No way !!!!! Do you know what he thinks about that blade? We have a signed one from MIke W, the first one that was made.We would love to find someone who has used it and hear what they think, pros and cons .

Well, you're just as hung up as I am on it- it takes two to tango. But I do stand corrected with your link.

Way!
I'm heading to the rink right now--if I see him, I'll ask.
If not, perhaps Loops can provide more info; Ross is her primary coach.

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Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

You know, whenever I see this thread, I think "Straight or Gay" -- and then I realize it's about picks!!

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Is Portland the only city with it's own ice-dance website? http://www.pdxicedance.net/

Ross has fun in them, but he would not recommend them to even a mid-level skater, because not having the back of your blade on the ice gives you less margin of error a lot of the time.

Our pairs coach helped design the blade! Maybe we can ask him at our next lesson...

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Where are those knives when I need them?
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I need a detachable left foot!

thanks

Personally, I agree with you completely.

I was looking over the John Watts page a few days ago, and couldn't help but thinking to myself, "heh, they didn't ever check the website for typos". I don't think it's accurate to call a rocker a radius any more than it is to call a left foot a right (yes, I'm hung up on it too), and the John Watts site also makes a few other glaring errors, including "A blade that has been hollow ground means that the vertical plane of the blade has been dished out to give it a concave profile. This dishing effect is performed without following the profile of the skating edge, resulting in a tapering of the blade towards the heel. Some manufacturers believe that this process provides more grip and bite on the skating edge, however from an engineering point of view this cannot be the case for the following reasons:" From everything else I've read, "hollow ground" refers to the fact that the bottom of the blades are concave on the bottom, but it has absolutely nothing to to with tapered edges. Certainly having the bottoms hollow ground is not an optional feature!

*shrugs*. Calling a right foot left doesn't make it a left, and neither does it do so when somebody says it on their website.

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Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

The only error here is your own. Hollow ground in respect of tapered blades refers to the vertical profile of the blade. If you were to stand the blade upright looking at the blade end on you would see that the sides of the blade aren't vertical and parallel, but instead look somewhat like this ) ( As the website says this is done without following the profile of the blade, so where the blade curves up at the heel the cross-section is actually narrower.

The more I look at it, it seems that there is a US bias towards saying rocker, and a UK bias towards radius, with "rocker" being used to describe the increase in curvature at the front of the blade (hence the Watts blade webpage talking about a "progressive rocker" in a number of places). But it is clearly something of a grey area.

John

I'd love Freedom blades, but don't need them! I have ordinary John Watts Dance blades, and absolutely love them, they're a fantastic mid-level dance blade. But I've seen what some dancers - one in particular - can do on a Freedom blade, and, wow...... but no way do I need one!

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Both the John Wilson and MK blades are made in Sheffield, England, so I'm not sure the country has much to do with it. Meanwhile, the whole hollow ground hoopla is just badly explained by the company, IMO. If they are trying to explain the difference between tapered and regular blades, they should specify that. The way they are saying "a blade that is hollow ground means.." makes it sound like they are talking about EVERY kind of blade. Ah well, who knows. No big deal so long as they're good to skate on I guess!

Nice hearing from you Casey. How is life?

Exactly!

I'll second that as well.

Pretty good. I'm still too poor to be a real skater, but still ignoring that fact and skating anyways. And quite enjoying it too, I was just in a weird funk for a while, it's good to be out of it. I'm even taking lessons again now, though only a half hour every 2 weeks. But better than nothing.

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Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve