From: jkaplenk@lucpul.it.luc.edu (Joe Kaplenk)
Subject: Re: How to sharpen skates ??
Organization: Loyola University Chicago
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1992 16:55:38 GMT

In <1992Dec10.212745.12906@iscnvx.lmsc.lockheed.com> togata@iscnvx.lmsc.lockheed.com (Thomas V. Ogata) writes:

>Hi,

>I'm looking for books, video, or people that can help me on learning how
>to sharpen hockey skates.  In particular, how does one radius a skate?
>I've been taking my skates to the local rinks and they've been flattening
>out the blade making it harder for me to turn and cut.  Unless I can find
>someone who can do I good job, I was thinking about sharpening my own.

One thing that I found very useful for  sharpening is using
cylindrical sharpening stones.  I picked mine up at Rainbo in Chicago.
They are available in at least three different grades fine, medium
and coarse. When my blades are dull and I don't have time to run to
the shop to get them sharpened, I'll touch them up with these stones.
The trick is to run them down the blade from front to back  and try to
maintain the original curvature, by putting the curved  edge  of the
stone against the curved surface of the blade. I'll also keep the
stone wet while I do this. You should start with the coarse stone,
then the medium one and finally the fine stone. This will sharpen
the blades up and smooth out any small imperfections. It  will also
make  the skates faster since the blades will has less resistance.

After doing this I'll take  a small sharpening stone, like  I would
use to sharpen a pocket knife, and run it down the outside edge
from front to back, several times, being sure the stone stays wet. This will
help sharpen the blade a little more and will also remove any burrs that are
left.   It is also important to hold the stone as vertical as possible. The
major purpose of the final stoning is not to sharpen, but  to remove 
burrs. If you hold the stone on too much of an angle you will end up with an
edge that is flatter then you want and you'll have less grabbing. 
You want the grabbing to come from the inside of the blade as much as 
possible. There are some blades, however, that do have a tapered edge on 
the outside and inside, but if you follow the original design, you'll be safe.
Just take your time and watch what your doing.

Nothing beats a sharpening from a competent skate sharpener, but when
this is not possible, I found the above tricks helpful. I found the edges do
not last as long when sharpening by hand. It is also necessary to maintain 
the proper curve and make sure one edge does not get higher than the other. 
So you need to periodically sight down  the blade towards a light and compare the
two sides. I picked up pointers on sharpening edges from some ski
maintenance videos I watched. Skiing is very edge conscious and good edges are
critical in racing, especially on ice. While the part in the videos 
on waxing doesn't apply to ice skating, the major concepts on sharpening
do. You need to use a little creativity in applying these concepts
to ice skating. I also sharpen and  wax my own skis. Oftenttimes you can
rent these videos from Blockbuster or other video superstores.

For figure skating ice blades it is very important that a competant shop
do the sharpening because sometimes the people that work at these shops
will cut the toe pick down or even off.  Other times the edges will not
match and they will have one side higher than the other.  This  makes
it more difficult to do spins, because you could easily spin on the
wrong edge due  to the wrong side hitting the ice  first. With hockey
blades sometimes a shop  will flatten the blades out. This is because
they need to periodically reshape their griding wheel. If they don't the
wheel flattens out and so do your blades.

-- 
Joe Kaplenk,
jkaplenk@lucpul.it.luc.edu
312-764-1212 home, fax at home 312-465-0406
From: donnaf@hpcupt3.cup.hp.com (Donna Wesley Fountain)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 21:41:20 GMT
Subject: Re: How to sharpen skates ??
Organization: Hewlett Packard, Cupertino