Blade materials and manufacturing

[Casey]

Starting a new thread instead of continuing to hijack the Avanta boot thread - maybe an admin can move he relevant posts from that thread here?

I'll add this link to an interesting description about how Wilson and M&K blades are made. It is good reading from the old rssir newsgroup that was so active a dozen years ago.

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/sports/skating/ice/rec-skate/blades/

That's a great read - I remember reading it years ago. Interesting that it says all Wilson blades are silver soldered while higher-end MK's are brass based...I wonder if that's still the case since the two companies became one, and how much if any difference it makes.

[icedancer]

Thanks yes - this is great!  And good to start a new thread since you guys are "geeking-out".

I don't think the MK blades are hand-soldered anymore - at least that's what my late skate-tech said - we looked at a pair of relatively "new" MK Dance compared with the older ones and you could see that they were very different.

[OmegaGMT]

does anyone have old blades laying around or have access to new equipment, if so, can you gather and post the data

manufacturer
materials used in construction
model
pattern
mount size - heel to toe in inches
blade size - back to beginning of toe pick
toe pick  - front to back
single blade weight
and any other useful information

[sarahspins]

I wonder if that's still the case since the two companies became one, and how much if any difference it makes.

Nope, none of them are any more, and you could tell on the ones that were because they had a very graceful curve (and much more material) where the blade met the sole and heel plates, which the newer blades do not have.  MK stopped making them that way more than 20 years ago.