You are viewing as a Guest.

Welcome to skatingforums - over 10 years of figure skating discussions for skaters, coaches, judges and parents!

Please register to be able to access all features of this message board.

Recent Posts

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 10
1
The Pro Shop / Re: Sharpening woes in Europe
« Last post by AlbaNY on Today at 02:33:34 AM »
Query, I used the Profiler on the blades of my old pair and was happy.  I just need to tally up my skating hours and see if it isn’t a bit early to bother.  I did have a difficult time finding tape that worked well.  The crappy stuff I had on hand made it jam up annoyingly. 
2
The Pro Shop / Re: A discussion: Skate choices
« Last post by AlbaNY on Today at 02:30:07 AM »
Query, you might like them if you keep adjusting to the blades.  It doesn’t take too long to remember the lack of toe picks and curved tail.  The hardest part for me is to remember not to try stopping by dragging a toe pick when going backwards but to hockey stop instead. 
As for putting figure blades on that’s an interesting task.  I don’t know about adult sizes, but for kids it seems common to find hockey type boots with somewhat hybrid blades with a little toe pick.  You might like that?

Bill, what I see some of these guys doing is impressive.
The high level coach at my old rink could do pretty much anything in his hockey skates and probably doesn’t own a figure pair.  I’ve seen nice spins and jumps by guys in hockey skates quite often.  Then there are the handstands and other non-figure type stuff popular around here.
3
The Pro Shop / Re: A discussion: Skate choices
« Last post by Bill_S on May 05, 2024, 05:49:33 PM »
About 15 years ago, one of the male coaches here would switch back and forth between figure skates and hockey skates when he taught. He was a junior-level pairs skater who had competed nationally in the past.

For grins, he'd sometimes do a spin wearing his hockey skates in a freestyle session. I guess that if you have talent, anything is possible.
4
The Pro Shop / Re: A discussion: Skate choices
« Last post by Query on May 05, 2024, 04:18:14 PM »
I'm thinking hard of using good hockey skates for this. I like the idea of not having a raised heel, or an upwards bend along the boot length.

Two days ago I tried to spin and jump on hockey skates, without removing the blades. I hate toe picks, but discovered I've become totally dependent on them, and basically couldn't. Also, I need to avoid backwards leans.

So I need to remove the blades (harder to do on some hockey skates than others, and I need to remove the rivets), and adding my figure blades.

But maybe my current blade length is too long without raised heels? Because to some extent, it is the vertically projected length of the foot that should matter to blade length.
5
The Pro Shop / Re: Sharpening woes in Europe
« Last post by Query on May 05, 2024, 04:05:43 PM »
The Pro-filer isn't so hard to use!

Record the profile, taking special note of the sweet spot, if you haven't already. Feel for edge sharpness and alignmnet by drawing your finger lightly across the blade edges. If the edge tip has been pushed to the inside or outside, just push it vertical with your flat stone, and you are probably done.

Otherwise continue:

If you have both coarse and fine grain stones, use the coarse stone, because it is faster and easier. The blades should fit in the Pro-filer snugly - even stick a little. If not, add equal layers of tape (I use thin, slippery scotch transparent tape) to each side, to make sharpening consistent. Cut tape away in the center notch, so you can turn the stone after every sharpening.

Take a slow stroke with the profiler - I prefer to hold it with the blade up. See if the grind isn't centered, add layer(s) of tape, resting on at the base of the stone, inside the gap, so it sticks to the gap.

Take a few more slow strokes, from the toe pick to the back. Reverse the Pro-Filer orientation, and take a few more stow strokes, from back to pick, but don't ride over the toe pick, unless you want to trim it.

Turn the stone a little.

Test for sharpness and edge alignment again. That's it, if it is already somewhat sharp. A few minutes at most. If not sharp yet, repeat until done.

No steel filings or abrasive dust will come off, or stick to the stone or blade, unlike Kaitsu's 3D printed sharpener using sandpaper - because you mostly reshape rather than grind away steel.

With the fine grain stone, you also need to push the (foil) edge vertical, perhaps with the flat stone. But as I suggested, skip that stone for now - most skaters don't like ultra-sharp edges anyway.
6
The Pro Shop / A discussion: Skate choices
« Last post by AlbaNY on May 05, 2024, 01:46:49 PM »
So, I have noticed some interesting differences in Germany compared to the US and Romania regarding the choice of skate colour and type.

In the US I saw a fair amount of tan skates (almost always on show skaters or coaches.)  Here and there some coaches had really fun bold coloured suede customs.  I think I saw three pair like that in person?  (Bright pink, purple, and bright blue.)
Otherwise, in person, I saw white on females and black on men.  Years ago I bought a recreational pair in black, I considered black for my customs, but found my beloved grey was an option after already deciding on white.
In Romania it was white for females and black for males, and I don’t think I even saw tan?

In Germany a lot of women have black skates.  I see one in a black pair basically every time I skate.  My own grey ones are the only “colourful” pair I’ve noticed yet too.  There are a lot of Edeas and Riedells around.
Another unusual thing is how frequently I see inline-type hockey skates/skating.  In-line type freestyle is super popular here.  Also, men very frequently figure skate (even dance and pairs) in hockey skates here.  Back in NY there was a figure skating coach in hockey skates, but it was just him I saw.  Here it seems 50/50 that the guy is in hockey blades.  I saw beautiful pair skating last week with the man on hockey blades.  I was talking to Coach Cheerful today, and she said that’s dangerous, but they seemed to be doing very well. 

I thought it would be fun to start a discussion.
7
The Pro Shop / Re: Sharpening woes in Europe
« Last post by AlbaNY on May 05, 2024, 01:33:34 PM »
I have a new EU sharpening story.

Today a girl at the rink had Gold Seals, so I asked where she has her sharpenings done thinking this would be a great way to find a good tech.  She said “here at the rink” though.

The rink only has a Sparx machine.   :blank:
Just like the one a couple hours+ north.  Everyone is using the darned thing here. 

Her blades looked like on the last third of their life, but they were new to her, and she hadn’t had them done yet.

I feel like it would be nice to have a fresh sharpening done tomorrow before competing next week if I were able (with my tech rather than the ProFiler) in an ideal world, but I think I prefer keeping what’s left of the last sharpening over what I might do with the handheld device?  I haven’t been doing that many hours yet, I don’t think, but a fresh sharpening is always so nice.  I should tally my hours and decide.
8
The Pro Shop / Re: ROH on old Coronation Ace for Figures
« Last post by Query on April 28, 2024, 09:44:55 PM »
As someone who has done this - my blades were at 7/16 and my tech ground them down to 1". He ground off the drag pick. The glide was amazing. Stopping was impossible.

I would say, since this hasn't been addressed, that you generally don't have a blade for Figures and Dance. It's one or the other. Dance likes deeper hollows. Pretty much anyone who does primarily dance at my rink is on 3/8.

Wow - completely removing the drag pick! That's hard corp - what some school figures skaters did, to give them longer glide, but not usually what ice dancers did.

For MK Dance blades usually use a smaller ROH, because it is ground thinner than most blades at the bottom (the working region). That is to get the same included edge angle. But that doesn't apply to Coronation Ace.

If you decide to make changes, perhaps you should start by making modest changes, and see how you like the result. I.E., not completely removing the drag pick. I've occasionally trimmed my drag pick a little. But destroying it completely is a lot of change - and it isn't reversible. If you want to economize. You don't really need a skate tech to make such changes - you could use a simple flat grinding stone to remove a little at a time. I wouldn't suggest too coarse a stone - you still want the toepick to be fairly sharp.

OTOH, by the time you need to remove a significant fraction of your pick, AND your profile has changed, you shouldn't expect your blade to have much useful life left. It's a hugely different blade.

But it's your choice.
9
The Pro Shop / Re: ROH on old Coronation Ace for Figures
« Last post by LunarSkater on April 28, 2024, 07:58:50 AM »
What is a good ROH for Figures alone, or possibly Figures and Ice Dance if that is feasible? I currently use a 7/16 ROH for freestyle and have heard a shallower ROH is better for Figures. I will also talk to the tech about grinding down the toe pick some so I don't catch it.

As someone who has done this - my blades were at 7/16 and my tech ground them down to 1". He ground off the drag pick. The glide was amazing. Stopping was impossible.

I would say, since this hasn't been addressed, that you generally don't have a blade for Figures and Dance. It's one or the other. Dance likes deeper hollows. Pretty much anyone who does primarily dance at my rink is on 3/8.
10
I also have forwards spine curvature in figure skates, which have relatively high heels, and a substantial upwards bend.

I tried rental figure skates (with much lower heels, less upwards bend), and hockey skates (no heels or bend) yesterday. They fit so badly (only a few points of contact on the sides, front and back), I couldn't really tell. My favored rink throws away skates that are at all broken down, so they were too stiff to conform to my feet. I could try other rinks...

I couldn't spin at all well, not that I'm very good at it anyway. And the toe picks were so dull, that both forward 3-turns and spins were awkward. But maybe with better toe picks and better fit??

At this point I can do very low bunny hops, waltz jumps and half rotation flip jumps, on both feet. I'm doing these very conservatively, with as little air and arm motion as possible, because I'm still weak. But even at my best, I never managed more than 1/2 rotation jumps on the ice, and my style is terrible.

In the rental skates I was literally afraid to jump. I managed a couple bunny hops off my stronger foot, but otherwise my body just said no. With such poor fit, I don't have enough control to be confident.

So that test was worthless.
Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 10