How Often do you sharpen your blades?

[cecealias]

I'm just beginning to wonder if i'm weird, or what - I don't sharpen my blades very often yet I skate pretty frequently. When healthy i skate about 4-6 times a week for about an 1.5 -2 hrs.

I only sharpen my blades once every 5-6 months or sometimes even longer. It doesn't bother me unless i start feeling really slow and have work on getting into the ice a lot. Is there anyone else like this? Everyone else I know sharpens their blades like every month or every other month.

[WhisperSung]

I used to wait every 4 months to get my skates sharpened until I took my juvenile moves test. I passed, but all 3 judges wrote, "get your skates sharpened!" because I was slipping off my edges a little bit.

Now I sharpened them once every 6 weeks or so. Then again, I only skate about 4 days a week. It seems to work well for me. I had a friend, though (the guy who taught himself all his singles and doubles) who waited 9 months and just recently got his skates sharpened. That sort of made me cringe :P

[EastonSkater]

I sharpen my blades before every session I go to. I use the pro-filer. Just never know what kind of stuff the skate runs over on the ice during each session. I think it's a bit suspect to not have your blades sharpened for months on end, especially if you skate a lot.

[froggy]

I skate about 3x/week 2 hours each time. I sharpen my blades just about every 3-4 months, I know I need a sharpening when I start slipping on my edges when practicing my MITF.

[icecatepairs]

I skate a lot , so i sharpen them every 3 weeks. i find that they get worn unevenly in pairs becaseu of death spirals andsometimes we clink blades or step on each othe in a split twist , so often they need to get the nicks out.

[TreSk8sAZ]

I skate 5-6x/week and get my blades sharpened around every three weeks. I try to get them sharpened a week and a half before competitions or tests to make sure they're nice and sharp.

[jazzpants]

Oh, thanks for reminding me, cecealias! I have to go get my skates sharpened again! :P :twisted: :lol: (It's been 4 months now!!!)

[renatele]

I get mine sharpened about every 25 hours of skating. Could probably go about 30 hours if I wouldn't hate extremely sharp blades - right now, I get mine hand-stoned/polished etc after machine sharpening to take the bite off.

[frvanilla]

I only do 2 hrs of freestyle each week but I spend a lot of time doing Learn-to-skate and my blades dull very quickly and unevenly due to frequent stops. Usually I stretch it to about 2 months before I get my skates sharpened, but I really should do it at about 3 weeks time.

[DressageChica]

I have to have my skates sharpened every 3 weeks or else I will wipe out on aggressive edges.

Though I can't do flying camels or sits...I can't imagine trying to do these without sharp blades. That's like asking for the death penalty!

[Skate@Delaware]

About every 20-30 hours works for me....but once I got so busy I couldn't get them done until after 60 hours had gone by. I had no edges left and I was skidding all over the place! My spins were better though ;)

[jenlyon60]

About every 20-25 hours. Which corresponds to somewhere between once a month and every 2 months.

Can't stand skating on dull blades (even if I did pass my Tango on blades that were a couple weeks past needing sharpening).

[sunshinepointe]

I replied "other" because I get mine sharpened when I can make the trek up to the guy that does them for me. Ideally I'd like my skates to be SUPER sharp all the time - I just got mine sharpened last week and already I miss the bite lol. If there was a guy in house I'd do it every month to 6 weeks but now I tend to let it go much longer :frus:

[VegasGirl]

I too replied "other" since I get them sharpened when they need sharpening and that doesn't always happen at the same interval. When I compete and thus skate more often I sharpen them roughly every 6 weeks or so... if not then it can take up to 3 months before they need sharpening.

[Perry]

I skate about 15 hours/week and get my blades sharpened every 2-3 months (basically, anytime I either start completely falling on forward crossovers or have a dance test coming up). I really need to be better about it...

[kayskate]

I picked "other" b/c my skating has been so infrequent and inconsistent the last yr or so. Skating less, I need fewer sharpenings. Depends on how much I skate.

Kay

[mikawendy]

I get mine sharpened about every 30-35 hours of skating. I prefer to get them done after about 30 hours, because up around the 35-37 hour range, they suddenly go from skateable to slipping all over the place.

[icedancer2]

It would be interesting to know if having a higher-level blade means you don't have to sharpen them as often. It seems to me that when I had a Coronation Ace or Wilson Dance blade, I had to get them sharpened all of the time. Since I got MK Dance and now Wilson Superdance 99, I find I don't need to get them sharpened as often.

Of course I skate at four different rinks with four different types of ice so what works on one rink doesn't work at the others... so I get them sharpened when I think that maybe the problem is dull blades and not some other ice-related, me-related "problem".

In other words, "whenever".:roll:

[dbny]

For the past two years, I have only sharpened mine once a year. That's because I am spending most of my time teaching beginners on outdoor ice. The ice is really hard on the blades, and if I sharpened them when they really needed it, I would probably cut their life in half. Since I haven't been skating much for myself anyway, it hasn't mattered much. I'm going to spruce them up with the Skatemate soon, and then go for a sharpening at the end of the season.

[TimDavidSkate]

I never do, I hone my blades :halo:

[nigrafeles]

About every 4 months....it works out to about every 40 hours since I usually skate two hour sessions a week. I also ask them not to retouch them to get the burrs from sharpening off since it dulls the blades a bit, but thats just personal preference.
I'd really like to learn how to sharpen my own blades...but the only guy I really trust to teach me lives about an hour away, each way, without traffic, so that really not possible right now.

[EastonSkater]

*snip* I also ask them not to retouch them to get the burrs from sharpening off since it dulls the blades a bit, but thats just personal preference.
*snip*

Getting rid of the burrs after the grinding makes the blade a lot sharper than leaving the burrs on there.

[Isk8NYC]

With a good sharpener, s/he usually asks if you want the edges "stoned" down. It does take away some of the sharpness as well as the burrs. I usually asked for it if I had a sharpening right before a competition or test. It makes those first 2-3 skating sessions easier, and you can actually stop on the ice, especially if you've been skating on dull butter knives.

Forgot to add: I have my blades sharpened every 2 months or so. I only skate at an indoor rink and it's mostly teaching hours; about 50 - 60 hours. When I'm actually skating for myself (shows testing etc) they get dull more quickly and I have them sharpened after 30-40 hours of use.

DBNY - When I used to skate indoors and outdoors I used two different pairs of skates. (I was wearing Reidell Gold Stars at the time.) Saved my good blades for indoor, used an old pair for outdoors. The dirt, leaves, and trash in outdoor ice really wears down the blades quickly.

[Casey]

Getting rid of the burrs after the grinding makes the blade a lot sharper than leaving the burrs on there.
Not true. The process of de-burring does (very slightly) dull the blades

I prefer the burrs left alone as well, because for the first few sessions the skates have an extra bite - it irritates some skaters, but I enjoy it. After that it's the same. Any sort of decent sharpener will confirm that.


When I was skating all the time, I'd get my skates sharpened every 2-3 months, when I felt like they needed it. It depends also on the quality of the blade - the more expensive ones stay sharper longer because of the metal properties.

[EastonSkater]

With a good sharpener, s/he usually asks if you want the edges "stoned" down. It does take away some of the sharpness as well as the burrs. *snip*

Sharpening tends to naturally produce burrs on the blades. With a burr on it, the edge of a blade is very roughly like the crest of a rolling ocean wave that's sloped to the side (side profile). After removing the burr, the blade edge becomes like a wave with the crest pointed straight upwards (sharp). Of course, the shape of a blade edge is not identical in shape to a wave crest....but that's the rough idea.

So just to make it clear to everybody, to use a stone to remove burrs makes the blades sharper than with burrs on it.

'Stoning down' is to use a stone to dull the blades if they're too sharp (after the stone has already been used to remove the bulk of the burrs). Stoning down is not the same as using a stone to remove burrs. Stoning down is to use the stone to hone away at the edge.....most likely to hone at some angle, until small burrs start to appear again....which makes the blade duller again.

[doubletoe]

Actually, about every 6 weeks, or 36 hours.

[twinkle]

I just drove 1 1/2 hrs each way to get my skates sharpened by my old coach (batikat's coach). He is the only good sharpener I know of so I will have to get my skates sharpened less frequently than I used to.

I usually wait about 6 weeks.