Shortening Royal Shaft carbon/composite poles

I picked up two brand new pairs of Royal Shaft poles at a thrift shop, and will need to shorten them. I've shortened poles before by removing the grip and hacksawing to a suitable length -- same process on these?

Level Nine has this info on their poles:
https://www.levelninesports.com/lear...haft-ski-poles

-- which says that "premium carbon poles can easily be trimmed at the tip for custom fit." I don't know if the ones I got are the "premium carbon" or the "composite" -- anyone know how to tell? And if these poles are shortened at the tip, rather than at the grip end, how do you do that?

Never heard of shortening at the tip end. I've shortened plenty at the grip end using your method. On composite/carbon poles you should wrap the pole in masking tape and cut it with a fine hacksaw then deburr/chamfer with some sandpaper.

try to remove grip and shorten that way. if that fails, contact royal shaft

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Originally Posted by mntlion

try to remove grip and shorten that way. if that fails, contact royal shaft

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I'm pretty sure Royal Shaft is out of business. Website is down. Google searches show some people searching for replacement baskets and stating that Goode tips + baskets fit them.


I'll try the typical method of removing the grips and see what happens.

When you saw through the carbon, don't go straight through like you would metal. Make sure you cut in from all around the poll at the start or finish. You may also want to wrap it in a little duct tape. This will prevent stands or chips from coming off. This can happen really easily on some composite polls.

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Originally Posted by Spyderjon

Never heard of shortening at the tip end. I've shortened plenty at the grip end using your method. On composite/carbon poles you should wrap the pole in masking tape and cut it with a fine hacksaw then deburr/chamfer with some sandpaper.

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When I cut Goode carbon poles, I use Spyderjon's ideas. His tape method should prevent your fingers from getting annoying little fiber splinters, and prevent any possible splitting in the pole material. To chamfer, I just scrape the pole edge on pavement/sidewalk---prevents splitting of pole material and reinserts more easily into the grip.

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also use the finest tooth per inch hack saw you can find

I used to cut carbon arrow shafts using the tape method mentioned above and a dremel or pneumatic cut-off tool. Lots of info online for bow hunters doing that, which may be useful for your purposes as well.

Never used a hacksaw but don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work as long as you took your time and let the saw do the work.

Thanks everyone -

I've trimmed carbon poles before -- using some painter's tape and a fine tooth hacksaw, and cut on the taped portion. Works fine. I have a dremel too, but haven't used that on carbon.

Not super concerned about protecting the cut edge after it has been trimmed, because it'll be inside a grip.

Tape then pipe cutter?

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Originally Posted by Obstruction

Tape then pipe cutter?

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This was my method for cutting some Goode carbon poles. Worked great.

I don't have a pipe cutter. I'll just go with tape + hacksaw like other poles I've trimmed down.

For future reference for anyone else who picks up some of these poles, the grips pull off the shaft like any other pole. The screw in the top of the grip is only holding in the strap - no need to remove it before pulling off the grip. I pulled off a grip this morning; now just need to measure, tape, and cut.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Obstruction

Tape then pipe cutter?

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do not use a pipe cutter on carbon poles

I hacksawed off the excess length - worked fine. Also for future reference in this thread: I think the poles I got are the "composite" not the full carbon. When I removed the grips, the pole is a hollow cylinder, white material. They cut very easily and the cuttings were powdery.

Congrats! Sounds like you are now Royally Shafted!