skate sharpening

[sue123]

So how often do you sharpen your skates? I'm curious, cause it feels like all I do is get my skates sharpened. i don't know what it is, but every 1-2 weeks, i get my skates sharpened. i know some hockey players actually sharpen their skates before every game 8O i know it depends on how often you skate, and what kind of skating you do, but i'm just curious.

p.s: you may all start seeing many more posts from me tonight because i have a cell biology final tomorrow, and procrastination is sadly my favorite game to play. :giveup:

[Stormy]

Wow, even the super competitive kids at my rink don't get them done every 1-2 weeks. I get mine done every 2 months or so. I'd get it done every month, but my skate shop is at least an hour away (more with traffic, which there ALWAYS is after work). What kind of blades do you have and how often do you skate? 1-2 weeks seems like a lot?!

[sue123]

i thought it seemed like a lot. but they do skate sharpening at the rink i skate at, which is about 15-20 minutes away. i skate around 3 days a week, for 2-3 hours at a time, doing spins, a bunch of 3-turns, mohawks, and trying to jump. i have ultima blades, not sure of the model, they came pre-attached to the jackson's that i bought, and i believe those are the competitor model, not sure of the number.

bu i definitly feel the need to get my blades sharpened. i can't spin very well, and i get them sharpened, and they stay centered and become nice and fast. and the 3-turns work better. if i sharpened them every 2 months, i don't know what i'd do. maybe i get them sharpened more often than i need to? but i seem to skate much better when i get them sharpened. and i bring them in, and i told the guy that it seems like i get them sharpened too much, and he looked at them, said the edges have already become flat, and i need to get them sharpened again. he did the "nail" test (put his nail on the edge to see if it took anything off, apparently when it's sharp, a bit of hte upper level of your nail comes off). maybe i just wear them down really quickly.

[Melzorina]

I get mine sharpened whenever I feel them going blunt, or use my instructor as a stopper...

[Isk8NYC]

I believe the guideline is 20-30 hours of skating between sharpening, depending on your skill level.

Once you have sharpened the skates beyond the hard tempered steel, the blade is much "softer" and doesn't hold the sharpening well. If you still have angled hard steel at the bottom, this may not be a problem.

Do you wear hard guards when you're off-ice? It helps keep them sharp.

I learned that you should look inside the hard guards' tracks where the blade rests. The guards get cruddy with dirt and debris. Clean 'em or replace 'em if the guards are really nasty. (I love my new guards!)
You could try leaning how to use a sharpening stone to bring up the edges before skating. It'll cut down on the "in between" sharpenings.

[CanAmSk8ter]

That does sound like a lot. I get mine done every two or three weeks, but I skate ten to twelve hours a week. The problem with having them sharpened too often is that it wears the blades out quicker. I would try having them sharpened more like every 20 hours of ice time and maybe having them stoned in between. Make sure you're drying them off well and letting them air out after you skate, and like someone else said make sure your guards aren't full of sand and dirt. You can put them through the dishwasher to get them clean, believe it or not. I love to do that- my dad always freaks when he opens the dishwasher and finds my skate guards ;)

[jenlyon60]

I also get mine sharpened about every 20 hours. For me that's about every 3 weeks to a month, depending on how much ice time I'm getting.

[sue123]

hm, well, i just got these new skates with the new blades, so maybe they'll hold up longer. i haven't gotten them sharpened since the initial sharpening after i bought them. my old skates i was getting htem sharpened every other week or so, probably because they had worn down so much over the years.

i am really good with the soft guards and letting them air out after i skate, my hard guards could use some work though. see, the benches to put on your skates are about 2 feet from the rink entrance, so i figure for 2 feet, what's the point of hard guards? if i go to other rinks with a longer walk to the entrance, than i'll wear the hard guards.

unfortunatly, putting them in the dishwasher won't work for me because i don't have one. i live on campus, and at home, my mom doesn't believe in them. sadly, the only dishwasher i have access to is the special chemistry dishwasher, which i wouldn't put anything of mine in there. :)

i was just procrastinating earlier, i'm not sure how these skates will do, hopefully they'll be better cause they're new.

what is this sharpening stone? my dad told me he used to use one in Russia on his hockey skates, but what exactly is it? some sort of specialized stone? do they sell them in the pro shops?

[Anita18]

Yeah, it does seem like you do sharpen your blades a lot...

I sharpen mine whenever I come back home from college, since I trust the sharpener that I have now. That's probably only twice a year, but I hardly skate now as it is. I know I really need a sharpening when I starting skidding on my jump landings, LOL. Like, I'll land a loop and I feel myself skidding about 3 inches to the left.

[doubletoe]

i thought it seemed like a lot. but they do skate sharpening at the rink i skate at, which is about 15-20 minutes away. i skate around 3 days a week, for 2-3 hours at a time.

bu i definitly feel the need to get my blades sharpened. i can't spin very well, and i get them sharpened, and they stay centered and become nice and fast. and the 3-turns work better. if i sharpened them every 2 months, i don't know what i'd do. maybe i get them sharpened more often than i need to? but i seem to skate much better when i get them sharpened. and i bring them in, and i told the guy that it seems like i get them sharpened too much, and he looked at them, said the edges have already become flat, and i need to get them sharpened again. he did the "nail" test (put his nail on the edge to see if it took anything off, apparently when it's sharp, a bit of hte upper level of your nail comes off). maybe i just wear them down really quickly.

A good rule of thumb is to get blades sharpened every 40 hours of skating. If you need them sharpened as often as you do, they may just be made of low quality steel so they dull quickly. By sharpening them so often, you are probably shortening the life of your blades by quite a bit and will need to get new blades before too long. The better the blade, the better it holds a sharpening, so it would be a worthwhile investment to get good quality blades and sharpen them 5 times a year rather than 20 times a year (assuming you pay $8-$12 per sharpening).

[starskate6.0]

So how often do you sharpen your skates? I'm curious, cause it feels like all I do is get my skates sharpened. i don't know what it is, but every 1-2 weeks, i get my skates sharpened. i know some hockey players actually sharpen their skates before every game 8O i know it depends on how often you skate, and what kind of skating you do, but i'm just curious.

p.s: you may all start seeing many more posts from me tonight because i have a cell biology final tomorrow, and procrastination is sadly my favorite game to play. :giveup:

I have hade the pleasure of sharpening my own skates for over 20 years as well as many other great skaters and no one I know can dull a good pair of blades better than a chorus skater in an ice show. So here's my tip ;)

If, like the chorus skater you are very good on edges and able to stop on most of them you will tend to where them down quite quickly but even this class of highly skill skater generaly does not get a skate sharpening
every 2 weeks. A skater at this level would only have them done about every 6 weeks as long as the ice is good. Iv seen them step on bords, props, costumes, and each other. :lol: If you feel that you are loosing your grip after only 2 weeks you may want to try a deeper grind, However 8O keep in mind that stopping gets more difficult with deeper grinds.

Its really up to you and how comfortable you feel on your blades, if your still not sure, try every 6 weeks if you skate at least 3 time a week. :D

[icedancer2]

If you feel that you are loosing your grip after only 2 weeks you may want to try a deeper grind, However 8O keep in mind that stopping gets more difficult with deeper grinds.

Its really up to you and how comfortable you feel on your blades, if your still not sure, try every 6 weeks if you skate at least 3 time a week. :D

I was thinking the same thing about the hollow -- I have a pretty deep one on my dance blades and I only need to sharpen them, oh, twice a year at most. Of course, I am not spinning...

[sk8pics]

I keep track of the amount of time I am spending skating and try for a sharpening every 30 hours or so. I notice that, especially on hard crappy ice, I start slipping when I to around 25 hours or so. I guess I like a lot of grip, and I have a radius of hollow of 7/16".

I love the grip and added speed of a good sharpening! My sharpener does a wonderful job and I don't lose my ability to stop or do turns with a sharpening. Takes me all of 2 or 3 minutes to adjust, and it's mostly because of the surprise I feel over the added speed.

Pat

[Mrs Redboots]

I'm afraid I get my blades sharpened whenever they need it - usually every 3 months or so I'd start noticing I hadn't much edge. But the ice has been so hard at our rink lately, that they've needed it more often. And now the man who used to do my skates has had to stop, so my coach takes them, along with everybody else's, to the person he has always used. I think they'll get done rather more regularly now!

[Isk8NYC]

I notice that, especially on hard crappy ice ...
Outdoor ice has bits of dirt and leaves in it, so the blades take a lot of abuse. If you skate on ponds and lakes, you'll find it wears down your edges fast.

[sk8pics]

Nope, I skate indoors always. It's just that the ice is not always properly taken care of, and a couple of the ice surfaces feel very hard to me.

Pat

[saras]

In my experience, it can also depend on who is doing the sharpening. I have had two folks sharpen my blades over the last 3 years - and one guy's work consistently needs new sharpenings after about 2 weeks (hard ice, about 10-12 hours of use a week). The other guy I can get 4-6 weeks out of, easy.

Whether the first guy is just more conservative in his sharpening - I dunno - but that's my experience. I've asked a few other local skaters who use these two blade guys, and they seem to have similar experiences.

When at all possible, I try to use the guy whose sharpening lasts longer :)

Sara

[sue123]

In my experience, it can also depend on who is doing the sharpening. I have had two folks sharpen my blades over the last 3 years - and one guy's work consistently needs new sharpenings after about 2 weeks (hard ice, about 10-12 hours of use a week). The other guy I can get 4-6 weeks out of, easy.

Whether the first guy is just more conservative in his sharpening - I dunno - but that's my experience. I've asked a few other local skaters who use these two blade guys, and they seem to have similar experiences.

When at all possible, I try to use the guy whose sharpening lasts longer :)

Sara

maybe there is something to that. i used to go to this one place, and i don't seem to remember getting my skates getting sharpened quite so often, but they've since closed. oh well. maybe i should find a new place to get them sharpened?

[sk8er1964]

maybe there is something to that. i used to go to this one place, and i don't seem to remember getting my skates getting sharpened quite so often, but they've since closed. oh well. maybe i should find a new place to get them sharpened?

That would be my suggestion. If the sharpener at your rink does not specialize in figure skates, chances are he is not giving you the kind of grind that you need - something that could ruin your blades. A good sharpener should take into consideration such things as how much you weigh, your height and your skating level when sharpening your skates. My guy keeps a little card on each of his customers, and if there's something you don't like about your blades, he writes it down. He also keeps a listing of every time he sharpens.

I get mine done at around 30 hours. I would never let anyone else but my sharpener (who was recommneded by my coach) touch my skates - well, I did once, but it was because my guy was injured and this guy came highly recommended. The substitute sharpener wrote down exactly what my sharpener had told me to tell him, and even had me skate around to see if the grind suited me. It didn't, and he adjusted it to my liking. If my guy ever goes out of the sharpening business, after first having a panic attack, I'd probably go to this other guy, even if it is an hour drive to get there.

Oh, as far as the hockey skates go, they do need to be sharpened much more often. We get our son's done every 3-5 hours or so. I don't know why.

[Andie]

I don't have mine sharpened much at all, I guess because I don't skate enough. I got my current skates in October 2002 and have had them sharpened 3 (three) times total - first when they were brand new, then in August 2003 and March 2004, which was the last time they were done. I'm sure my blades are due soon to be sharpened.

For the last several months I've only skated 1 1/2 hours a week on average, since March this year. My blades are still okay, but not optimum. My left blade toward the toepick is worst, because of spinning on that spot. I've been noticing some slip there when I do spins. I don't do many jumps...yet.

My coach sharpens skates, he's the one who did mine last. I asked him about the "21 hour rule" and he thinks it has more to do with HOW you skate rather than the HOURS. If you do lots of edges, spins, jumps and skids, then you're going to need sharpening more than someone who just skates forward around the rink.

[NoVa Sk8r]

but i definitely feel the need to get my blades sharpened. i can't spin very well, and i get them sharpened, and they stay centered and become nice and fast.
I would also say that getting your blades sharpened every 1-2 weeks is indeed excessive. Seems like your sharpener muut be selling blades, too, since you'll be down to the nubs of your blades in no time!

The funny thing about your spin comment is that I cannot spin after I get my blades sharpened. Seems like I am trying to whittle my blades down after the initial sharpening. I skate 4-5 times per week, and I get my blades (Pattern 99) sharpened every 2-3 *months*. As a bunch of other spinners can attest, I love having 'dull' blades for spinning. When the blades are too sharp, the spin has no give. With a duller blade, I have more control over the spin because the edges are not gripping the ice like mad.
A masters-level lady told me she gets her blades sharpened every 6 months! 8O

[sue123]

I would also say that getting your blades sharpened every 1-2 weeks is indeed excessive. Seems like your sharpener muut be selling blades, too, since you'll be down to the nubs of your blades in no time!

The funny thing about your spin comment is that I cannot spin after I get my blades sharpened. Seems like I am trying to whittle my blades down after the initial sharpening. I skate 4-5 times per week, and I get my blades (Pattern 99) sharpened every 2-3 *months*. As a bunch of other spinners can attest, I love having 'dull' blades for spinning. When the blades are too sharp, the spin has no give. With a duller blade, I have more control over the spin because the edges are not gripping the ice like mad.
A masters-level lady told me she gets her blades sharpened every 6 months! 8O

maybe i'm just an oddball than. or maybe when my skates get sharpened, they don't get sharpened enough for me to fully grip the ice but enough for the spins to stay nice and centered? i don't know. i also played hockey for a while, so maybe that has something to do with me liking sharp blades?