Blade alignment after using same skates for a LOOOONG time!

[jazzpants]

Hi there!

Has anyone had the issue where your coach (or on your own) discovered that your blade alignment has been wrong all along and you need a blade alignment after skating on said skates for many months? (Over 3.5 years for me!)

My coach had me do a very simple edge exercise and I found I had trouble with them. My coach checked my hip alignment off ice and then checked my skates. She thought after looking at my skates that it need to be adjusted.

I had also noticed that I had trouble on the right foot doing power pulls. (Blade always felt a bit off centered.)

Anyone have a checklist of what they look for when they try out new blade alignment? And is it possible as your boot wears down that you need to do blade alignments?

TIA.

[fsk8r]

I had mine adjusted by the pro shop after I'd had blades changed by a different shop. I'd actually not noticed a problem with them when skating on them and didn't really notice the change afterwards, although it was quite a significant adjustment that was made.

[rlichtefeld]

My guess is that it was somewhat off when first mounted, and then after 3.5 years, your boots have broken down enough that it is more noticeable and causing you problems. Do your ankles pronate? Most of us do.

I have been in my new boots for about a year, and the left one is creasing a little more on the inside than the outside, and it feels like I need to move my blade to the inside to compensate. However, I'm going to try to tighten them up a bit and see if I can get the outside to crease more like the inside.

Four weeks to ANs, I don't need boot problems!

Rob

[Isk8NYC]

I have heard of the "aging skates blade adjustment" in the past.

One reason is that the blade sinks into the sole after a while, perhaps not evenly. That's usually fixed with a shim or by sanding the bottom of the boot level.

Another reason is because sharpenings have changed the rocker profile in a way that moves the "sweet spot" Then the blade needs to be moved back further on the boot to reposition it. At that point, the blade's usually so sharpened, the adjustment is a temporary fix before the blades require replacement.

I agree about the misalignment from the start causing later issues. It's very easy to be duped into thinking that your skating skills are the problem, or that you need to get used to the blades if you don't know why a blade feels "wrong." It's especially true when you buy new boots.


If you're still using the temporary mounting slots on the blades, it's possible for the blades to loosen up and get out of alignment, especially if you're doing a lot of jumping. Tightening the blades or putting in permanent screws cements the misalignment into place.

[Query]

Shame on me. ISK8NY's loose screw in slot thing happened to me, because I skated for a while on a test mount without realizing it. I even ran into a problem after the permanent mount was done because I had let the screws come loose, and the blade kept moving around. Everything else people have said makes sense to me too.

BTW, if you are still growing, or are gaining or losing weight, it makes complete sense all forms of alignment would change. And boot shapes and stiffnesses are constantly changing, so it makes sense people sometimes have to readjust, no matter what. No big deal.

It's pretty easy to tell if you have an overall blade left/right offset problem - meaning both front and rear are offset relative to your balance left or right. When doing 1 foot glides with your body weight centered over the blade, you feel like you have to work to keep the blade upright. Pretty easy to change too. (I still prefer to put tape under the less strongly weighted side of the insole instead of offsetting blades, because I found that centering the blade under the place the foot is more or less designed to bear it - in most people more or less along a line between the heel center and about halfway between the big toe and the next one over, though there is some disagreement - made my feet a lot less sore than offsetting way off to one side. And I THINK it improved spin balance slightly.)

But alignment - meaning the relative left/right offset of the front and rear part of the blade - is a lot harder to figure out. When I had it wrong, there was an obscure feeling I wasn't facing the exact direction the blade glided in, but I can't think of an exact test or measure.

It never occurred to me you could change the forward/back position of the sweet spot (also called the spin rocker region, the place the blade is designed to spin most easily) by remounting the blade. I've only changed the rocker profile by careful sharpening to reposition it. I guess combining the two techniques should let you modify the distance from the sweet spot to the toe pick to where you want it while still keeping the sweet spot where you want it. What a cool idea!

The one thing that can't be easily fixed (as far as I know!) is if you have warped your blade so it is no longer straight. It is worth checking that the mounting plates haven't warped in such a way that there is space between them and part of the boot, or the blade is likely to warp too. You can add shims to fix the space-between problem. Maybe someone with a good metal working shop could fix the warped blade problem by running it carefully through one of the machines they use to curve thick sheet metal, but it's way beyond me.

It's no big deal to work on these things, but if you don't feel comfortable fixing it, maybe your coach, a good boot fitter, or another experienced skater can. Very likely, if the coach won't do it, she has someone in mind who can.

[kayskate]

My current blades are shimmed. The boots are old and broken down. i use them exclusively for coaching. I noticed that my left ankle was knocking in. The skate guy shimmed it to make it aligned again. I recommend going to a pro shop that specializes in fig skates or at least has someone who does this kind of work.

Kay

[Bill_S]

The one thing that can't be easily fixed (as far as I know!) is if you have warped your blade so it is no longer straight.... Maybe someone with a good metal working shop could fix the warped blade problem by running it carefully through one of the machines they use to curve thick sheet metal, but it's way beyond me.



This is what Wissota (the skate sharpening machine company) uses to straighten bent blades...

http://www.wissota.com/straightner.jpg

Although on a much smaller scale, it's similar to what I used to use to straighten bent motorcycle forks when I worked as a shop mechanic in college.

[jazzpants]

Hi, Everyone!!!

Thanks for the input!

Just want to say that I'm thankful that I got a very competent skate guy who knows what he's doing as far as blade alignment is concerned (plus the fact that he actually CAN skate and went on the ice to help me test out my blade alignment on a very temporary mount (two screws on the right boot! 8O )

It went quite well and he put more screws on the right boot. Did a test run the following morning with my secondary coach (who made the recommendation to go see this guy!) She tested out the alignment with the exercise that she had me do. The back edge exercise is still sucky but she now can rule out blade alignment b/c she noticed that certain things are MUCH MUCH easier for me to do now!!! (For instance, power pulls and the cross-strokes on the Silver Moves test. CROSSOVERS!!!) :bow:

I tested out power pulls after the lesson. I can actually feel and adjust my blade accordingly to inside and outside edge. VERY nice!!! :) Nothing else was affected!!! Spin entry is easier! Salchow is fine. Flip is sucky but it was sucky before the alignment anyway... :P everything else.

I think this is definitely gonna work out!!! :)