Maybe HD Sports should open a factory near Detroit, so they can avoid importer fees and import duties, and ship to most U.S. and Canadian skaters more cheaply... If they sold direct, they could be really cheap.
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Nate, I'm really impressed that you have so many screw holes in your boots! Help me to understand why: How many skating hours do your boots last? How many hours between sharpening, and how many sharpenings / blade lifetime? How many mounting plate holes do use / mounting?
Currently I'm doing very minimal skating hours. I used to (when I got my Klingbeil S-2 Boots) do like 13-15 hours of Freestyle (Afternoon Freestyle everyday after work) and 4-5 Public Sessions a week, which is about 5 hours if you assume I'm wasting half the Public Session (which is probably close to accurate).
Back then I had 2 50 Minute Lessons/Week as well.
Right now I'm generally doing about 4-5 hours FS a week, maybe... With 2 30 minute lessons a week, when I'm actually skating actively. I barely ever do any Public Sessions at the moment.
Currently, I'm barely skating (0 hours past 7 days). My body is sore and recovering, and I'm content to let it do its thing right now, since I couldn't make the test session... When I get my new blades I'll finish breaking in these new boots and ramp my hours back up.
I am not sure how many hours my boots get, because I went between two pairs of Klingbeils and even wore a pair of Edea boots for a span of time. I had two pair of boots with Blades mounted at all times for the past year. I have more pairs of figure skating boots than I have shoes, atm :-(
Blades I don't tend to sharpen often. The first thing I do when I get on the ice is go through my stroking, all edges, and all turns forwards and backwards. If my blades are getting dull, I tend to know before I start jumping, spinning, running program [sections], or get in a lesson; because turns will be more difficult or start to skid a bit. At that point I'll either take them in on a day when I can make the drive, or if I'm really desperate I'll leave them with someone to get sharpened quickly without having to drive 1.5 hours.
How do you fill your holes? Wood plugs and Shoe Goo are mechanically similar to leather, and can support overlapping positions. Though you've got a LOT of holes - I'm not sure wood would hold together without adhesive.
I have the Pro plug the holes, at a charge. I'm not sure what material is used, but it looks like Glue and Leather Plugs. I just looked on the bottom of the boot and one hole is right next to a plug (partly into the plugged portion of the boot) so I guess it's fine as long as a majority of them aren't sitting that way (then you worry about having the blade pull off the boot on a heavy landing). They were very well done. You can rub your fingernail over them and not even tell the difference between the leather and the plug.
He will be plugging some more soon, and I'm sure I'll get "that look."
Screw Holes come from adjusting the mount so much. I had tons of issues with that, since the Klingbeil boots didn't fit my foot correctly (my S2 boots were a little too wide, but my S1 boots were the correct width and had the same issue, the Last just all wrong for my foot type). I went through tons of insoles (each one aligns your foot a bit differently which means your blade must be mounted differently for decent balance) and two blade sizes (can't reuse same holes) so... A lot of drilling was done.
Usually the fitter put 3 screws in the front and one in the back (not counting the sliding screws that they temp mount with).