In line with the recent posts on sharpening depth (amount of metal removed) and blade life, etc., does anyone know if minor blade nicks matter in figure skating blades?

I sometimes touch blades when I skate, which sometimes results in minor nicks and scratches. I've generally ignored them, since removing enough metal (let us estimate .01" instead of .002 or .003") (for metric people, that's .25 mm instead of .051 or .076 mm) during a sharpening to get rid of them would result in a much shorter blade life.

It's obvious that a major nick, of the type that hockey players must get when their blades slam into each other at high speed, could make a big difference. In particular, if your balance or speed perceptably changes when you roll through the nick, it must be important.

But, since most of the time in stroking involves rolling through the blade, it seems unlikely that a minor nick that stays on the ice for a few milliseconds will create a noticable effect. And if you hold a pose on one part of the blade for an extended time, it is unlikely that the particular point of contact would happen to have the nick (unless you skate on dirty ice, and a grain of dirt under the contact point creates the nick).

I assume that unless you notice a sudden change as you roll through the blade, it doesn't matter.

If minor nicks do matter, is it mostly in balance, speed, or something else?

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Mitch Grunes ModifyingBoots FallingGently HomePage

I would say that if you don't notice it when you skate, it doesn't matter.

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