What's happened to my blades - they've turned into square wheels?

[Query]

Love to hear what your old sharpener has to say. But it's still fun to try to figure things out yourself.

Like - are your skates noisier on the ice than they used to be? If so, is it up front (near the toepick), in the middle, or in the back?

Do you skid more or less than you used to?

[Christy]

My blades have been repaired, as best as possible. The problems identified were cross / off-center sharpening (which could be rectified and "over-sharpening" my toe picks (which couldn't be rectified). So blade life has definitely been shortened, and I'm feeling a bit insecure when jumping by the changes to the toe-picks, which also feels different when I spin but I'm hoping I can get used to it.

[Query]

My blades have been repaired, as best as possible. The problems identified were cross / off-center sharpening (which could be rectified and "over-sharpening" my toe picks (which couldn't be rectified).

I'm glad you got done what could be done! Too bad you will have to adapt and buy again sooner.

By "cross sharpening" did he mean that The Evil Sharpener used (and only used) a cross-grinding wheel, leaving you with a rough surface and not much of a hollow? If not, what does he mean?

By "over-sharpening" your toe picks, did he mean that The Evil Sharpener ground down your toe picks a bit, so they are a bit shorter, and you have to roll forwards more to reach - or do you mean he really made them more sharp?

BTW, what type of blades do you have?

[Christy]

The first toe pick (drag picks??) on both blades were ground down a bit so I have to lean further forward - I guess I'll get used to it and at some point the blades will catch up!!
and I think the cross sharpening may have referred to the fact that the sharpening was uneven from front to rear of the blade so the edges were different heights along the blades.

Blades are Matrix Elites

[Query]

You could have found the problems: The Popsicle stick trick would have found the uneven edges, especially if they were so uneven your teeth would chatter - I've never seen edges that uneven. The toepicks probably look rounded off on the back-most tooth, and may skid on toe jumps.

Of course you still needed the good sharpener to try to put it right, more or less.

A really good sharpener could "sharpen" the picks to make such skids go away - at the price of making you roll slightly more forwards, because they'd be ground down a bit more.

As far as having to roll forwards farther - that normally goes away gradually as more of the metal gets used up. The sharpener could have made it go away now, but killing that metal that would have further reduced the blade lifetime.

Both a less sharp toepick, and having to roll farther forwards, means that your Ultima blades now behave more like MK or Wilson blades.

I personally have a lot of trouble adjusting to different blade shapes. I hope you are better at that than me!

[Christy]

I did the popsicle test after the first sharpening and thought that I'd found the edges uneven but I questioned myself when the person I asked to review the blades said the edges looked ok but the rocker was wrong    I figured they knew more than me!!
The toe picks were totally fine after the first sharpening, then ground during the second attempt 

I've had to change blades a few times recently thanks to my foot injury then the blade issues and it's not been too bad so I decided to try to get used to the blades with the minimum repairs required instead of significantly reducing the life of the blades.