[Don Z.]

So, you're laminating the shaft, but not steam bending the "hook"?

 

Epoxy would work, as would resorcinol.  Titebond might work, but I'm a big believer that anything worth doing is worth overdoing.

 

But people make sail boat masts with epoxy.  It will work.

[Byrdie]

I still would recommend laminating because of the strength it adds.  I'm not as familiar with lacrosse as I would like to be but from what I've seen there is a lot of stick to stick contact, not to mention stick to body, stick to post and other stick to inanimate object ...

[4-Square]

When I played, you had stick-inspections. There were very strict. The sticks has a set of min/max parameters. I understand some rules were changed around stick-inspections, stick-challenges, etc... You also had to use a stick from a known manufacturer... Would check with nephews... Would hate to see all that work, and then couldn't use them in a game...