Had the same issues w/ Bauer and Easton sticks. Once the blade starts to show any wear and chippage there isn't much life to it anymore and you might as well start searching for a new stick/replacement blade.
For the past little while I've been using Warrior dolomite shaft and blades. GREAT! The Warrior blade is one stiff ass blade that took a crap load of punishment.
Recently I made the switch to the most recent TPS R8 stick, so far preformance wise it's great, and at 430 something grams it's light as heck. (Very comparable to the Synergy SL that was my all time fav. stick.) Durability wise, don't know, haven't used them for too long yet, so we'll see. Bought three of the R8's online for a pretty good deal so even if it breaks I got back-up!
