Question about sharpening

[Logan3]

There is this reputable sharpener and everybody (with no exceptions) goes to him. The problem is that he is really far away, you need an appointement and he is really expensive. Meanwhile there are at least 20 other sharpeners that are a lot more convinient. Of course I was told to keep away since these guys only know hockey and they would ruin my dd skates. Surprising though I can not find anybody that ever used them. How can you be sure that none of this guys is good if nobody ever gives them a chance? Last time I took my ds hockey skates for sharpening the guy asked me if I wanted my dd skates also sharpened. I said no and he was a little hurt. He told me that he is an expert sharpener and he gets a little upset that the local figure skating community snobs him and do not trust him. He thinks that is a rumor that circulates with no evidence. I have to say I agree a little bit since I did not find anybody that actually had a bad experience.

So the question : If I decide to give him a go how would I judge the result? My dd is 6 and I am not sure she will tell me anything. Right now her skates badly need sharpening (teacher told me) and my dd did not complain. Should I look and the blades? Should I look at her basic strocking, edges, what? She is currently basic 8 moving to FS1.

Well any comment, idea please help me. Very busy family looking to save the day from an extra car ride.....

[Bothcoasts]

A young child--or a beginner--may not necessarily know when skates need to be sharpened. It can be hard for them to tell when they're losing edges and having trouble gripping the ice. That being said, I would follow the coach's advice and get the skates sharpened when she suggests it. If the coach is suggesting your daughter have her skates sharpened, it's probably because the edges are dull enough so that it's easily noticed by others.

Some people suggest the fingernail test to determine if your skates need sharpening. Scrape your nail against the side of the edge. If the edge scrapes off some of your fingernail, you may have a decent enough edge. If it cannot scrape off any fingernail, you need to have the skates sharpened. Often with beginners, they wait until there is no edge left whatsoever before a sharpening.

I've had both luck and problems in getting my skates sharpened by sharpeners who aren't the most reputable. When I was skating in high school, the closest reputable sharpener was 30 minutes away. On the spot, I occasionally got my skates sharpened at the rink's pro shop, which did a consistently bad job. Now that I'm coaching, I leave my skates to be (machine) sharpened by someone at the rink where I work. Despite not being "reputable," my co-worker always does a fantastic job and sharpens them perfectly.

Do you have expensive blades that you're worried about? If not, because your daughter is little and at a low freestyle level, I don't see any harm in trying a local sharpener. Tell him exactly what you expect, and give him the benefit of the doubt. At my rink, we don't suggest to our basic skills and low-level freestyle skaters to use expensive sharpeners or equipment if it truly isn't needed. If he sharpens the skates in a way that you're not happy with, then you can visit the reputable sharpener next time. But if he sharpens them to your satisfaction, you'll have saved yourself a lot of time and energy.

[oroetlaboro]

That's a tough one. If your daughter is only 6, then the blades on her skates might not be too costly, and she might outgrow them fairly quickly... You might want to take the risk and give him a try. How long has this particular guy been sharpening? Could it be that the people who had the bad experiences (and thus issued the warnings) are no longer around, but the word is still being passed on? It could be that he'd do a fine job. We have learned that you do really have to ask around for recommendations, and even then you might still have a disastrous experience. For example, we were recently faced with the same dilema. We asked about one sharpener who came to the rink periodically - sure would save us the drive time and inconvenience of going to the "expert". We were told that he did a good job as long as you stayed right there and watched him. We used him twice. DD said she couldn't feel a difference. However, she began to have a lot of trouble centering spins that had been no problem before. Come to find out, he ground this blade down in two sharpenings so that it's only got about 1 more sharpening left in it and did something that messed up the curve of the blade. That blade should have had another year or so left in it. Now it's a loss. When you start to spend $300 on a set of blades and an improper sharpening starts to mess up their skating, you realize how important it is to get it done right. As for how you would know if there is a problem... If your skater starts having trouble with things like spins that could be done easily before - that's one indication. Ask your coach or someone knowledgeable to look at them afterwards. When you go to buy new boots/blades, if they are experts - they will be able to tell you whether or not it is fine as well. If you do decide to stick with the "reputable sharpener", you could try teaming up with other people to reduce the inconvenience - 'skate pooling'. Take turns taking the skates to be sharpened so that you don't have to drive every time. Good luck!

[garyc254]

My story: For the past couple of years I had taken my skates for sharpening to the local hockey/figure skate store that sells most of the lower level skates in this area. It's a small shop and the owner does all of the sharpening himself. Sharpening took about 10 minutes. I never had any problems with the edges he gave me.

My girfriend always took her skates to a woman about 30 miles (one way) away for sharpening. She was an expert figure skate sharpener. She was moving out of town, so on a whim I asked if she would sharpen my blades. 30 minutes later my blades were done. She was VERY meticulous, constantly marking the blades to make sure she was giving me the best.

Since she moved, I had to find a new person to do the job. A local rink skating director / figure skating coach came highly recommended. As she was sharpening my blades, she asked me who had been doing the job before. I told her that ***** had done my last sharpening. She said "***** didn't do this to your blades. She's better than that". I told her that prior to *****, ##### had been doing them. She nodded and said "That makes sense, he's a hockey guy".

He had sharpened my blades too far forward toward the toe pick. Not a major item at my skill level, but enough to let me know that if I want figure skates sharpened, I need to go to someone who specializes in that job.

To me, the trip would be worth it.

Adding in that my girlfriend FedEx's her skates for sharpening to the woman that moved out of town.

`

[twokidsskatemom]

We live in very very very strong hockey area.When my daughter had 50.00 skates, we took them to the Play it again shop to sharpened them.Its all about hockey here !!!
Now she has 200.00 blades, we find someone who is going down to Anchorage and have them take them to the only FS sharpener in the state.Its 400 miles away from us.
Sometimes we even have to fedex the blades but its worth it !!!My daughter has good edges and can always tell me when they need sharpened.Her coach does have a stone for touchups.

[Logan3]

Yeah, I heard the Fed Ex story before. Actually, Brian Boitano had a sharpener in the other end of the USA and he used to mail his skates overnight. This story made a big impression to me at the time and of course I thought OMG what about if they get lost in the mail... I am sure Brian had a back up but nevertheless..... Did you guys read his book? He actually has a big section on the sharpening and shows all the work that his sharpener was doing, calculations, sketches etc. Very impressing.

My daughter has cheap skates right now, Riedell, about 100$ , the ones you buy the boot together with the blade and they only have been sharpened twice (nobody wants to do the trip....). My dd loves them and I hope I ll get one more season out of them.

I am going back to the reputable guy, I just call and made an appointement. One more sacrifice to the Gods of Figure Skating.....

[garyc254]

One more sacrifice to the Gods of Figure Skating.....

:lol: And it never ends.....

`

[flippet]

Do you have expensive blades that you're worried about? If not, because your daughter is little and at a low freestyle level, I don't see any harm in trying a local sharpener.

I might go this way myself, as well. Depends on just how much of a 'hassle' the trip to the reputable sharpener is, though. Some of the things that can go 'wrong' with a 'hockey sharpening' (I say that because it tends to be the hockey guys that we have problems with, though by no means are they always bad, and they aren't the only ones who can screw up blades), is that the toepick could get nicked off or ground down (a good sharpening should stop well back of the pick--there's a hollow between pick and curve of blade that never touches ice anyway, so it doesn't need to be 'sharpened'), the hollow down the length of the blade could be uneven (one side higher than the other), the rocker (precise curvature of the blade) could be ground down/messed up, or simply too much metal could be taken off, drastically shortening the life of the blade.

If you wanted to try the local guy, something you could do would be to make a tracing of the blade, to get the shape of the rocker, and then trace it again after the sharpening and compare. Look at the blade end-on, to check the edge height. Brush your fingers down the sides and off the edges to check for burrs (which isn't a bad sharpening necessarily, but can make it tougher to skate on at first).

The local guy may be 'good enough' for inexpensive, rapidly outgrown equipment. He may not be a total hack.

That said, this is why I like to do my own blades with a hand-held, but then, I'm a tinkerer. :)

[Logan3]

Thanks for the advice! I like all the technical details of what to look for!

[CanAmSk8ter]

Has your daughter started making friends with any of the other girls at the rink, particularly those a bit older and more advanced? The reason I ask is that at rinks where there isn't a sharpener people like to trust, sometimes the parents will take turns bringing several kids' skates to be sharpened. Kind of like a carpool, but with skates instead of children ;) That way, each parent only has to make the trip once in awhile. Might be something you could look into starting, if no one does it already.

[twokidsskatemom]

I agree. The last time we went down to Anchorage, we took 12 pairs of skates !!! We all take turns, and it works out for us !!!!!!!!!!!!

[sk8pics]

I do that as well, but it's my coach who carries my skates (and sometimes others' skates) to another rink that he also teaches at, where an excellent sharpener is based. It's just worth it, even for a beginner, to have good sharpenings. I also track how many hours I spend on the ice in between sharpenings, so I know when it's time before I start to skid.

And a good sharpener knows how to sharpen your blades so you can still stop! I don't lose anything when I get my skates sharpened, not turns, not stops, not spins, and yet I glide faster across the ice and feel much more secure on my jumps.

Good luck!