I recently purchased some Eclipse Dance blades from a vendor on eBay for only $118 shipped. They were advertised as new, and came shipped from Skater's Landing in Connecticut in the original box. The size is 10-1/4".
(http://www.afterness.com/skating/images/boots_blades_2019/eclipse_dance/eclipse_dance2-56-800px.jpg)
(http://www.afterness.com/skating/images/boots_blades_2019/eclipse_dance/eclipse_dance2-22-800px.jpg)
They are "thinline" blades, with the lower quarter inch having been ground thinner than the rest of the blade. The skating edge thickness was a consistent 0.127" measured with a Starrett micrometer at three points from front to back. I measured just one blade. Freestyle blades run about 0.150" to 0.160" at the edge.
The upper, thicker part of the Eclipse Dance blade measured 0.153"
(http://www.afterness.com/skating/images/boots_blades_2019/eclipse_dance/eclipse_dance2-25-800px.jpg)
Country of origin was Canada.
(http://www.afterness.com/skating/images/boots_blades_2019/eclipse_dance/eclipse_dance_blades-64-800px.jpg)
The toe picks are unlike those shown in Riedel's online ad for these blades. The ad shows blunt center picks, but these are very sharp with a slightly rounded drag pick.
(http://www.afterness.com/skating/images/boots_blades_2019/eclipse_dance/eclipse_site_picks.jpg) (http://www.afterness.com/skating/images/boots_blades_2019/eclipse_dance/eclipse_dance2-31-800px.jpg)
I don't know which is the most current pick, but if it's important to you, call Riedell for clarification.
To give an idea of the pick size, here's a toe-to-toe comparison between the Eclipse Dance blades (left) vs. MK Professional blades (right)
(http://www.afterness.com/skating/images/boots_blades_2019/eclipse_dance/eclipse_dance_blades-78-800px.jpg)
The mounting screws included in the box were only slightly magnetic, leading me to believe that they are stainless steel. That's a nice touch.
These blades came sharpened. Because I've heard that Riedell blades ship with flat, cross-ground bottoms, I don't know when that happened prior to shipment. It could be that Skaters Landing did it as a courtesy before shipping it to me. I have heard that Skaters Landing is a reputable dealer, so I would expect that their sharpener knows their craft. The sharpening looks OK, but a future measurement will confirm that.
The weight of a blade measured 330 grams. For reference, Jackson Ultima dance blades weighed 305 grams, and Coronation Aces weighed 360 grams.
The stanchion height compared to a few other blades is given below.
Blade Front Rear
Eclipse
Dance 1.813 1.953
Ultima
Dance 1.93" 2.030"
Ace 1.876 1.881
MK Pro 1.856" 1.894"
They are a bit higher in the rear than the freestyle blades that I'm used to, but not to the extent of the Jackson Ultima blades I've measured. Oddly, they are a bit lower in front than the freestyle blades.
I traced the rocker and compared it to the Ultima Dance blade. The main rocker is very similar, but the spin rocker shows some slight differences. The Eclipse is about a quarter inch shorter than the already-short Ultima. That will be interesting to try on the ice.
(http://www.afterness.com/skating/images/boots_blades_2019/eclipse_dance/eclipse_vs_ultima_tracing_1kpx.jpg)
(http://www.afterness.com/skating/images/boots_blades_2019/eclipse_dance/eclipse_vs_ultima_tracing_closeup.jpg)
Heel lift when the front was pressed down to contact the drag pick was about 0.85"
(http://www.afterness.com/skating/images/boots_blades_2019/eclipse_dance/eclipse_dance_blades-91-800px.jpg)
This measurement will change with repeated sharpenings, so it's merely a benchmark at this point.
Quote from: Bill_S on November 06, 2019, 06:32:14 PM
These blades came sharpened. Because I've heard that Riedell blades ship with flat, cross-ground bottoms, I don't know when that happened prior to shipment. It could be that Skaters Landing did it as a courtesy before shipping it to me. I have heard that Skaters Landing is a reputable dealer, so I would expect that their sharpener knew their craft. The sharpening looks OK, but a future measurement will confirm that.
Any marks on the mounting plates that indicate that these blades were previously mounted (i.e., they aren't truly "new")? It's odd that they come sharpened. Some online sellers will sharpen, but with an added charge. With a cut-rate deal on eBay, it's unlikely that the seller would throw in such a freebie (and, if they were to, you would think they would ask you what ROH you want, since Eclipse specifically markets their unsharpened blades as accommodating a custom hollow).
At any rate, the whole point of your purchase of the Wissota sharpener is that you want full control over the sharpening of any blade, once it leaves the factory. That's what you were expecting when you purchased the ostensibly new Eclipse dance blades. Perhaps you should raise this issue with the seller.
There are no screw head marks on the mounting plates. If they were previously mounted, the blades would show it. I am confident that they haven't been mounted before.
New, these blades cost $279. Paying less than half of that for an experiment, I can tolerate little things like the sharpening.
I'm a little short of time today, but I do hope to get to the rocker measurements as soon as I can, then on to forming skating impressions.
I've always been curious about dance blades and their unusual characteristics. I suspect that they will take some getting used to.
Well, I can now say that the sharpener of these blades didn't do a great job. In the graph below, I can see lumpy curves especially around the spin rocker area on both left (green) and right (red) blades. I suspect that this sharpener initiated the cut there, and then ground to the end of the blade. It's harder to establish the cut at the beginning when the skate is being advanced to contact the grinding wheel. For comparison, I also included the curve of my current Coronation Aces (olive) that I've hand sharpened for over 12 years. Its curve is smooth without any wobbles. Its rocker shape is something that I'm very used to.
[click to enlarge]
(http://www.afterness.com/skating/images/boots_blades_2019/eclipse_dance/eclipse_dance_graph_lr.gif)
Unfortunately, once some high/low spots are ground in, it's hard to eliminate them with further power sharpenings. I just wish that my Pro-Filer fit dance blades to smooth the curves. The good news is that the lumps/divots in the rocker are only the thickness of a couple of sheets of paper.
I took a close look at the right blade rocker tracing close-up above, and can see the "lump" located about an inch behind the toe pick root when compared to the Ultima Dance blade.
I'll attempt to skate on them later, perhaps early next week. That might give me a clue about how significant this measurable wobbling is.
The Eclipse Dance curves show the effect of higher heel stanchions, which is something that characterized all three Jackson Ultima blades that I've measured. I had a hard time adjusting to spins when I tried one.
It's very possible that I won't like these, even if I disregard the ground-in lumpiness in the spin rockers.
BTW, the "no skating zone" between the toe pick and where the blade touches on a flat surface is about 1.25". Any irregularities there would not affect anything.
The sharpenings start about 3/4" back from the toe picks.
I did some quick calculations on the spin rocker radius and the main rocker radius for both blades. The spin rocker was calculated at the 1.5" spot behind the toe pick root, incorporating the 1", 1.5", and 2" points. The main rocker calculations were centered on the 6.5" spot, and used the 5" and 8" points for the three points required.
Blade Spin rocker radius Main rocker radius
Right 25" 7.3 feet
Left 27" 7.1 feet
Do you have an estimate of the ROH that the sharpener put in? I'd be interested if they went with Eclipse's recommended 1" ROH (which some of us suspect might be a typo, but various online sellers parrot it).
Great question. The sharpener put about a 3/4" radius (!) on the blade. It's a shallow hollow!
If you don't want a mail order company to add their own sharpening, you have to request that they not do it. Most mail order companies have traditionally done so by default, on MK and Wilson blades, and I suspect it is pretty common on Eclipse blades, precisely because they don't sharpen them at the factory.
I hope you enjoy your new blades this time!
I bet 3/4" doesn't satisfy you, and that you will feel you need something sharper.
AFAICT from your picture (I could be wrong), the toe pick is more aggressive than MK Dance blades, in part because of the angle the teeth stick out at. On MK Dance blades, if you accidentally touch your toe pick a little, especially when skating forwards, it barely affects your skating, because the pick doesn't dig in. It's one of the most important features of MK Dance. Like I said, I could be wrong.
For this eBay purchase, I didn't deal directly with Skaters Landing. It was through a third-party individual who apparently deals with a number of shops. (FWIW, I learned that her daughter was on Team USA in Ice Dance competitions a while ago.)
It's hard to tell the exact pedigree of these blades and whey they are sharpened that way. For the money savings, I'm will certainly gain some experience with thin dance blades even if the spins are wonky. Then I might try to sharpen out some of the irregularities. I've now got the means to quickly grind away metal - for better or for worse.
I thought that it might be useful to compare the rocker of the Eclipse Dance blade with the Ultima dance blade (UB115). I chose the right Eclipse blade to use because the the sharpener left its original curve more intact.
[Click to enlarge]
(http://www.afterness.com/skating/images/boots_blades_2019/eclipse_dance/eclipse_vs-ultima_graph.gif)
You can tell that the main rocker of the Ultima is a larger radius. You can also see that the Eclipse flattens out a bit in the front before the spin rocker. I don't know if the sharpening did that or not, but it's there.
The 'no skate zone' of the Eclipse after the toe pick touches is 1.25", so the "knee" in the red Eclipse curve, located 1" from the base of the toe picks (left side of the graph), shouldn't affect anything.
Quote from: Bill_S on November 08, 2019, 10:50:16 AM
The 'no skate zone' of the Eclipse after the toe pick touches is 1.25", so the "knee" in the red Eclipse curve, located 1" from the base of the toe picks (left side of the graph), shouldn't affect anything.
Because the blade sinks a bit into the ice, the "no skate zone", measured on a perfectly flat rigid surface, is actually at least somewhat used.
Try marking the bottom of the blade with a pencil (or other graphite dust), and see where skating wears off the mark. (Some people use a magic marker, but I think magic marker ink is too resistant to abrasion to give an accurate result - though I suppose you might argue that water alone might affect the graphite.) Mike C told me that the ENTIRE bottom surface of the blade is often used, though I don't know exactly how he measured that. Of course, that might be more true if you use a blade for jumps, which might dig in more than ice dance moves. Nonetheless, I think you will find that at least some of the no skate zone does touch during skating, and therefore does affect how much you skid and how well you push, which also means that at least some of the NSZ should ideally be occasionally be sharpened too - though I believe the edge there wears out more slowly than on the main part of the blade, and you need to be careful of your toe pick. Using the Pro-Filer sharpening tool, I tape the toe pick before sharpening the area near it. (Sharpening the toe pick itself course should be done very carefully, if at all, because you usually don't want to blunt or reshape the transverse edges. But I'm talking about the lateral edges, on the sides of the blade, not the transverse edges, across the toe pick. And in this simple case, of not modifying the toe pick altogether.)
Quoteecause the blade sinks a bit into the ice, the "no skate zone", measured on a perfectly flat rigid surface, is actually at least somewhat used.
Not much though.
Jumps are a different story, but the picks do the work when jabbed into the ice. The blade is along for the ride.
Very few sharpener services grind completely to the toe picks, and skaters still do just fine. With a wheel sharpener, you just
can't reach clear to the pick. The Pro-Filer is an exception.
Quote from: Query on November 10, 2019, 07:33:04 AM
Because the blade sinks a bit into the ice, the "no skate zone", measured on a perfectly flat rigid surface, is actually at least somewhat used.
/quote]
Quote from: Bill_S on November 10, 2019, 08:36:33 AM
Not much though.
How do you know?
The skate sometimes leaves a groove in the ice that is a significant fraction of the height of the drag pick - especially with very sharp blades, heavy skaters, on outdoor rinks that are just barely below freezing.
Quote from: Bill_S on November 10, 2019, 08:36:33 AM
With a wheel sharpener, you just can't reach clear to the pick. The Pro-Filer is an exception.
Many of the fancier machines also have a coarse cross-grind wheel, which I think can go right up to the pick, if you are super-careful. However, if you want even edges, using a cross-grind wheel, you have to turn the blade around 180 degrees, and do alternate passes. Also, you have to accept the radius of the wheel as the hollow radius.
But I wasn't thinking straight when I mentioned the toe pick: I think a super-sharp toe pick might be counter-productive on an ice dance blade. Though, oddly enough, my Ultima Matrix I runners, including the Dance runners, are extremely sharp (with the factory edge) all the way up to and through the toe pick.
It will be interesting to see how you feel about the blades when you skate. Not just the wobble in the NSZ, but the thin width, and the 3/4" hollow. Since they've already been sharpened anyway, I hope you eventually give them a chance by fixing the rocker profiles. Moving to a more aggressive toe pick is hard - but going from your Ace toepick, to a Dance toe pick, might be a very easy transition. And maybe the slimline coupled with the 3/4" hollow is pretty fast, and has great glide, too. You might like them better than the Aces, given half a chance. However, if I remember right, you have tried a relatively flat hollow before, and din't like it - maybe you will have to change that too, especially since thinline blades are often sharpened with smaller hollow radii, to get equivalent edge angles and similar effective sharpness to a freestyle blade.
Good luck!
Bill I seriously may be interested in these blades - I will let you know - just my size!!
Just to clarify, they aren't for sale yet - I still want to skate on them. :D
I apologize for taking so long to continue testing of these blades. I got distracted by the new Wissota skate sharpener. Getting it set up and gaining experience has taken some time, although it has been an enjoyable process. You know how we skate sharpening nerds are.
I planned to mount them this afternoon following The Rostelecom Cup competition on TV, and skate on them tomorrow morning. I'll continue this thread with my impressions of them for the next week or so.
There's always the danger that I'll like them, and want to use them on one of my new pairs of boots. We'll see. ;D
OH!! That is great - I read your post very quickly and thought you were selling a brand new pair for cheap!
I have a friend who used to use the MK Dance and bought a pair of the Eclipse last year - she likes them fine but they were just a tad shorter than the MK dance and it took her a bit to get used to them and of course you have to get used to any new blade because of the rocker.
I did get them mounted today. And holy cow, they ARE short!
(http://www.afterness.com/skating/images/boots_blades_2019/eclipse_dance/eclipse_dance_mounting-14-800px.jpg)
They almost didn't work with my skate drying/storage rack. The tails were barely long enough to make contact with the bottom peg.
(http://www.afterness.com/skating/images/boots_blades_2019/eclipse_dance/eclipse_dance_mounting-10-800px.jpg)
My current blade guards were too long to work with them, so I put together a new set just for these blades. The blue painter's tape is my method of temporarily waterproofing my old boots during all this experimentation.
(http://www.afterness.com/skating/images/boots_blades_2019/eclipse_dance/eclipse_dance_mounting-21-800px.jpg)
I also sharpened them to a 1/2" ROH from their as-shipped 3/4". I didn't even want to try 3/4" because I believed that I'd be slipping all over the place.
(http://www.afterness.com/skating/images/boots_blades_2019/eclipse_dance/eclipse_dance_mounting-8-800px.jpg)
I'm all set to roll for tomorrow.
Very cool!
If you get a chance can you measure the length of the blade from just behind the drag pick to the end of the heel? I would love to see how they compare with my current Super Dance 99 (which are VERY short) and some old MK dance I have hanging around the house...
Awesome!
Thanks.
Quote from: Bill_S on November 17, 2019, 06:16:38 PM
I also sharpened them to a 1/2" ROH from their as-shipped 3/4". I didn't even want to try 3/4" because I believed that I'd be slipping all over the place.
1/2" ROH may still not give you enough bite. I believe you mentioned in another thread that you weren't happy when you switched from 3/8" to 1/2" on your Coronation Ace. With the thinner dance blades, the 1/2" ROH will give you even less bite.
icedancer: The blade length is just a little shy of 10-1/2"...
(http://www.afterness.com/skating/images/boots_blades_2019/eclipse_dance/eclipse_blade_length-2-800px.jpg) (http://www.afterness.com/skating/images/boots_blades_2019/eclipse_dance/eclipse_blade_length-3-800px.jpg)
tstop4me: I was curious about speed from the combination of a thin blade and a shallow hollow. That's why I sharpened it to a gentle 1/2" to start with. I'm removing metal in just the hollow at this point. I'll give my 1st day skating impressions in the next post, but I'm definitely going to 3/8" from here.
Skating Impressions, Day 1:
I sharpened these to a shallow 1/2" ROH to begin with to see how fast these blades felt. Thin blades and shallow hollows are generally associated with less friction, which can produce more speed. The verdict? - Yes, they were faster. It's not a huge increase, but it was noticeable.
However -unless I was stroking around with deep knees, I had slippage problems with a shallow 1/2" hollow. It was "skid city" with many figure skating turns. An exception were hockey turns where I felt like I was riding on rails. I have a very deep knee bend when doing them and probably look like a hockey player doing them. They did not skid, and it felt like the blades carved a tighter radius. Doing them was an absolute blast on these blades. I suspect that the amount of knee bend I employ for speedy stroking and doing hockey turns compensated for the shallow hollow.
But I can't skate around like that all session for all elements. I need more edge grip, so I'm going to sharpen to 3/8" radius for Wednesday.
Oddly, I didn't notice the shortness of blade at all. Some people can detect a change as little as a 1/4" difference, but for me it made absolutely no difference in skating feel. I did notice that I could do "neater feet" without fear of stepping on a tail, so that aspect of a short blade was very nice. That benefit alone is something I'm putting in the plus column for these blades.
The rocker is different from my favorite well-worn Aces, so that prevented me from doing any good front scratch spins today. Part of the problem is blade skidding at the beginning of the spin. I don't hook on a toe pick, but set my spins on a deep outside edge. The 1/2" hollow was working against me there. I'll test that again on Wednesday with the new hollow. Once the hollow is changed, then I can work on adjusting to the different rocker.
I didn't notice the rear stanchion height difference between my Aces and these blades. The Eclipse Dance blade is higher, but I couldn't blame any single difference in skating feel on that aspect.
I noticed that my weakest three-turn, the LBI, was difficult to do today. I suspect the rocker difference and my lack of comfort with that turn both conspired against me. My RFI brackets were fine, although I skidded some of them.
So, with the 1/2" hollow chosen for today's experiment together with a thin blade, I was skidding a lot. It was readily apparent that bending knees deeper would cure it, but I can't skate for 1-1/2 hours with my butt so low to the ground without my old knees complaining.
But the speed today was really fun!
Edit: My experience today appears to confirm my suspicion that the recommended 1" ROH for these blades on Riedell's web site is an error for all but patch skaters.
Quote from: Bill_S on November 18, 2019, 10:31:24 AM
Oddly, I didn't notice the shortness of blade at all. Some people can detect a change as little as a 1/4" difference, but for me it made absolutely no difference in skating feel. I did notice that I could do "neater feet" without fear of stepping on a tail, so that aspect of a short blade was very nice. That benefit alone is something I'm putting in the plus column for these blades.
This exactly is why I'm a convert to the dance-length blades. I like that I don't step on my heel (I have a tendancy to do that in FS length blades). How do you feel about the toepick on these? And let's be frank, by toepick, I really mean drag pick.
Eagerly awaiting your assessment after the re-sharpening!!!
I didn't attempt any jumps today, so I don't know how they will do for a low-level jumper like me.
I do remember stabbing the ice with the pick after a move to stop motion, and it wasn't any different from my Aces. I might try a single toe as I get a little more familiar with them.
And yes, the short length is really nice.
And now the blades have a new hollow. It might be even a smidge under 3/8". Edge grip, here we come!
Unfortunately, I have to wait until Wednesday morning to try out the new configuration.
Thanks for the info on the length of the blades! I measured my Super Dance 99 from behind the drag pick and they are just a hair over 10.25 inches (they are also 10.25 size blade) -
I have usually found that you do not "fall backwards" on the dance blades and the ability to have neat feet is amazing (having stepped on the back of my old Coronation Aces doing dances many times, the dance blades were great for me!) -
As far as the speed goes, they are faster and honestly as I am older now I find the speed of the dance blades a little scary. i have never noticed anything about turns slipping due to shallowness of ROH but honestly have no idea what hollow my blades have right now. Turns are nice.
I will be curious to know how the spins go - I could spin on the SuperDance 99 but not on MK Dance and also jump a little on the Superdance but I HATED the picks on the MK Dance and didn't feel comfortable with any kinds of jumps or hops because the picks were blunted smooth and there was absolutely no bite or whatever you would want to call it.
Thanks - looking forward to your experience with these blades and may seriously consider finding a pair!
Wow! At 10.25" Super Dance 99 blades are REALLY short.
Like you, I never felt that I was falling off the back of the blade. It felt as stable as my Aces. It's a good thing, because falling backward is the worst. Ouch!
Yup they are too short!! Also my left boot is a bit longer than my right and so it looks super-super short and a lot of people freak out when they see me skate on them.
I am going to check the measurements of my old MK Dance - I think they are closer to your Eclipse -
BTW, Bill, my old MK Dance came with 7/16" hollow.
I'm sorry that 1/2" didn't work well enough for you. I presume that proper alignment - which takes time and practice - would help. I sometimes let my blades get dull and skated on cold hard ice, to practice body weight alignment. If I can avoid skidding on dull blades and cold ice, the alignment is right. So perhaps a TRUE master would have tried Riedell's 1" recommendation. :)
My impression is indeed that
thinner (up to a point) is usually faster and has longer glide. But - one source (Jaya Kanal?) said school figure blades used to be
fatter than freestyle blades. Perhaps a very thin blade digs too far into the very soft ice that many school figures skaters prefer??
Have you tried spinning in your dance blades yet? I want to see if you agree that dance blades don't spin well, and if you can figure out why (I can't).
Quote from: icedancer on November 17, 2019, 10:19:39 PM
I would love to see how they compare with my current Super Dance 99 (which are VERY short) and some old MK dance I have hanging around the house...
Why did you switch to Super Dance? Do they have advantages?
Skating Impressions, Day 2:
I MUCH prefer a 3/8" hollow with these blades. I had great edge grip today. Speed still felt fast, so I didn't give up much by going to 3/8". I really wish that there were a way to accurately quantify increased speed. These subjective impressions may be misleading, especially with differences in ice quality between sessions, plus the nature of subjectivity itself. Better ways of measuring "speed" are cumbersome. I'll have to be satisfied with "they feel fast".
They turn more quickly. I always begin a session by slow skating around the periphery a couple of times, then do forward inside edges down the ice, and back. On the return trip I aim to put the lobes opposite the originals, making it look like a row of circles down the ice. Here's this morning's...
(http://www.afterness.com/skating/images/practice/tracings_ice_11-20-2019-77-800px.jpg)
When doing these, I turned in a tighter radius than my freestyle blades. I'm not going at a slow figures pace when doing these. They are done with a bit of edge growling down the ice. These blades thrive here. I guess that it reinforces my impression about tight hockey turns in the previous report. The feel is different when doing turns, and the photo above shows smaller circles (and more of them) than I usually do with my old Aces (8' rocker after 12 years of use). I mentioned rocker because these blades have a more rounded rocker (7'+). Perhaps that's part of the cause? Is a thinner blade the other contributing factor? I can't answer that.
BTW, I did some really tight hockey turns in the rink corners and ripped up the ice for the hockey players that were scheduled next. Revenge is sweet.
I managed to do some of my weaker threes a bit better today. I expect that I'm slowly adapting. However, my turning-threes traveling down the ice are still off-kilter, so much so that I took a tumble toward the end of the session. I caught an edge, and down I went. I can't yet find the spot on the rocker that lets me do those comfortably.
I became frustrated trying to perform a good spin. I always traveled and made odd flowery tracings trying to find the sweet spot.
(http://www.afterness.com/skating/images/practice/tracings_ice_11-20-2019-79-800px.jpg)
Spins are nowhere near what I can do on my familiar old Aces. I took another tumble attempting a spin, and the toe picks hooked my trouser leg. They put a small rip in them. >:(
However, waltz jumps were great on them. They weren't any different from doing them in my Aces. I was able to do a couple of toe loops using the dance picks. I'm not a strong jumper anymore, so take this with a grain of salt.
My feeling so far is mixed. I love the speed, the ability to turn (!), not having a big tail sticking out beyond my heel to step on, but I really wish spins were easier. Keep in mind that I've had spinning trouble with MOST of the other blades that I have used this autumn, with the exception of the MK Pro blades. They feel closest to my ancient Aces when spinning. That points a pretty strong finger at ME being the problem. I'm not adapting easily to different spin rockers in these week-long tests.
One more thing. When I got on the ice this morning, I did feel the little extra heel height in this blade. That feeling faded away after the first 15 minutes on the ice, but it's odd that I didn't notice it Monday.
Quote from: Query on November 19, 2019, 03:13:54 PM
Why did you switch to Super Dance? Do they have advantages?
I wanted to try something besides MK Dance which I had had 2 pairs of on my old boots. The picks really freaked me out on the MKs and I could not spin. So when I got new boots in I tried the SuperDance and found that I could spin in them and also do some jumps so that was great. They were really really short though and that kind of freaked me out so I have sequentially put both old pairs of MK Dance on these same boots. I liked the length but still had some trouble (one of the blades had acquired quite a flat spot on the rocker which was disconcerting because it was only on one foot!) - so at some point I went back to the SuperDance but I have been wanting to get out of them for YEARS!!! I've also been very suspicious of my boots which are an SP Teri Dance Boot - very heavy and not so forgiving - so yeah, problematic.
My favorite dance blades were my first pair which were called Wilson Dance - they were a tad longer and had picks like a Majestic - in fact a Wilson rep told me that they were Majestics with the backs cut off. They were discontinued and I have never been able to find another pair. I have toyed with the idea of buying a pair of Majestics and cutting the backs off but I haven't gone that far!
Bill - thanks for the details about the blades and your experience with them - this is great!
This is very interesting. I do like my Coronation Dance blades, but when replacement time comes, I would be willing to put these on the list based on your experiences.
Skating Impressions, Day 3:
The Olympia broke down halfway through the ice cut this morning, leaving this...
(http://www.afterness.com/skating/images/practice/ice_bad_bird-2-800px.jpg)
The Olympia dropped a lot of snow where it stopped, but the attendant shoveled it off. Drop-in hockey was just before, so you can imagine how rough the ice was. I did skate for 45-minutes, and one other skater there, a grad student, was doing double-loops on it. It was amazing to watch her perform on that iceberg-rough surface.
It wasn't a fair test of the blades, and I still couldn't spin. With the rough ice, I just didn't do much at all with competence today. I felt a bit off, with the ice partly to blame.
It's too bad that the ice wasn't better, but those are the breaks.
I just measured my MK Dance (size 10 1/4) from just behind the drag pick to the heel they are both 10 3/4 inches so your Eclipse blades ARE about 1/4 inch shorter (which in Dance Blade - land) makes a difference!
Too bad about your crap ice - Hope they fix that zam!
Yay, the Olympia is fixed. There was a piece of plastic caught in the auger.
Skating Impressions, Day 4:
I attended the mid-day session today (Saturday) that runs right after Learn To Skate. The kids there hardly leave any marks, then it's zammed afterward. This is the smoothest ice of the week.
I skated aggressively today, putting power into stroking almost the whole time. (I lost couple of pounds, probably perspiration, during the session.) I was doing turns at speed. I felt almost as comfortable on these blades today as I do on the Aces.
But (here we go again), spins were the skill that still suffered. However I did spin today than earlier in the week, and I didn't embarrass myself with most of my attempts. I probably eeked out 6 revs at most, and some of the tracings showed rounder patterns and a bit less travel. I've been experimenting with where to put my weight for the best results. Nothing tried yet feels as good as my beloved Aces, or the MK Pros that I used earlier in the fall.
I like all other aspects of this blade though. I feel as though the shorter tail has kept me out of trouble with some questionable moves. If I'm on the back of my blade and need to quickly three-turn forward, it just happens. In many ways, these blades feel like a German sports car vs. a larger sedan. I love the feeling that these blades seem to anticipate what I'm about to do, and start in perfect harmony with my physical actions. There's no delay.
Skating Impressions, Day 5:
I attended the early afternoon freestyle session today to continue gaining experience with these blades. It's starting to be like a broken record - moves OK, spins not. I did have one spin where I started off nicely centered showing paint-can sized circles, but I managed to destroy my center for the following 3 or 4 revs. Paint cans and pigtails.
I did try a twizzle down the ice at a fairly fast speed. I can do them readily in my Aces, and I've been doing them OK in these blades. However, I made it half-rev around OK, but caught an edge coming back to forward. The blade stayed put, but my body kept going forward fast. I fell hard. My right knee let me know that it was displeased with the impact. It's turning purple now and it was felt even through the knee pads I wear. Thankfully, that was the last of the bad luck.
There's a different feel between the two blades (Aces vs. Dance) doing the that move. I actually feel more secure on my Aces - probably because that's what I am used to. I sometimes feel like I'm at the limit of not getting the blade rotated around in time on the Eclipse Dance blades, although the blades have been generally forgiving of my errors (until today).
I still enjoyed the speed, and the control in cornering. That's my favorite aspect of these blades.
With more blades coming in to test, these will be removed from my old boots soon. I need to make a decision whether to mount them one of my new pairs of boots. If I could just get used to spinning in them, there would be no question at all.
Skating Impressions, Day 6:
Today was different because I travelled to Columbus to pick up my new Pattern 99 blades at the OSU ice rink. Because of that, I attended a "noon skate" held at the Ice Haus in downtown Columbus.
The ice is different from my home rink. When freshly Zammed, it is more slippery than home rink ice. However, it doesn't hold an edge as deeply for some reason. It took a few laps to get used to it.
I skated with a lot of energy today, and with a LOT of speed. It was a public session, and there were some guys on hockey skates. I must be competitive at heart because I become determined not give an inch when it comes to speed. I had the right blades on today for blazing around. There's a smile on my tired face right now.
I did lots of threes, some brackets, some turning threes or twizzles and even attempted some spins. If you've been reading along, you can guess how my spins went.
Oh, yeah - I did a few Waltz jumps and a couple of toe loops. No problem there either.
Nice blades!
Maybe I shouldn't have asked you to try spins on your dance blades. While I'm not advanced myself, the only times I've seen spins in ice dance routines was when a couple does pair-spins while holding onto each other. That's so different that I'm not sure singles spins are relevant.
Could you drill through your boots, and replace the screws with bolts and thin nuts (like roller skating nuts)? Then you can rapidly switch between two sets of blades, one for dance, one for whatever you need spins for. Of course that would work better if both pairs of blades have holes in the same places. If not, maybe you can just use different boots with the two types of blade. As long as I don't try to do any jumps harder than a waltz jump, I'm perfectly happy doing dance moves in my old broken down boots.
Quote from: Bill_S on November 25, 2019, 04:43:15 PM
Skating Impressions, Day 6:
Today was different because I travelled to Columbus to pick up my new Pattern 99 blades at the OSU ice rink. Because of that, I attended a "noon skate" held at the Ice Haus in downtown Columbus.
The ice is different from my home rink. When freshly Zammed, it is more slippery than home rink ice. However, it doesn't hold an edge as deeply for some reason. It took a few laps to get used to it.
Sounds like OSU has cold hockey ice. It's fast, but has less grip. That's what I skate on here. Sometimes I feel like I'm just skimming along on the surface. Scary. Oh how I miss the nice freestyle ice at my old rink....
Loops: Just to clarify, the ice I skated on was at the Ice Haus in downtown Columbus, part of the Nationwide Arena building complex. After skating there, I drove to the OSU rink to purchase the blades. The OSU rink is about ten miles north.
With 10 sheets of public ice among 6 rinks in the Columbus area, they have something to be thankful for. I didn't count Nationwide Arena itself because it's only for Blue Jackets' hockey games, and special events.
query: I would have tried spins even without any encouragement from folks here. It's something that I like to do, so it's important to me. I do have two pairs of new boots awaiting two favorites from the outcome of the "blade shootout". At least that's the plan.
For now, I'll just keep adding holes to my 12-year old boots to fit the blades. There has been no major problem so far, then I'll retire the old boots when I get the chosen blades mounted to new ones.
Gee Bill, I think you really might need a third pair of boots so that it's not so difficult to choose between all the blades. Just saying.....
;D ;D ;D
Still cheaper than a corvette, remember??
Also, aren't you still holding out hope that Skatescience will make more stock soon?
There are probably no Skate Science blades for me in the future. It's too bad I couldn't get them to try.