Thread: Silicone Gloves
View Single Post
  #106 (permalink)   IP: 193.77.253.124
Old 08-12-07, 10:33 AM
Flk_d_pk Flk_d_pk is offline
Been Around
Registered User
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Ljubljana, Slovenija
Posts: 92
Rep Power: 1
Flk_d_pk is on a distinguished road
Ok, here I go.
My name is Rudi, and.... oh, where should I start? Ok, its probably better that I keep my post relatively focused on "The glove", or I can loose myself. Some history, and my views on what are the good stuff on the glove, and a manufacturer view on that....

History... I'm the "INVENTOR" of the slovenian glove, and has been from the time I perfected the procedure back in 1996. I Have been making gloves until some 2001 and until I teached Mare. Mare said few words about the guy that teached him how to make them, and no!... THEY ARE STILL THE EXACT SAME DESIGN AS MINE. (or a slightly not so good as mine) I'm the guy that opened a scuba diving center, thus finnished "the production" of gloves. So Mare has to make me the gloves for free forever. Why?

Becouse its stinks like hell, my nose was on fire each and every time I made them, the whole room was stinking on that acidy strong stinking smell of working the huge ammounts of acid silicone at once. My hand hurted like hell from forming the shape, and there isnt enough money beeing made, to exuse my suffering to make them any more. 20 eur is exactly the minimum ammount of money to compensate for the production. That goes as long as the producer is living the lifestyle of a hippy-college student, like my friend Mare is. And even that goes only as far, when production is in the quantity like it is today, mine (and Mare's) very well known "slovenian glove". I used to sell them back in 90' for 10e or less - silly me!

For my troubles, and the fact that noone will make me gloves for free for the rest of my life, and the fact that I dont need 100+ new gloves at the moment, I am not willing to share the exact recepie on how to make them. It doesnt really matter to any of you, or at least it shouldnt, becouse of these facts:

1: you will have to experiment on at least 15 gloves to make it as good as Mare, provided you have my full recepie, and just the materials, telephone and transporting costs to find the right materials, will make up for any investment you will EVER make if you buy them for the rest of your life...EVER! Probably, but there are other much more important reasons...
2:Your room will never stink the way mine did!
3:Your mom will like you better if you buy them!
4:You will not hurt your hand and/or your skin!
5:You will be able to smell stuff for next few days!
6:If you have a girlfriend, and are buying them, there will STILL be a slight chance to get la..d tonight!

And that in itself explains the basic difference in producing gloves from single component silicon, versus the two component rubber Sven and others are using. Back in the 90' when i started to play uwh, my teacher Tom from France showed me how to make glove from 2 component rubber. Since I couldnt find 2 component rubber, but had to make the gloves for all the people that wanted to start playing, I started experimenting and producing with acid silicone, witch in my view far exceeded the performance of 2 component rubber. Mainly, in the comparison of "shock absorbtion" and "resistance on the tiles". That is not to say other gloves arent as good, becouse all that depends on how much material one applies, and the perticular tiles. Later I found out, that acid silicone is also far far longer-lasting material, IF done right! Experimenting, I found few methods how to make the glove look better, using less materials for lighter glove, and still enabling to protect hand on the right spots. Today I can see, that Mare took this refining one small step further, as the game of uwh developed too.

The important thing one needs to know, is his/hers preferences. If the play is more like cave-bushing-rough-full of infrigments, the best way is to use much more materials, and dont forget to protect the arm little further than just a hand. For such play, slovenian glove is no good, as it lacks both. Again, I'm not saying that other designs are for bad play, just becouse their glove is longer. But if they are twice the size of slovenian, than YES I am saying those gloves are for cave people.
Bigger the glove is, speed of the skills goes down. Too smaller gloves with less material tends not to have enough protection for the hand, and no one wants to be out of pool becouse of injury. Its always a compromise between big and small protection.
Level of one skills abillity, is another big issue regarding glove. I used to cut out the inner side of the fingers in order to have a better "feel" for the stick, but its very very time consuming for the producer, thats why Mare isnt doing it any more. Such glove doesnt last as long as normal ones do, but anyone can do that easilly for himself. Just a small ammounts of silicone added on the edges of the cuts, will make such glove last far longer, but still not as long as non-cut one will.
The base of the glove is also important, and again its the compromise between heavy, well protected and fast, skillful glove. Using high end - costly glove base is a good investment. It feels better, and life of a glove primarilly depends on the base (as far as silicone goes). Slovenian glove has quality cotton glove for a base, advise of mine still in use today by Mare. Still, the glove base of slovenian is very very light, unlike some others I have seen beeing used today.
The best glove is one made on your hand. But that should be important only for high-end players, not for regular players. In diving industry, there is a saying: Equipment doesnt make for responsible and good giver, but it helps. The same goes for UWH. Good player can flick the puck with the cooking spoon, as well as playing with "gloves for washing dishes".
When you are as good as Benson is, then you might consider having a glove made on your hand. Easy for me and Mare to say this, as all the rest are playing with gloves molded on our hands, but thats the truth. If it fits, its fine. I play with Mare's molded glove now.

To finnish this extremly looooong post (I am sick and therefore obviusly and completly bored at the moment):
The sport of UWH started with home made gloves, ranging from "no protection latex" glove on one part, and "star-trek-lookalike-bordering on insanity" designs. There is still long long way from mass producing the gloves, exploring the endless possibillity in materials and designs. The real evolution of the hockey glove is still to come in the future, as is with all of the "Avantgarde Sports", like finnswimming, rugby, ect. One thing is sure, UWH is here to stay. And thats enough for this evolution to happen. At the moment we are only starting small productions in "manufacture" style, and thats how our gloves are - the best what we can make them. Until someone recognise the value and posibillity to make UWH a real marketing niche, and devote his/her life to this business. Who knows, maybe when he/she retires, it will be worth something....

Maybe I start this in like 30 years, when I cant dive and/or play UWH anymore...
Reply With Quote