Okay... I'm swamped with travelling, paperwork and appointments, and more.  Now the report on getting my skates. 

I've been pretty comfortable in my (aggressively stretched) old pair, but these felt far more plush and good on my feet than I ever imagined.  These are more like sneakers.  They feel nothing like my old boots.  Heat moulding made this even better.  There were no pressure spots, not even on the ankle bones, and the top edges didn't cut in.

Those narrow Harlick laces killed my fingers and were hard to pull tight and keep tight.  For the first fifteen minutes I had arch cramps until I was able to tighten the laces enough. 
When I stepped on the ice I felt a little strange, and it was clear there was a slight adjustment in blade position compared to before to get used to.  I couldn't spin for a while.  (I was only on the ice half an hour, and I wish I had more time, because I was doing some sit and camel spins by the end.) 
They don't feel too stiff (the triple duo-bond) although I acknowledge they probably hinder bend and pointing toes.  I actually tried undoing a hook at some point in the session, as some people say to do when breaking in boots, but right away I went back to fully laced. 

Unfortunately I had computer and internet issues all evening, so photos must wait.   
 

For your sake, I hope the video was not a deep fake!  Hard to imagine Harlick is still in business; not sure how many skaters can tolerate nearly a 1-1/2 yr delivery time.  Here's hoping they fit out of the box.

Just imagine boots ordered for a growing child. 

- The CPs have a bit more glide than my old Pros - which might just be a function of them being brand new. They're sharpened to the same ROH as my old blades (1/2"), so no difference there.

If you have a micrometer or caliper, you should check the thickness of the CP vs the Pro.  At a constant ROH, you should get less bite/more glide if the the CP is significantly thinner than the Pro.

Update - I have my new skates!

I ended up going with the Paramount CP blade (essentially the carbon steel version of the SP blade I was initially interested in). My tech tried to order the SP for me, but the CP was shipped instead (I think there was a miscommunication, and my tech doesn't typically stock Paramount, so she didn't catch it). She was very apologetic and offered to order the SP for me, but I decided not to wait, as my old skates were getting increasingly uncomfortable and starting to hinder my progress.

A few points of interest:

- When my tech sharpened the CPs, she commented that they seemed a bit harder than average for carbon steel blades - so even though it wouldn't be on the level of a stainless blade, she thinks it's possible I might still get a little more time between sharpenings than I did with my old MK Pros.

- My tech also mentioned that in her emails with Paramount, they described the CP as having a 7' main rocker. I thought that was interesting to note, as Paramount's website doesn't give main rocker radii for their lower-level blades - just the higher-level 12", 17", and 27" stainless blades (and even then, they're not necessarily "given" per se, but implied by the diagrams in their brochure showing the MK/JW profiles they're based on).

- The 12" spin rocker on the CP feels much more round than my old MK Pros ever did, even when they were brand new. I also found this interesting given the mystery surrounding the actual specs of the spin rockers on the MK Pro and the Coronation Ace. Paramount says that per their measurements, the MK Pro has a 12" spin rocker, and the Coronation Ace's is a more subtle compound 12"/27" - but in Bill S's excellent thread on this forum comparing the two, it seemed like this wasn't necessarily the case. After skating on the Paramounts, I feel pretty certain that whatever the MK Pro's specs are, it does not have a 12" spin rocker (or at least, the pair I've had for the last 5 years didn't!).

- The CPs have a bit more glide than my old Pros - which might just be a function of them being brand new. They're sharpened to the same ROH as my old blades (1/2"), so no difference there.

Overall, while it's only been a couple weeks, I'm quite happy with the Paramount blades so far. If my long-term experience with them is as good as my initial impression has been, I could definitely see myself getting another pair in the future - maybe even the stainless ones next time

The Pro-Filer figure skating kits had two tools - one with a diamond dust coarse grit, one with an (aluminum oxide??) fine grit, which can be used instead of polishing. The hockey kits only had a coarse tool.

At a guess, your sandpaper is quite coarse - maybe as much or more so than the coarse stone in the Pro-Filer kits.

What grit sandpaper did you use? Did you consider switching to a fine grain after the initial sharpening?

It looked like your tool worked pretty well.

Were the edges fairly even?

How does the total sharpening and polishing time compare with the time you would have spent with your powered sharpening machine?

I love the simplicity of your friction measurement device! But I wonder if relative friction of rough and smooth surfaces is comparable with that tool and rink-temperature ice - partly because ice would deform more. I guess you could try to balance an ice cube of the right temperature on top, and slide it, but that would be very hard to balance. But the vertical force would be much less than the weight of a skater. Doing a really good friction test on an edge would be hard. E.g., you could mount a properly weighted blade on a pivoting device at an angle over the ice. Somewhat like Sydney Broadbent of iceskateology.com did. Probably very expensive to build. I'm sure some people would still find something to complain about the test.

If you talk to many skaters, some, like me, like their blades very sharp, and some don't. But the majority of skate techs do slightly dull the edges after sharpening, like you did, though I've usually seen it done with a flat stone.