Inside Maxwell’s Auto Center in Mill Bay is a man with his work cut out for him.

“I’ll be there for a while,” said Bart Robertson, owner of Maxwell’s Auto Center and Genuine Collectibles.

That’s an understatement.

Robertson purchased the world’s largest hockey stick, which once stood in Duncan but was dismantled earlier after decades of wear and tear left it at the end of its lifespan.

Now it lies in pieces on the property of the Robertson wrecking yard.

Slowly but surely this is starting to change. Robertson began turning parts of the iconic 28-ton stick into “key chains” not much bigger than a two-dollar coin.

“To create this product, I had to break it down into manageable sections,” Robertson said.

The process begins in a decommissioned school bus on the demolition site. Foot-long sections weighing 300 pounds are cut from the stick. From these sections, tubes are drilled and cut into small circles.

Equal-sized pieces are then cut from the black protective rubber that once surrounded the stick’s huge puck.

“It’s a lot of work,” Robertson said.

The rubber and wood circles are then laser printed with an image of the stick in its former home above the entrance to the Cowichan Community Center arena. The rubber and wood are then pressed together between the plastic casings of the souvenirs.

“He lived in Duncan for so long, so that’s what’s on these key chains now,” Robertson said.

Monday, Authentic Collectibles Started Selling Out the first series of key rings online. They have proven extremely popular.

“The website has been viewed 30,000 times,” Robertson said. “It was complete; 600 in four hours then.

Many customers were based on Vancouver Island, but there were also orders from around the world.

On Thursday, a few of those customers were picking up their online purchases at the Robertson store.

“It’s a piece of history, it needs to be preserved, it’s awesome,” said Nanaimo resident Allen Cunningham.

“It was an icon at Duncan and now it can be an icon piece in your pocket,” added Carol Sykes, of Duncan.

The first edition of 6,000 will have four different themes, celebrating Duncan, Penticton, where the stick was originally produced, Expo 86, where it was introduced to the world, and a frozen pond of the type that brought countless Canadian children to fall in love with it. hockey.

“I’m thinking 24/7,” Robertson said, adding that he was considering other memorabilia options for the wood that would remain after the keychain series.

“I guess you can say, I’ll milk it,” Robertson said.