From a purely business point of view, should JW and makers of other difficult-to-sharpen blades provide a warning in their ads that many skate techs will have trouble sharpening them
I just realized that was a pretty dumb suggestion. Almost no manufacturer advertises future service problems to end customers. I assume that the market does not reward such honesty.
But maybe they could warn their own dealers. AFAICT, it is typical for pro shops to make a larger profit by sharpening blades than by selling them. If a dealer sells a customer blades it cannot sharpen (let alone on a brand like JW or MK which has developed a reputation that their factory sharpening needs to be touched up by the dealer), not only have they lost that customer’s future sharpening business, but the customer is likely to mention the issue to their fellow skaters, who will assume the dealer to be generically incompetent and start a local trend driving business away from that dealer. That will lose the dealer money. So the dealer will hesitate to sell future products from that manufacturer. And THAT really is bad for the manufacturer’s business.
I don’t know whether OldGuyDown has suggested to other local skaters that they stay away from that dealer. But many people who read skatingforums may be driven away by this discussion from buying Phoenix blades, which COULD hurt business.
OldGuyDown, I’m glad that you found some things you love about these blades! By the way, I think that thin blades – and according to the ads, these, like MK Dance (which more or less dominate ice dance), are ground thin at the bottom – tend to go faster and glide longer; maybe the long glide would be great for Moves, if only you could put ear muffs on the judges.
I think the fast 3 turns and easier power pulls are part of being thin too, because you can change edges faster. But – I’m not completely sure of this cuz I can't spin well – I think super-thin blades are harder to center spins on (but make twizzles easier). I'm not sure if thin blades create any other problems, but there has to be a good reason why figure skating blades are substantially wider than hockey and speed blades, and why most other figure skating blades aren't thinline.
I wonder if thin blades affect noise level. In ice dance, I was told that you were
supposed to hear the edges while rounding lobes, because that demonstrated you were pushing hard against the edges, and creating a deeper leaned edge, though the noise of scraping the toe pick was not considered good. So if for some reason thin blades make more noise, that might be an advantage IN ICE DANCE - but maybe not other disciplines.