Registered: Jan 2015
Location: Manitoba
Posts: 50

Our club "papered" our rocks for the first time this year. This is also known as texturing I believe (push rock running surface across sandpaper to get more curl out of them). We bought a jig, the proper sandpaper and some ice techs from a neighboring rink came to show us how to do it about two weeks into the season.

The technique they showed us was to place the handle at 10 o'clock push it across the sandpaper away from you and then pull it back, wipe off the rock and your done. We just did this again last night but placed the rock handle at 2 o'clock and repeated the same process (the local experts suggested that we change the angle). We used 80 grit sandpaper both times.

Does anyone else have experience doing this? What grit of sandpaper do you use? Out of the videos and information I have found on papering rocks it looks like there are at least 2 other techniques. One is to have the handle in the 12 o'clock position push and pull, then pick up rock and give it a 1/4 turn and repeat. The second method does the 12 o'clock push pull, then the 2 o'clock, then the 10 o'clock. This is obviously not the same as what the visiting techs showed us. What technique do you use?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me. Like I said we just did them all again last night so I guess we will see how that works out.

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Registered: Jan 2007
Location: Dartmouth, NS
Posts: 207

Doing that causes the running surfaces to break down the pebble too fast, and the ice gets heavier and heavier and heavier,

When our ice maker papers the rocks, it's excessively slow(3 to 4 seconds slower) for most of the game for weeks after.

If you don't mind having to throw hit weight for draw for most of the game, then papering the rocks is fine.

Last edited by murphyj87 on 03-10-16 at 10:52AM

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Registered: Jan 2015
Location: Manitoba
Posts: 50

Yeah we have noticed that it is slower. Which makes sense seeing as how the stone is sharper. I don't like the speed change, but I don't like draws that curl two feet either.

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Registered: Apr 2005
Location:
Posts: 399

quote:

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Originally posted by murphyj87
Doing that causes the running surfaces to break down the pebble too fast, and the ice gets heavier and heavier and heavier,

When our ice maker papers the rocks, it's excessively slow(3 to 4 seconds slower) for most of the game for weeks after.

If you don't mind having to throw hit weight for draw for most of the game, then papering the rocks is fine.

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Registered: Nov 2012
Location: In the crawlspace
Posts: 83

The last time we papered our rocks we used 100 grit paper using the push-pull method at 12:00, 10:00 and 2:00 positions. We got about 6 feet of curl out of it (avg 5.2mm running band width) but the rocks did lose some speed for a couple of weeks. Once the speed came back up the rocks were curling about 5 feet.

Immediately after sanding the rocks were SLOW, but after a few tosses up and down the sheets they were only about a second slower. I've heard that racking and dragging the rocks up and down the sheets a few times after sanding might help with the initial loss of speed, so we may try that the next time we sand them.

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Registered: Jun 2007
Location:
Posts: 440

quote:

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Originally posted by murphyj87
Doing that causes the running surfaces to break down the pebble too fast, and the ice gets heavier and heavier and heavier,

When our ice maker papers the rocks, it's excessively slow(3 to 4 seconds slower) for most of the game for weeks after.

If you don't mind having to throw hit weight for draw for most of the game, then papering the rocks is fine.

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