Design and construction of Underwater Hockey Sticks

Making your own underwater hockey sticks can be an enjoyable and rewarding experience. The information on this page should help you through the process

Tools:

	A bandsaw or similar cutting tool is used to cut the rough shape of the stick out of the wood or plastic. There are a variety of alternatives if you don't have access to a bandsaw - anything with a narrow blade that can cut tight curves will work well. In a pinch, you can even use a circular saw or table saw, though these tools will require you to perform some more creative cutting procedures.
	A sander is used to remove excess material and thus fine-tune the shape of the stick after cutting out the rough shape with a saw. The sander shown is a combination sander, having both a disk and a belt. The disk has an attached tilt table which is very useful for making consistent, reliable bevel angles.
	A planer is used to smooth the faces of boards and make them thinner. Using the thickness calibration on a planer, you can reliably plane boards to the same thickness before cutting out your sticks so all sticks will have a consistent, uniform thickness.
	A jointer smoothes and flattens boards, one face at a time - in this respect it is similar to a planer, but unlike a planer, it doesn't cut boards to a pre-set thickness, so you can use a jointer to achieve non-uniform thicknesses on different parts of your sticks. A jointer is particularly useful for 'undercutting' stick handles to a desired depth.
	A drill press, while not strictly necessary, is very handy for certain stick designs. When fitted with a small drum-sanding bit, a drill press can be used to smooth tight inside curves on a stick's perimeter. A drum-sanding bit in conjunction with a tilt table (some drill presses have a tilt table, or you can build you own) can be used to make consistent, reliable bevel angles on the hook side of your stick (which is very difficult on a disk sander). A drill press can also be used to drill holes in sticks to reduce their effective surface area and make them faster in the water.
	A router, especially one mounted in a router table as shown, is very useful for creating consistent round-overs on stick-handle edges.

Materials:

According to the latest Underwater Hockey rules (those adopted at the 2008 World Rules Committee Meeting), Sticks must be made of wood or plastic. While an increasing number of stick-makers are producing molded plastic sticks, a large number of sticks are still made by cutting out shapes from wooden boards or plastic sheet stock. Molded sticks are beyond the scope of this webpage, so the materials, tools and techniques shown here will all be for cut-out sticks.

When choosing wood for underwater hockey sticks, there are a number of variables that must be considered:

1. Wood type. There are many, many species of tree in the world, and each one produces different wood. Hardwoods generally produce denser, harder, longer-lasting sticks while softwoods have the advantage of being easier to cut and sand. Different players prefer different characteristics in their sticks, and the best way to determine what's best for you is to experiment with a variety of different woods. Personally, I use primarily hard Maple and Poplar.
2. Board thickness. The thickness of the finished sticks is best determined early in the design process. Purchasing boards that already have the desired thickness (or planing entire boards before cutting out the sticks) is much easier than planing individual sticks, and also leads to very consistent thicknesses from one stick to another. Generally speaking, thicker sticks are slower in the water and more forgiving, while thinner sticks permit (and in some situations require) scalpel-like precision of movements and quick, snappy passes. For the beginning stick-maker, three- quarters of an inch (about 19mm) is a good starting place, as boards are often sold in this thickness. Ideal thickness for the average player is probably a little thinner than this, so you may want to start by planing three-quarter-inch stock down to more like five-eighths of an inch (about 16mm)
3. Board Grain. The 'grain' of a board refers to the orientation of individual fibers within the wood. With most species of wood, you can tell a lot about the grain just by looking at the surface of a board. Always choose boards with long, straight, parallel grain lines and avoid imperfections that interrupt those lines (knots, holes, cracks, etc.) Furthermore, when deciding how and where to cut each stick from a given board, make sure the layout is such that the grain lines run parallel to the long dimension of the stick (never across the short dimensions). This will dramatically improve the strength of the finished stick.
4. Board Condition. Boards often have hidden imperfections that only become apparent after you cut into them. As a general rule, avoid boards that are badly warped, cracked, weathered, etc. If a board has been kiln-dried (this is common for commercially available wood) or has sat out in the sun for an extended period of time, it is generally best to avoid using the very ends (last 6 inches or so) of the board, as they frequently have hidden cracks or splits in them.

When choosing plastic for undewater hockey sticks, there are also a number of factors to consider:

1. Plastic Type. There are many kinds of commercially available plastic that work for underwater hockey sticks, especially now that the requirement that sticks must float in water has been abandoned. Polyurethane, Polyethylene, Nylon, and many other readily available plastics can be used, and most are available in sheet stock of various thicknesses, making them ideal for cut-out stick manufacture.
2. Plastic Color. Many plastics are resistant to paints and dyes, making them difficult to color, but this shortcoming is more than made up for by the fact that most plastics are available in a variety of colors, including both white and black. Choosing appropriately-colored stock to begin with simplifies the stick-construction process by eliminating the painting step and generally guarantees that the finished sticks will retain their color indefinitely, even once the surface has been worn away by use.