[Tutorial] Pinching sticks, the easy way

[RockStar]

Welcome to RockStar's Chef School. Today we will be baking a stick.

Roasted a Mission last night. Sadly, no pictures of the process, but it's so damned simple a monkey could be trained to do it. I've got pictures of the results.

Disclaimer: The text below describes something I did. I am not telling you this is the best way, or even a good way. I got away with nothing bad happening, you may not. I refuse to take responsibility for bad things such as fire, or burning your skin, that may result from you using a similar procedure.

-Tie head to desired shape

-Turn biggest burner on your stovetop to high

-After burner is red hot, put on a pair of oven mitts, grab the shaft and hold the head about 1 foot over the burner for 10 to 20 minutes. You don't need to remove the pocket to pinch this way, but since you're likely going to have to fix it anyway, you might want to. Removing the pocket gives you more tying options anyway for shaping the head, so your call. If you use a wood shaft to roast your head, you might not need oven mitts. Just remember, if you burn yourself, THERE'S NO CRYING IN LACROSSE!

(if you have a gas stove with open flame think this through CAREFULLY! I doubt the plastic will flash and catch fire, but it might.....that's YOUR problem, so be careful!)

-Turn the head slowly for the whole time it is over the heat. Make sure all parts get approximately equal heat intensity and duration.

-If you're pinching the top really aggressively (like I did), The scoop's going to change shape drastically. You have to be careful not to make it "Point" or "Taco" too much or else you'll have a hard time with loose balls. To combat this, you can periodically take the head off the heat, push it into desired shape with your hand (WHILE YOU'RE WEARING AN OVEN MITT, DUMMY!), and hold for about 30 seconds before putting back over the heat. You can also press it against the floor rather than using your hand.

-After 10 or 20 minutes, remove from heat and let the head cool to room temperature. Remove the string, and go to work on the pocket if needed. That's someone else's tutorial.

Simple, eh? Pics of the finished product are coming soon.

Happy Baking, all.

[RockStar]

Front view. Stick is actualy being held vertical, but I was too lazy to rotate the picture. Scoop is still right around my target of 5" across at widest point. Hopefully it ends up being a good box F/O stick. It's a mid pocket right now, but falls fairly low when held vertical.
http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mcelliott2/detail?.dir=21ab&.dnm=9abere2.jpg&.src=ph

Side view. I haven't finished screwing with the pocket that came with it (Brandon303 sold me this - he likes low pockets, I like mid high), but for now, I have a slightly whippy mid pocket, just over one ball deep.
http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mcelliott2/detail?.dir=21ab&.dnm=90f8re2.jpg&.src=ph

Inverted side view. Head traps a bit at the throat, but is clean elsewhere. It failed the box "vertical roll test" (pocket at throat grabbed ball before it could hit the ballstop), but it's close enough to box-legal that no one's going to call me in the games I play!
http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mcelliott2/detail?.dir=21ab&.dnm=a081re2.jpg&.src=ph

Looking downward at scoop. I think I did a decent job of controlling "point" and "taco". We'll see how it works. It's ok on my carpeted floor and my hardwood floor, so probably a decent box scoop. It's not too outrageous, so it might even work on grass. I made sure to taco the scoop a little to help me grab the ball with the backlip when I pull on draws.
http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mcelliott2/detail?.dir=21ab&.dnm=a345re2.jpg&.src=ph

The clamp
http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mcelliott2/detail?.dir=21ab&.dnm=89c0re2.jpg&.src=ph

And the lift.
http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mcelliott2/detail?.dir=21ab&.dnm=1119re2.jpg&.src=ph.

Looks like my pocket's a bit tight for plungers and clamps, eh!
This stuff's quasi illegal in box anyway, we have to draw straight back with first move so no huge loss. (Also, most of my draws are won by either guess-timing the whistle and drawing a split second early, or drawing the other guy to move early, or one other clever cheat that a wise man taught me last winter.

I could barely hold the hair dryer out for 10 minutes, I don't know if I could hold a stick over the stove for 20 minutes. I don't have that kind of strength.
What, you can't hold a stick for 20 minutes? Come on, don't give me that!
When you're playing, you hold it for most of an hour!

Anyway, the sissy-mary's version of this tutorial follows:

-Do everything I said, except instead of holding the head over the stove, clamp it to a table/workmate/sawhorse, and use a heat gun mounted on a tripod.

[RockStar]

If you're planning to dye and/or restring as well as pinch, I suggest boiling rather than baking. You can do the first dye colour at the same time as boil-pinching, so you save a step and don't soften up the head any more.

Same warnings go - This may not be the best way to do things, or even necessarily a good way. It's just a way I've done things before and gotten decent results. Note that with this one, you're dealing with boiling hot water. If you scald yourself, I really don't care and don't want to hear about it because THERE'S NO CRYING IN LACROSSE.

Procedure is just as simple as baking:

1)Remove the pocket and shaft.

2)Tie the head with sidewall string to get the desired pinch. It's harder to manipulate the scoop with this method, so to prevent pointing or taco-ing of the scoop, you can tie some of top string holes to sidewall holes to pull the scoop into the shape you want.

3)Stuff a 4" piece of shaft into the socket to make sure it doesn't get screwed up.

4)Boil water (and if you're dyeing, mix up your dye in the boiling water).

5)Put head in a cheap plastic washtub and drop this into a large sink (laundry tub works well). Pour boiling water (dye mixture) over the head

6)Let head sit for 10 minutes in boiling hot water (dye mixture).

7)Turn on the tap and run cold water slowly into the washtub for about 5 minutes. Let set in ice cold water for about 10 minutes. You can use the freezer after this if you want, but I wouldn't bother. I don't see freezing doing anything permanent to the head.

8)Restring, mount on a shaft, and enjoy at room temperature.

[shoebag2000]

Is that a Mohawk head? Oh, and good tutorial. Do you have any advice on how to get a head to keep its pinch? I keep pinching my Excalibur and it won't hold its pinch.

[scruffy221]

^ I get the same problem, I think it's b/c I don't wait long enough but onr time i left it for like 2hrs, and it still pulled back out. I was doing a pinch to a Bionic if that helps.

[Brandon303]

^ I get the same problem, I think it's b/c I don't wait long enough but onr time i left it for like 2hrs, and it still pulled back out. I was doing a pinch to a Bionic if that helps.
Did you leave the string (or whatever helps keep the shape of the pinch) on over night?

[Zach]

Just tried this on a Brine Radius I had lying around, didn't turn out that bad, except for my one mishap where I burned a whole in the mesh, but it needed to be restrung anyway so meh. I held it a little too close, and the mesh melted in 2 spots, the rest is slightly burned, so definitely use around 1 foot, I probably held it around 7 or 8 inches away.

Sorry about the quality of the pics, couldn't find the camera, so I had to use my phone, I'll try to upload better ones tomorrow.

Front shot of the head
http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/3097/image036dn9.png




Back shot of the head
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/7320/image033mz5.png

[RockStar]

I don't know why some heads unpinch. They shouldn't if you hit them with enough heat for enough time.

With my Mission I figured it was done after 10 minutes over the stove, but I did it for another 10 just to make sure. It's held it's shape perfectly so far.

Most of my other pinching has been boiling, and 10 minutes in boiling water followed by gradual cooling seems to be plenty. I've never had any head flare back out after I pinch it.

There's probably no magic number that works for every stick, but you need to hit it with high enough heat (1 foot over the stove = 250? 300?), and hold the heat for long enough to get the new shape to set in.

Good luck


Is that a Mohawk head?.

Yes it is. Mohawk's timeless classic. Think of it like an Edge on powerful steroids.