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How to seal my blade after I glued rubbers on it

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brightdemon View Drop Down
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    Posted: 09/06/2021 at 10:21pm
Hi Everyone,

Apologize for my newbie question.

I just wanted to check if it is still useful to seal my blade after I glued a couple rubbers on it already. (Nikitta’s water base glue)
What is the best method to clean up the blade before sealing. There is currently a thin layer of glue on my blade and I tried rubber for an hour but it is not coming off.

Should I just seal the blade on top of the thin layer of glue? What is the best seal I can buy and use in the US?

I would greatly appreciate if any experience players here can give me some insight.

Thanks


Edited by brightdemon - 09/06/2021 at 10:22pm
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wturber View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote wturber Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09/07/2021 at 3:14am
No. Don't seal the blade on top of old glue. You must remove the glue. I use Goo Gone to remove tough glue from blades. Take your time. It may take a few applications. If you do any scraping, don't use a metal scraper.  Use a plastic one. Go easy with any tool you might use to avoid gouging the blade surface. Better yet, just rub the glue off with your fingers once the Goo Gone has softened things up.

Once the glue is completely removed, give the blade a few days so that the Goo Gone can completely evaporate before sealing.  

I seal using MinWax Wipe-on Poly - Satin Finish. I apply one light coat - about as light a coat as I can apply and still cover the blade. That usually means I use a piece of cloth from an old t-shirt or maybe a micro fiber cloth. I fold the cloth over a few times to give more layers to soak up varnish. I cover the opening of the varnish can with the cloth and tip it so that I get a nice soaked spot of varnish on the cloth. That should be enough to lightly coat one side of the blade. If not, dab a bit more onto the cloth to finish covering the side. Repeat on the other side. If the outer ply is soft wood that soaks up the MinWax quickly, I'll follow with one more light coat 30 minutes or so later or whatever the can suggests for a second coat.  But that's it. Harder woods can get by with a single coat.

When you are done, the wood should still look natural. The coats should be so thin that it doesn't look like the blade has a coat of varnish other than the wood is now slightly more yellow. In other words, it shouldn't obvious that there's a layer (or two) of varnish on the blade. Err on the side of using too little. You want just enough varnish to fill in the pores of the wood. You can always add another coat. 

Let the blade dry a full day minimum before gluing. When it is dry, sprinkle some water on the blade. You should see the water bead up. That confirms that the blade is sealed. Wipe the water off. The Min-Wax will make the surface water resistant, but not water proof. If you leave the water on the blade, it can eventually soak into the wood. You don't want that.

Thick coats of varnish can alter the way a blade plays. So you generally want to avoid thick coatings.

If you have some scrap wood, practice on that first just to get a feel for how the varnish goes on and spreads around. Or if you have some old recreational blades hanging around, practice on them first.


Edited by wturber - 09/07/2021 at 3:19am
Jay Turberville
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notfound123 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote notfound123 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09/07/2021 at 9:31am
Honestly I wouldn't recommend it. Sounds like you are still learning and that's ok. If you apply too much varnish, you may end up with rubbers not sticking well to your blade, edges peeling off, etc. Don't worry about it. Just play and when it's time to remove the rubber, remove diagonally, not along the grain. If you can't do it, watch some youtube tutorials or ask any club player or a coach to show you. 

Nittaky finzip is a great glue and you really don't need to seal anything to glue rubbers properly.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote wturber Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09/07/2021 at 10:11am
Originally posted by notfound123 notfound123 wrote:

Honestly I wouldn't recommend it. Sounds like you are still learning and that's ok. If you apply too much varnish, you may end up with rubbers not sticking well to your blade, edges peeling off, etc. Don't worry about it. Just play and when it's time to remove the rubber, remove diagonally, not along the grain. If you can't do it, watch some youtube tutorials or ask any club player or a coach to show you. 

Nittaky finzip is a great glue and you really don't need to seal anything to glue rubbers properly.
This is especially good advice if your blade has relatively hard outer plies. 
Jay Turberville
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Hardbat: Nittaku Resist w/ Dr. Evil or Friendship 802-40 OX
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote brightdemon Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09/07/2021 at 6:31pm
Thanks everyone for the response!! Especially wturber for such a detail explanation.

I am definitely new to this as I’ve been a casual player that does not change rubber too often. I definitely will try the goo gone method to remove the glue.

After reading wturber’s instruction, it seems too complicated for me. If I wanted to protect the blade, do you think the DHS protective coat solution works? Is it easier to use that instead of sealing?

My two current blades are DHS Hurricane Hao 2 and Stiga Intensity NCT.

Thanks you all for the response again :)


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote wturber Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09/07/2021 at 7:25pm
Originally posted by brightdemon brightdemon wrote:

Thanks everyone for the response!! Especially wturber for such a detail explanation.

I am definitely new to this as I’ve been a casual player that does not change rubber too often. I definitely will try the goo gone method to remove the glue.

After reading wturber’s instruction, it seems too complicated for me. If I wanted to protect the blade, do you think the DHS protective coat solution works? Is it easier to use that instead of sealing?

My two current blades are DHS Hurricane Hao 2 and Stiga Intensity NCT.

Thanks you all for the response again :)


I'd assume that any kind of sealer would be pretty simple to apply.  

If it seems complicated it is probably because I tend to give detailed explanations. Maybe too detailed. Here's the short version. 

Dampen a cloth or paper towel with satin or matte poly varnish and rub it into the wood. Use as little as necessary to put a thin coat over the entire blade surface. Let it dry. Done.

Keep in mind that you only seal a blade once. Also, there are YouTube videos of others sealing blades.  This guy preps a blade much like I do. He just uses a different sealer.

Jay Turberville
www.jayandwanda.com
Hardbat: Nittaku Resist w/ Dr. Evil or Friendship 802-40 OX
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote anubhav1984 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09/08/2021 at 12:36am
Try Joola's or any other brand's water based sealer. They come with easy to apply sponges and you don't risk overdoing them too. I can attest to the fact that sealing with a bit too much of a sealant causes two main problems -
1. Rubbers would peel off
2. The feel of the blade would change

If you don't mind, can you share the name of your blade? Some blades are really not that prone to issues without sealing. If you are using a glue like Finezip or Revolution No 3's water based glue, you should be fine without any sealer too. For the next blade, I would recommend getting it pre-sealed from the shop that you purchase the blade from. Most of the online retailers offer this as a free service. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote brightdemon Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09/08/2021 at 1:41am
Really appreciate this community!!!

Thanks for the youtube sharing, and the recommendation of using these brand name sealer. I saw the Xiom with that sponge like bottle head, it seems really easy to use.

I will try out goo gone and lighter fluid to clean the blade.

The blade that I have are DHS HH2 and Stiga Intensity NCT. I like to keep the blade for long (Just because I feel attached to it). Unfortunately, they’ve all been glued and I didnt know that I can seal them before :). Any opinion on these 2 blades? Hopefully they are not easy to peel.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote anubhav1984 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09/08/2021 at 1:46am
Originally posted by brightdemon brightdemon wrote:

Really appreciate this community!!!

Thanks for the youtube sharing, and the recommendation of using these brand name sealer. I saw the Xiom with that sponge like bottle head, it seems really easy to use.

I will try out goo gone and lighter fluid to clean the blade.

The blade that I have are DHS HH2 and Stiga Intensity NCT. I like to keep the blade for long (Just because I feel attached to it). Unfortunately, they’ve all been glued and I didnt know that I can seal them before :). Any opinion on these 2 blades? Hopefully they are not easy to peel.
I think the DHS blade should be fine. Some of the stiga blades do have a problem of peeling but i think the NCT coating prevents that to a great extent. In fact, I have had issues with keeping the rubber glued on a stiga blade that had a coating before. I wouldn't worry about either of them for now and wouldn't recommend sealing the Stiga blade. DHS one, you can give it a shot when you have the rubbers removed and the glue layer taken off. I have used poly before and ever since I switched over to water based products from TT manufacturers, I have just loved using those instead of poly. I know that they are the same thing but the simple applicators on the products from Joola/Donic or even revolution no 3 make it really easy to apply.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote p1ngp0ng3r Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09/08/2021 at 5:20am
NCT blades already have a coating (too much even according to some), so I wouldn't suggest using any type of varnish on NCT baldes.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote comodoensis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09/08/2021 at 2:08pm
Originally posted by brightdemon brightdemon wrote:

Really appreciate this community!!!

Thanks for the youtube sharing, and the recommendation of using these brand name sealer. I saw the Xiom with that sponge like bottle head, it seems really easy to use.

I will try out goo gone and lighter fluid to clean the blade.

The blade that I have are DHS HH2 and Stiga Intensity NCT. I like to keep the blade for long (Just because I feel attached to it). Unfortunately, they’ve all been glued and I didnt know that I can seal them before :). Any opinion on these 2 blades? Hopefully they are not easy to peel.

If you regularly using water-based glues, you probably need to seal the dhs HH2. Most of DHS blades come without any seal from the factory, and have high risk of splinter and damage on the top ply due to water-based glue usage. If you're not sure how to seal it properly, instead of using water-based glue, just try to use thinned down rubber cement/speed glue on the blade surface for gluing. Good enough adhesion, with less risk of damaging the top ply.

Intensity NCT maybe doesn't need any sealing, since there's already a factory coating on the top ply. Usually some people have trouble sticking rubber on the blade, due to the slippery surface of NCT/CR coating stiga does, especially the thick one (i.e. Clipper CR/CC, ebenholz, rosewood, maplewood, etc). To solve this problem, simply use 1000 grit sandpaper, dry sanding it a little bit to roughen up the surface.

Please be careful when removing the rubber from the HH2
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote cole_ely Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09/11/2021 at 11:57pm
Originally posted by brightdemon brightdemon wrote:

Thanks everyone for the response!! Especially wturber for such a detail explanation.

I am definitely new to this as I’ve been a casual player that does not change rubber too often. I definitely will try the goo gone method to remove the glue.

After reading wturber’s instruction, it seems too complicated for me. If I wanted to protect the blade, do you think the DHS protective coat solution works? Is it easier to use that instead of sealing?

My two current blades are DHS Hurricane Hao 2 and Stiga Intensity NCT.

Thanks you all for the response again :)



I wouldn't  put any of that on. I would just rub and rub it dry till you can't feel anything on the surface. Goo gone will only melt it in.
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