I skate with most of the skaters I sharpen for. Most of them are kids, they all have known me their whole skating lives. I can tell them about how to take care of their skates until I am blue in the face and it will make almost no difference...and I suspect this is pretty much a universal situation. Most nicks come from blades hitting the other blade on various moves and failed jump attempts, and that is not something that is going to change. Adults take better care of their skates in general, because they paid for them and are more mentally equipped to pay attention. Even with adults, though, they can be quite resistant to taking my advice about replacing hard guards that are damaging their blades and can be quite slow to replace blades that have been worn so long that the profile is flattening. Most skaters at our rink put about 60 hours on their skates before they get resharpened, so I rarely am handed skates that are going to only need a few passes through the machine.
If I worked at a rink or a big pro shop, I would need to increase my productivity in order to make money, but that is not my situation. I'm an engineer, I like to focus and find ways to optimize the final product, and I am willing to take some extra time to produce a really good product. As Kaitsu said, I don't have $20K-$30K equipment in my shop, but I have a good machine that can create superb edges if you are willing to pay attention. I have been sharpening skates with this machine since 2006, so I am not slow because I have limited experience; in fact, I take longer to sharpen now than I did at first because I have learned more about how to produce edges that I am very happy to skate on myself. It is a definite advantage to be able to experiment with changes on my own blades and test them before I try these things on someone else.
Query--The figure skate holder for the IE compresses the blade into a straight line for sharpening.
http://www.iceskateology.com/Skateology/INCREDIBLE_EDGER_Fig..html I have received skates that have been mounted on a curve and not held flat for sharpening--the first few passes on the blade when it is compressed flat look very strange. The pathway of the grinding wheel looks curved when you start sharpening, but it is actually the hollow itself that is curved. When I see this, I know the blades need a mounting correction, because that degree of curvature is going to cause the skater to over-rotate one direction and fight to rotate the other direction.
Also, every time you remove and replace a grinding wheel, you are affecting the balance because it is impossible to get it perfectly recentered when you replace it. I would much rather do 10 extra passes with a fine wheel than put a medium wheel on and then a fine wheel. That would take far, far longer to do. When you get a wheel balanced and mounted with low vibration--you will not want to remove that wheel until you have to. Just use it and rejoice in the beautiful finish.
I take less measurements of the blades than Kaitsu, but I take close to the same amount of time. If I'm documenting a new technique, it could take a couple of hours since I am taking photos and writing things down. I'm doing this for my own education, so I don't mind using the time. I have an enormous amount of natural curiosity about things and I like to go down those little rabbit holes to see what makes things work. Collaborating with others to see what works for them is also something I am willing to put a lot of time into, because it is so very interesting.
Bruce Hurd, a sharpener who has "guru" status, shows sharpening an unmounted pair of blades on YouTube:https://youtu.be/69tWd_K5iBI
Bruce takes 13 minutes and he is at the top of his game. He has no boots to mess with on this video, which I think makes the handling more nimble so the whole process takes less time. I don't expect to be this fast, and I certainly don't expect to be faster.
I have seen many skates that have received a 3-minute sharpening and generally they are a mess. Done by people who claim that they are so good that they can just see if the edges are level by "eyeballing it". I am a person who has a pretty good eye, but why would I even bother to try to assess the edges with my eye to say "probably good enough" when there is this tool called a square that shows me exactly how level they are?
I have had coaches call and say "skater A had trouble in her lesson after you sharpened her skates" and I have been able to say "I am not surprised, because her skates were so off level that she actually does not know how to skate on level edges". I'm pretty sure our rink sharpens all blades on the same holder settings, so every blade that is not the same thickness as the rental skates has unlevel edges. I expect that it probably only takes 3-5 minutes to do so, since nothing is measured or even eyeballed. They use a large wheel with a coarse stone and don't deburr the edges. A few people have described it as feeling like they are skating through sand. Pretty depressing. I used to tell people to take rec-style blades to the rink for sharpening because it was less expensive, but when I discovered how off-level the edges were, I decided that I can no longer really make this recommendation. It's just not fair to the skater.
I don't need sharpening to take 3 minutes. I am not in a big hurry and I know that I am only charging money to help cover the cost of equipment. I already have a full-time engineering job and I am a skater, so I am not wasting any time, but I like to take good care of the skates. If I see scrapes on the leather on white skates, I fill them in with some polish to protect the leather if I have time. I remove the black marker from being student helpers if I have time. I live in an isolated community with no skate shops, so one of my goals is to try to keep every pair of skates I handle in as good of shape as possible so they can be handed down to a new skater. Do I get paid for taking this extra time to extend the life of skates? No. But I get the satisfaction of being able to get kids into new-for-them skates that are already right here in town, and I know the parents appreciate not having to buy expensive new skates when the kids are just getting started in skating. I remember being a parent and dealing with all the expenses of kids being involved in sports that require equipment--when I was able to inherit used ski equipment for my kids when they were young, I was very grateful. I enjoy being able to provide that same benefit to the next round of parents.
Having a ten-year-old skater run up to you and say "my blades feel amazing, thank you!"...this is what makes it feel worth the time to me.