It only takes one bad sharpening to destroy expensive figure skate blades. So I think most figure skaters are too cautious to experiment with such a device on their own blades.
Also, there are significant variations in what figure skaters want, and how different blades are designed. Different ROH, different main and spin rocker radiuses, different transition points between those rocker radii, different toe pick placement and angles. I suspect it's hard to tell a simple machine what you want. E.g., you probably can't tell a simple machine you have 9.5" Coronation Ace blades; to use a 7/16" ROH; want the sweet spot(s) moved .1" back; you want the edges dulled a little bit so there isn't much difference before and after sharpening; you want the sweet spots slightly re-emphasized, and you want a .001" skid point ground on the LFO edge so you can initiate skidded double jumps more easily. (BTW, hockey goalies can be just as picky about blade shape - and even "normal" hockey players may want the balance central point moved a little forward or back, or may want an altered rocker profile for different size rinks or ice types. Most of the goalies I have spoken to do their own, or modify what the skate shop pro does.)
Another issue: skate techs have told me they typically take off 1 - 2 orders of magnitude more metal on hockey skates per sharpening than on figure skates. E.g., typically 1 - 2 mm (.0254 - .0508") for hockey, and, for a really good tech, about .003" for figure, unless you wait a long time between sharpenings. Because hockey players mess up their blades a lot with big nicks, whereas figure skaters pay more for their blades. (Note: the skate techs who gave me the 1 - 2 mm numbers work at my local rink - and I would never use those techs. I've seen how they ruin rental skates. Maybe not everyone removes that much? The .003" for figure blades came from two different very good figure skate specialists.)
Even if you only remove .003" per sharpening, and do everything else right, a figure blade might only be good for about 30 sharpenings, because the position, shape and length of the toe pick significantly affects how the blade performs. E.g., if you have really high priced $800/pair blades (including mounting costs, if that is separate), each sharpening costs you about $800/30=$26.67 in replacement costs, on top of the sharpening cost itself. Now imagine increasing the amount of metal by an order of magnitude more, so you only get 1 - 3 sharpenings / blade. Obviously that is extreme - no even vaguely competent skate tech would do that, and most figure blades don't cost $800/pair. But I don't know about the Sparx machine. It is supposed to have an adjustable depth - but I don't know if it is that adjustable.
By the way, hockey skaters pay a lot for skate blades too, partly because they sharpen, straighten and replace them more often. It's just a part of the sport they accept.
Some of us learn to sharpen are own blades using hand tools like the Pro-Filer, costing $100 or less - but it takes time to learn to do it right, and it is possible to make mistakes. If you have a GOOD skate tech available to sharpen your blades, you may prefer to stay with that person.
That said, if you choose to use the Sparx, I would be very interested in how well it works. If you can measure how much metal it takes off per sharpening (use a micrometer or calipers, from a known point on the base), that would be very interesting to know.
Topic: Have you had your skates sharpened by a Sparx? (Read 2755 times)