At Face Value (Magnesium Masks & Other Things)

[wolfe_man]

I assure you all that there will be no more sales on this site from me.  Those days are over. 

Now, perhaps we can focus on the topic at-hand... the new GD magnesium mask frame.

Belgard pads should work on it, at least I would assume they should.  If this is a full bowl profile like most frames out there today, then most mask pads should fit on them, barring F3 of course.

[dumbdumb]

3 hours ago, umpstu said:

You still have at least three pages to catch up with Max.

love it!!! did u use analytics, slide rule or your gut to figure that out? and max makes a whole/hell of a lot more horse sense too.

[DerekGDS]

5 hours ago, Replacematt said:

I wonder if Belgards will fit on this. It might get me to give an external use of magnesium a shot.

My concern about the fit is primarily where the ear extension attaches on its lower portion. Belgard makes its pads more compact and the upper attachment point on the pads is lower than on many others.

I’ll follow up on this with some photos.

[The Man in Blue]

On 2/19/2025 at 12:28 AM, MadMax said:

One of the things that dissuades more widespread use of the FM4K Magnesium is its radical, unorthodox appearance.

 

Further proof I am an odd ball.  That was a selling point for me.  It's umpire-sexy.

 

Y'all are killing me!  First, I decide I am cutting my high school schedule to almost nothing (will be back on the horse once school is out).  Then, I decide I am going to look at some of these awesome sounding new pieces of gear, but have to drop $3k on a car repair.   

[DerekGDS]

On 2/22/2025 at 12:18 PM, Replacematt said:

I wonder if Belgards will fit on this

Verdict: Poorly

[Replacematt]

10 minutes ago, DerekGDS said:

Verdict: Poorly

Oof. Thanks for the pic--it matches what I had visualized.

[MadMax]

9 hours ago, DerekGDS said:

Verdict: Poorly

What drives that? The tab locations? The geometry twists created when trying to force the pads to conform to the frame? 

[Rock Bottom]

On 3/3/2025 at 10:17 PM, DerekGDS said:

Verdict: Poorly

Derek - are the earguards as narrow as they seem, or is the frame wide and the earguards just appear very narrow? I'd love to say I keep my head perfectly straight at all times, but I know that's not the case.

[wolfe_man]

8 hours ago, Rock Bottom said:

Derek - are the earguards as narrow as they seem, or is the frame wide and the earguards just appear very narrow? I'd love to say I keep my head perfectly straight at all times, but I know that's not the case.

The frame is designed off of a Nike Ti frame, but with added bar thickness due to being magnesium of course.  We also were not able to keep the arrowhead struts due to the thickness of the bars. The ear-guard sizing should be very close to the Nike's.

Perhaps @MadMax or another person who has one of these new frames for testing can take a picture of the new GD Mirage12 beside a different frame to show the difference?

If you look closely at Max's two pics from the OP, you can get a better idea of the sizing.

 

[DerekGDS]

11 hours ago, Rock Bottom said:

Derek - are the earguards as narrow as they seem, or is the frame wide and the earguards just appear very narrow? I'd love to say I keep my head perfectly straight at all times, but I know that's not the case.

I don't have the frame at the moment but @MadMax or @concertman1971 might be able to help answer that one.

[MadMax]

On 3/5/2025 at 9:43 PM, Rock Bottom said:

or is the frame wide and the earguards just appear very narrow?

Thanks, @wolfe_man, for explaining the Mirage’s ancestry. Yes, it is an evolution, or progression, of the original, iconic Nike Titanium that Jorge Posada first wore. @DerekGDS was determined to replicate it as closely as was physically possible, given that he was designing “reductively”, instead of additively. Welding is an additive process. Sculpting is a reductive process. The only hitch to reductive is, at some point, the material you’re using breaks, or fails. Derek pushed it right to the limit (and in a resin prototype or two, he broke it 🤕). 

You’d be surprised, the mask is larger – area-wise – than you think. When you take a glance at its rival, the Rampage, you think that those earguards are minuscule. But the mask itself is really round and wide already! 

I’ll make an effort to wear it, and my CanaryCage (approximately the same size as a modern Icon), and my Rampage… and my FM4K Mag, for comparison’s sake, and post some photos. 

[MAUmpire]

9 hours ago, MadMax said:

I’ll make an effort to wear it, and my CanaryCage (approximately the same size as a modern Icon), and my Rampage… and my FM4K Mag, for comparison’s sake, and post some photos. 

Forgive me as I've been out of the plate gear mines for a minute...what is a CanaryCage?

[MadMax]

4 minutes ago, MAUmpire said:

what is a CanaryCage?

This 👆🏼 is a CanaryCage. 

One of our fellow U-E members (Umpire Imperials? Umperials? 🤔) found this in a box of Wilson DynaLites. He noticed that it wasn’t like other Wilson’s, and even shaved a corner off to confirm it as an aluminum frame. There’s a patent # silkscreened on the frame, and when he relayed it to us, @Replacematt noted that it’s a patent held by Diamond. So, I deduced that it was a Diamond working-prototype – called a beta unit – that they never retailed in the States. 

How it got here is anyone’s guess. We speculated that Diamond produced it overseas, but because it looks (visually) too similar to a Wilson, they were squashed on selling it here. But because it looks like it does, and an aluminum, and represents a thorn in Wilson’s side… I had to have it. 

So I bought it off him. I’ll have to try a remember his SN, but it involves Canary (his last name, I think 🤔 ). So, I took to naming it a CanaryCage. A rare, rare bird. 

It’s a really nifty frame. They used I-bar shaping on the aluminum, so it’s flat, and (thus) thinner than a DynAlum. The XCG looks more like an Icon, instead of more pointed like the devil’s goatee of the Wilson’s line of masks. I find it more reliable and trustworthy than DynAlums, which I’ve tried, only to lose two of them to breakage. This is the pitfall of aluminum. 

Magnesium is 10x better. Just as light, if not lighter. Doesn’t bend, and no welds to pop. Prior to the Mirage’s arrival, I would do the bulk of my games with my FM4K Mag, or one of my two Rampages, only trottin’ out the Canary for “big TV” games. Now, since we’ve brought the Mirage to market, I’ve already sold off my Rampages, will likely put the FM4K in “desert storage”, and the Canary will be a novelty. 

[MAUmpire]

6 hours ago, MadMax said:

That is sweet! I loved the I-bars on my old FM25. But yeah -- it looks a LOT like a Dyna-lite. I can see why they weren't allowed to sell it. Nice find!

[Replacematt]

9 hours ago, MadMax said:

This 👆🏼 is a CanaryCage. 

 

As I mentioned in another (or maybe this) thread, aluminum mask frames should be illegal. They are inherently unsafe, and if I'm seeing things correctly, this mask is vinyl-dipped and could already be compromised. 

When stressed beyond its elasticity, aluminum doesn't tend to bend--it fractures very minutely. Given the fact it is impossible to make a perfectly symmetrical item, the forces exerted will combine at one or a handful of points and continue to fracture, invisible to the naked eye. Then one impact will cause that point to snap and dislodge itself, and you have a useless mask. The danger is that that point could be somewhere around the eye opening, and create a space for the ball to get through.  

When aluminum fractures completely, think of the graphite in a pencil and how it looks when you snap one in two. The ends of the graphite almost always still mate perfectly--this how an aluminum fracture presents and why it's so hard to see, as the mass stays with the item and does not deform, leaving no visible gaps.

Because this mask is dipped, there very well could be one or more completely fractured bars, and there are likely multiple partially-fractured ones.

(Iron-or aluminum-ically, the impossibility of making a symmetrical item makes the mask safer, as if forces were 100% evenly distributed, at some point in time, there would be multiple points of failure that would occur simultaneously, shattering into myriad pieces while on the wearer.)

Even with my experience with aluminum forging, I trusted that the alloy used would somehow be more ductile; it was not. What I described above happened to me with two Wilson aluminum masks--both had complete fractures of bars near the back of the jaw area.

[Rock Bottom]

I know @MadMax you don't wear a dangling throat guard, but for those of us who do, do you think we'll be able to forego doing so with this new Mirage?

[MadMax]

12 hours ago, Replacematt said:

As I mentioned in another (or maybe this) thread, aluminum mask frames should be illegal.

Which is why the aluminum iX3 for catchers never amounted to a significant sales wave. Then again, Diamond’s primary sales income and presence is in amateur baseball and softball, neither of which “allow” a TM. 

Of the two aluminum masks on the market (for umpires), those Diamond iX3s that have broken typically broke at the welds, especially on the wicket (the bottom, inverted U) as it overlays the three transverse bars. A popped weld isn’t a failure of the metal, but a failure of the welding process. Yes, this failure is a failure of the mask overall, because the mask is a “summary (system) of its parts”, but it’s not the bar material failing. It must be of an alloy wherein its inherit qualities introduce (more) elasticity. 
By contrast, similar to your experience, both of the Wilson DynAlums I’ve had that failed on me sheared on the transverse bar, at the back of the jaw where it curves and becomes the ear guard. Not just a weld pop, but a full-incisive shear. 
I can easily tell that Wilson is using an inferior, more brittle alloy than Diamond. 

Have you shared your findings and… sentiment(?) with Wilson? 

12 hours ago, Replacematt said:

and if I'm seeing things correctly, this mask is vinyl-dipped and could already be compromised. 

It’s not… it’s paint. 

13 hours ago, Replacematt said:

What I described above happened to me with two Wilson aluminum masks

The relentless drive in (umpire) masks is to make them – by request – as light as possible. Wilson jumped onto the “aluminum barge” on the river because the cro-moly barge cannot get any lighter. At least any lighter than what they had available. Because of their ridiculously crude manufacturing process on DynaLites (the vinyl dipping you’re talking about), they couldn’t achieve the lightness and thin-ness that made titanium so desirable (amongst umpires). At that time (ca. 2015), their titanium barge was sinking. They were losing money hand-over-fist on their existing titaniums, so much so, they set their Pro stool pigeons onto a smear campaign against titanium. I’m convinced that the DynAlums, especially the first batches, were a rush job, in reaction to discovering that a substantial plethora of MiLBUs were wearing Diamond iX3’s. 
Why? 
Because they are light ✅, don’t (easily) bend ✅ (and thus, don’t bring demerits from one’s Supervisor), and are inexpensive ✅. 

For Wilson, it likely became not a system of making “the best performing mask, period”, but rather, make the mask that will be light enough to compel a pro umpire (lowercase) to buy it, then replace as necessary. Wilson’s CPU (cost per unit) on DynAlums is likely 1/4th the CPU on DynaTites (titaniums). 

13 hours ago, Replacematt said:

I trusted that the alloy used would somehow be more ductile; it was not.

Easton is well-known and highly regarded in the metals space for their work in aluminum, going back to Doug Easton’s introduction of aluminum-shaft arrows for archery in the 1930s. They made aluminum ski-poles in the 60s, bats and tent poles in the early 70s, and ultimately tennis racquets and hockey stick-shafts in the late 70s and into the 80s. 

There’s a rich, very productive history that unrolls in the following 20 years… then, invariably and inevitably destroyed by private equity “investment”. 

My point is, despite Easton’s history with aluminum, and then their passing from one corporate overlord to another, and now being owned by Rawlings… they’ve never produced an aluminum catcher’s mask… until this year?! Why this year to start doing so? 🤔 

I have to think, that this new Hyperlite aluminum alloy is “safe” enough to do so. 
 

 

I think magnesium is the answer, though, going forward… 

 

… and putting the burden on the pads, for which we – collectively – gotta make better ones! 

[Velho]

14 hours ago, Replacematt said:

As I mentioned in another (or maybe this) thread, aluminum mask frames should be illegal. They are inherently unsafe, and if I'm seeing things correctly, this mask is vinyl-dipped and could already be compromised. 

Aluminum was certainly not good as my homes interior wiring.

23 minutes ago, MadMax said:

A popped weld isn’t a failure of the metal, but a failure of the welding process.

My understanding is aluminum is hard to weld? Part of the reason Tesla was only/one of few to use it in their car frame when S was introduced (and changed to an alloy with the cheaper models).

[MadMax]

27 minutes ago, Velho said:

My understanding is aluminum is hard to weld?

Challenging, yes. Relevant to us (gear geeks), aluminum and titanium both readily & (very very) rapidly oxidize and form a passivational layer. This layer provides protection to further corrosion of the structure beneath. But while that layer is protective, it thwarts conventional – ie. easier, less costly (in time, resources, and skill) – welding. 

It’s not hard; instead, it’s costly. 

[Replacematt]

4 hours ago, MadMax said:

Have you shared your findings and… sentiment(?) with Wilson? 

I returned the first one and got the second as a replacement. So, they at least knew of the problem.

I do detect a bit of frivolity in that question, as I think we both know the amount of import Wilson would give to such unsolicited opinions.

 

4 hours ago, Velho said:

Aluminum was certainly not good as my homes interior wiring.

Industry-wide trial and error. Aluminum, being cheaper than copper and about a third of the weight, was used in all sorts of wiring applications in the 1960s. Of particular note was when GE was building its U50 (or was it the U50C? I can't remember, and Google feels like cheating) for the Union Pacific with miles upon miles of wiring. Given that these were some of the largest diesel-electric locomotives ever built (they were basically two U25Bs on a single frame,) keeping costs down was imperative. The quick failure of the wiring (along with the decreased flexibility in use of such a large machine vice two equivalent smaller ones) meant that these were either expensively rewired or, more commonly, put out to pasture well before their leases were up--also coinciding with the oil crises of the early 1970s.

[MadMax]

On 3/8/2025 at 10:42 AM, Velho said:

Aluminum was certainly not good as my homes interior wiring.

Higher conductive resistance than copper; but, (significantly) lighter, stronger, and cheaper (per foot) than copper. Thus, a fire hazard inside your home’s (or other structures’) walls. However, just fine when jacketed and exposed, as it doesn’t corrode (reductively). We wouldn’t be able to have a sprawling power grid without it. 

On 3/7/2025 at 9:27 PM, Rock Bottom said:

do you think we'll be able to forego doing so with this new Mirage?

That was the entire intent of making the Mirage’s XCG so elongated and by raking it out only 1-2° from plumb (straight down). The Nike “Icon” Titanium had this for the first few years of its introduction, until, ultimately, it got shortened on feedback from catchers. 

On the one extreme, we didn’t want to make it as drastically long as Jeff Nelson’s custom XCG, but we also didn’t want to exaggerate the forward rake into the 30-45° range, like the Wilson “Billy Goat” Platinum DynaTite masks had. They were raked that much so as to allow a DTG to hang between the XCG and the (stoooopid!) billow pad on the Platinum CP. 

@DerekGDS really kept this inclusion in the design path. 

We figure that if barbaric guys – like @tpatience the Blue Butcher – want to lop it off, then we’ll give ‘em sumthin’ to challenge ‘em. 

[orangebird]

Max is your day job in something related to metals or have you just really taken an interest in researching this?

[umpstu]

8 minutes ago, orangebird said:

Max is your day job in something related to metals or have you just really taken an interest in researching this?

He ate paste and paint chips as a child.

[MadMax]

47 minutes ago, umpstu said:

He ate paste and paint chips as a child.

Pffft. Didn't chew. Sniffed glue. 

56 minutes ago, orangebird said:

Max is your day job in something related to metals or ... ?

Funny you ask that... I'm a farm kid who tried engineering, couldn't excel even tread water at math, and instead gravitated towards materials and design. One of my roommates and best friends is an electrical engineer, and by adjacency, I got into (unlicensed, ha!) electrical work, ie. physically setting up server racks and rooms and communication nodes. I had to get a major, so I sped through graphic design, and put some emphasis on "environmental design". So, I could infuse my interests and knowledge of materials into designing useable, functional spaces, without the burden of being an/the architect.  🤓 

I am easily distracted, though, and I am terrible at sitting at a desk or workstation. Oo! Shiny! 

[dumbdumb]

6 hours ago, MadMax said:

 

I am easily distracted, though, and I am terrible at sitting at a desk or workstation. Oo! Shiny! 

ADHD candidate-diagnosed or undiagnosed.