On April 13th I’ll be one of the coaches at the Ontario Curling Council U18 Academy camp at the Dundas Valley Golf and Curling Club in Dundas, ON. In the first part of this article I mentioned that one of things I like to do when coaching at a camp is to bring along a large broom bag with an assortment of brushes from my collection, so that the athletes have an opportunity to try out various brushes that are different from the one they use regularly. It is unsurprising to me how frequently an athlete will profess a liking for a particular brush in my collection that is different from the one they have. Most often that difference relates to the handle, and not the brush pad.
While debate over the utility of the various brush pads from the different manufacturers continues, what is frequently overlooked are the handles, and the characteristics of a given handle does impact the usability of a brush for any particular player.
Two significant characteristics of a curling brush handle are its weight and its dimensions, though virtually all commercially-available brush handles are 48 inches in length. An exception is Balance Plus, who now ship all of their handles in 47-inch lengths. So the characteristics of interest are the brush handle’s weight, diameter, and its coating.
Historically, brush handles came in two sizes, based on the handle’s outside diameter: 1.125 inches (1 and 1/8 inches) for adult players, and 1-inch handles for youth players.
Today, there are more brush manufacturers and models of brushes than ever, and some handles are coated for additional grip. Moreover, only a few brushes today are prismatic – that is, having a uniform cross-sectional area throughout their length. Several models offered today are tapered near the brush head, while others – notably Balance Plus models – are tapered throughout, the widest diameter at the base of the handle and narrowing at the top.
Some athletes have a strong preference or dislike towards one type or the other. In my experience two factors that influence one’s choice is grip strength and hand size. For me personally, I have fairly small hands (size 8.5) yet still much prefer a standard-diameter brush handle, and dislike tapered ones. I’m not alone: this past season Team Kaitlyn Lawes used Hardline IcePad brush heads with Balance Plus handles (an adapter is used to match the mandrel sizes), and in Saskatchewan Team Stephen Laycock has been using Hardline’s prismatic 1.125-inch Hybrid handles instead of Hardline’s tapered carbon-fibre handles for the past two seasons. Both the men’s and women’s U18 Academy teams with the Ontario Curling Council have also used Hardline’s prismatic fibreglass/carbon fibre “Hybrid Helium” handles the last two seasons.
A prismatic 1.125-inch Hardline Hybrid Helium fibreglass/carbon fibre handle (left), and a tapered carbon-fibre Performance Spyder handle at right. Note the obvious difference in diameter though both handles are advertised as 1.125 inches.
Two of my personal favourites. Top: a coated Balance Plus EQualizer 1.125-inch handle coupled to an IcePad brush head. Bottom: a Goldline Impact carbon-fibre combination with Grip Zone technology. Both handles are excellent options that offer fantastic grip.
At right are the selection of handles from my collection that I assessed, using a kitchen scale for weight and an EZ-Cal fractional digital caliper (iGaging Inc., San Clemente, California) to measure diameter. The stated accuracy of my kitchen scale is plus/minus 1 g, and the accuracy of the digital caliper is to 0.001 inch. For non-prismatic handles I measured the “nominal” diameter – in the middle of the handle for most of the brooms except for Balance Plus, which are slightly tapered right from the bottom. For “grip diameter”, I chose a measuring point 12 inches from the brush head end of the handle, which is where I grip the brush when brushing in an open stance. Since handle taper varies the diameter to different degrees on different handles, and players grip the handle in different locations according to personal preference, this “grip diameter” may well be different for the reader.
The table below documents my findings. While some readers may believe that small differences amongst the various handles do not matter, in my experience there are a significant number of athletes out there who would disagree. Personally, I think there is a massive difference between gripping a tapered Hardline handle 12 inches from the bottom, and gripping a Goldline Impact handle with Grip Zone technology at the same point.
Finally, by and large handles are interchangable for brush heads with the same mandrel size. So one could, for example, use a lighter Asham Ultra Lite handle with an IcePad brush head if one desired. Moreover, even Hardline will supply a plastic adapter sleeve so that an IcePad brush head mandrel can fit the 23mm interior diameter of a Balance Plus EQ handle.
The exception to this straightforward compatibility is Goldline, whose bayonet push-button mount is not supported by any other manufacturer.
| Manufacturer | Model | Composition | Weight (grams) | Nominal diameter (in) | Grip diameter (in) | Prismatic? | Mandrel (mm) | Grip coating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hardline | Hybrid Helium | Carbon Fibre/Fibreglass | 260 | 1.125 | 1.125 | Y | 20mm | N/A |
| Hardline | Ultra-lite | Carbon Fibre | 178 | 1.125 | 1.030 | N | 20mm | Textured, rubber-like |
| Asham | V2 | Carbon Fibre | 166 | 1.136 | 1.129 | N | 20mm | N/A |
| Balance Plus | EQualizer - White | Carbon Fibre | 186 | 1.126 | 1.112 | N | 23mm | Sticky |
| Goldline | Impact w/ Grip Zone | Carbon Fibre | 166 | 1.126 | 1.131 | Y | 26mm | Textured |
| End Game | Red | Carbon Fibre | 165 | 1.113 | 1.113 | Y | 26mm | N/A |
| Balance Plus | Lite Speed | Carbon Fibre | 141 | 1.150 | 1.090 | N | 26mm | Sticky |
| Ultima | Carbon Fibre Lite | Carbon Fibre | 302 | 1.128 | 1.128 | Y | 20mm | None |
| Performance | Spyder Grip | Carbon Fibre | 165 | 1.115 | 1.034 | N | 20mm | Textured, rubber-like |
| Goldline | Carbon Fibre | Carbon Fibre | 170 | 1.137 | 1.137 | Y | 26mm | N/A |
| Olson | Pyro | Carbon Fibre | 179 | 1.145 | 1.145 | Y | 26mm | Smooth |
| Goldline | FibreLite | Carbon Fibre | 212 | 1.126 | 1.126 | Y | 26mm | N/A |
| Asham | Ultra Lite | Carbon Fibre | 167 | 1.125 | 1.025 | N | 20mm | Textured, rubber-like |
| Balance Plus | EQualizer - Blue | Carbon Fibre | 186 | 1.133 | 1.125 | N | 23mm | Sticky |
| Asham | Velocity | Fibreglass | 307 | 1.137 | 1.137 | Y | 20mm | N/A |
| Asham | Composite Ultra-Force Easy-Lite | Carbon Fibre/Fibreglass | 281 | 1.13 | 1.13 | Y | 20mm | N/A |
Finally, I will mention that no matter the brush or the type of coating, grip can be improved through the use of gloves or mitts that provide additional “stickiness” over bare palms. I carry 7 pairs of extra mitts in my broom bag for young athletes to use at camps or clinics, for that reason.
In Part Trois of this article we will take a look at another factor in brush handle design that plays a significant role in “feel”: flex.