About 15 years ago, one of the male coaches here would switch back and forth between figure skates and hockey skates when he taught. He was a junior-level pairs skater who had competed nationally in the past.

For grins, he'd sometimes do a spin wearing his hockey skates in a freestyle session. I guess that if you have talent, anything is possible.

The Pro-filer isn't so hard to use!

Record the profile, taking special note of the sweet spot, if you haven't already. Feel for edge sharpness and alignmnet by drawing your finger lightly across the blade edges. If the edge tip has been pushed to the inside or outside, just push it vertical with your flat stone, and you are probably done.

Otherwise continue:

If you have both coarse and fine grain stones, use the coarse stone, because it is faster and easier. The blades should fit in the Pro-filer snugly - even stick a little. If not, add equal layers of tape (I use thin, slippery scotch transparent tape) to each side, to make sharpening consistent. Cut tape away in the center notch, so you can turn the stone after every sharpening.

Take a slow stroke with the profiler - I prefer to hold it with the blade up. See if the grind isn't centered, add layer(s) of tape, resting on at the base of the stone, inside the gap, so it sticks to the gap.

Take a few more slow strokes, from the toe pick to the back. Reverse the Pro-Filer orientation, and take a few more stow strokes, from back to pick, but don't ride over the toe pick, unless you want to trim it.

Turn the stone a little.

Test for sharpness and edge alignment again. That's it, if it is already somewhat sharp. A few minutes at most. If not sharp yet, repeat until done.

No steel filings or abrasive dust will come off, or stick to the stone or blade, unlike Kaitsu's 3D printed sharpener using sandpaper - because you mostly reshape rather than grind away steel.

With the fine grain stone, you also need to push the (foil) edge vertical, perhaps with the flat stone. But as I suggested, skip that stone for now - most skaters don't like ultra-sharp edges anyway.

I have a new EU sharpening story.

Today a girl at the rink had Gold Seals, so I asked where she has her sharpenings done thinking this would be a great way to find a good tech.  She said “here at the rink” though.

The rink only has a Sparx machine.   
Just like the one a couple hours+ north.  Everyone is using the darned thing here. 

Her blades looked like on the last third of their life, but they were new to her, and she hadn’t had them done yet.

I feel like it would be nice to have a fresh sharpening done tomorrow before competing next week if I were able (with my tech rather than the ProFiler) in an ideal world, but I think I prefer keeping what’s left of the last sharpening over what I might do with the handheld device?  I haven’t been doing that many hours yet, I don’t think, but a fresh sharpening is always so nice.  I should tally my hours and decide.

What is a good ROH for Figures alone, or possibly Figures and Ice Dance if that is feasible? I currently use a 7/16 ROH for freestyle and have heard a shallower ROH is better for Figures. I will also talk to the tech about grinding down the toe pick some so I don't catch it.

As someone who has done this - my blades were at 7/16 and my tech ground them down to 1". He ground off the drag pick. The glide was amazing. Stopping was impossible.

I would say, since this hasn't been addressed, that you generally don't have a blade for Figures and Dance. It's one or the other. Dance likes deeper hollows. Pretty much anyone who does primarily dance at my rink is on 3/8.

My unforced standing pose in athletic cross training shoes with normally elevated heels, but with my feet together, is somewhat bow legged, with 1/8 to 1/16" between my knees, and a somewhat forward curved spine on top.

These symptoms go away in bare feet.

A trainer said to train more outside of legs than inside, more back (gluts, spine, neck) than front of body (though he said to train chest too), to compensate. But he didn't seem very experienced at this. Does this make sense? Should I see a medical specialist and what type? Sports podiatrist? PT? (My health insurance would only pay 1/2.)

Maybe just need to strengthen all my muscles, so foot point wouldn't affect body shape as much? I'm still pretty weak.

Should I move to neutral heels? I tried to find them, but my shoes are orthotic, to slow osteo-arthritis (bone spurs), which limits choices.

I'm tempted to get custom skates with neutral heels too - but that's a big investment that might not work, and I might need different length blades, with a different custom profile. Any thoughts?