You can now own your own little piece of Duncan's iconic Big Stick

Inside Maxwell’s Auto Centre in Mill Bay is man who has his work cut out for him.

"I'll be at it for a while,” said Bart Robertson, who owns Maxwell’s Auto Centre and Genuine Collectibles.

That’s an understatement.

Robertson bought the world’s largest hockey stick, which used to reside in Duncan, but was taken down earlier this after decades of wear and tear left it at the end of its lifespan.

Now, it sits on Robertson's wrecking yard property in pieces.

Slowly but surely, that’s beginning to change. Robertson has started transforming the pieces of the iconic 28-tonne stick int "key fobs" not much bigger than a toonie.

"To build this product, I had to get it into manageable sections,” said Robertson.

The process begins in a decommissioned school bus on the grounds of the wrecking yard. One-foot-long, 300-pound sections are cut from the stick. From those sections, tubes are drilled out and cut into small circles.

Equally sized pieces are then cut out of the black protective rubber that once surrounded the stick’s massive puck.

"It's a lot of work,” said Robertson.

Both the rubber and wooden circles are then laser printed with an image of the stick in its former home over the entrance to the Cowichan Community Centre arena. The rubber and wood are then pressed together between the keepsakes' plastic casings.

"It lived in Duncan for so long, so that's what's on these key fobs now,” said Robertson.

On Monday, Genuine Collectibles began selling the first run of key fobs online. They proved extremely popular. 

"There were 30,000 hits on the website,” said Robertson. "It sold-out; 600 in four hours so.”

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

On Thursday, a couple of those customers were picking-up their online purchases at Robertson’s shop.

"It's a piece of history, preserving it, it's awesome,” said Allen Cunningham, a Nanaimo resident.

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

The first run 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 has led countless Canadian kids to fall in love with hockey.

"My mind is going 24-7,” said Robertson, adding that he's considering other souvenir options for the wood that will be left after the run of key fobs.

"I guess you can say, I'll milk it,” said Robertson.