BTW, I apologize for using the term "beginner" in
Like Bill I sharpen my own but that usually isn't ideal for beginners
I meant a beginning sharpener, not a beginning skater!
Since you're working on spins, I'd suggest 7/16" ROH. For some reason, sharpeners are using that instead of the 1/2" roh that most coaches suggest for freestyle skating. I don't know why - it must make their job simpler because everyone I know who used to use 1/2" were switched to 7/16" by the sharpener.
Why do most coaches suggest 1/2" for freestyle skating, as opposed to 7/16"?
Does that mean that at freestyle level, glide is more important than push?
Or is it just assumed that freestyle skaters will take good care of their blades, and can therefore make do with a less sharp edge?
Or is it something else about the blades? E.g., many people recommend 3/8" for Ice Dance blades because the most common Dance blades (like MK Dance) are ground thinner than most freestyle blades near the bottom, so you need a smaller ROH to get a similar edge angle and sharpness. OTOH, SOME freestyle blades are side-honed with a dovetail cut, which gives the edge a thinner and sharper edge angle than the ROH alone would - but NOT low and intermediate level blades, like I assume the original poster is using.
And why would you want a smaller (and therefore sharper) ROH for spins? I would have thought that would slow down the spin too much. Is the idea to create a stronger initial push to stop travelling?
Freestyle skaters tend to prefer slightly warmer (and hence softer) ice than hockey players, so they wouldn't need as sharp blades for that - but most rinks don't vary temperature between hockey and freestyle sessions, except for extended time figure or hockey events, so that that mostly isn't relevant.
I'm basing what follows on what a variety of skate techs who sharpened blades have told me:
As to why a sharpener might push everyone to use the same ROH, it is certainly easier, faster, and cheaper, for a sharpener to use one ROH for everyone. Because on most powered machine sharpeners, you have to spend time "dressing" the sharpening wheel to a given ROH. That also wears out the sharpening wheel - you are taking a lot of material away from the wheel. Perhaps it also wears out the diamond dressing tip.
It also wears out the blades more. Because as you use a wheel sharpen, it slowly changes its ROH. If, over a period of months, you use the same wheel without redressing, you will gradually change the ROH of the blades it sharpens a very little bit, but not by a very significant amount, in terms of the way the blade performs. But when you redress the wheel frequently, you will probably change the ROH a lot - and take off more metal. I think this is partly because, at least on the dresser I looked at, you hand-adjust the ROH, so it isn't exact.
Finally, it is harder to make a mistake if the sharpener uses the same ROH with everyone.
BUT pushing all figure skaters to use 7/16" would make no sense for the sharpener - most (but not all!) good hockey skaters want 1/2". So, unless the sharpener groups the skates as he sharpens - sharpens a bunch of hockey skates, then a bunch of figure skates (which, by the way, many sharpeners do), they waste time and money switching between ROH for hockey and figure skates, if the sharpen one pair at a time, as customers come in.
Incidentally, some sharpeners switch between wheels instead of redressing, for different ROH. Either by demounting and remounting wheels, or by having a more expensive sharpening machine with multiple wheels ["stations"]. In addition, some sharpeners have multiple wheels of different coarseness for different purposes.
Topic: How do you hollow? (Read 8559 times)