Skate sharpening

[1210]

Hi! I was wondering how to tell when it's time to get my blades sharpened? My skates are slipping a tiny bit, and the blades feel a little dull but I'm not sure what that means.

Thanks
lady

[AgnesNitt]

The traditional way is to rub your thumbnail (the broad part of the nail not the edge) across the edge of your blade. If your blade needs sharpening it won't peel away part of your thumbnail.
You will also need to inspect your edges for dings. That can affect your skidding too. A regular on the board named Query will probably post after me to talk about how to rub out your dings with a hand sharpener.

[Query]

Nope. (: He will leave that to AgnesNitt!

I'm don't think little dings that happen if you slightly tap your blades together by accident affect skating all that much, if they are are smaller than the ice grooves we skate over. But if a long enough length of edge is destroyed that I feel it when I roll through it, a sharpening is in order.

Roughness on an edge slows you down, so I sometimes sharpen to go faster.

You won't skid during simple skating moves if you tilt the blade so that that there is no sideways force on the edge. Coaches can help body and blade alignment. They can also help decide if sharpening is needed.

[Isk8NYC]

Hi! I was wondering how to tell when it's time to get my blades sharpened? Ny skates are slipping a tiny bit, and the blades feel a little dull but I'm not sure what that means.

When was the last sharpening?  If you've skated on them more than 20 hours since then, it's time for a sharpening.

[jjane45]

Slightly off-topic, but I actually use Excel to track the "mileage" of my skate sharpening and sort of keep a progress journal.

I too rub the blade to feel the nicks, but with my finger tip rather than thumbnail. Used to skate 20-30 hours between sharpenings but I think my blades can handle 40+ (long drive to the pro shop).

[Isk8NYC]

I put it on my phone's calendar as "SK8SHARP" so I can search and find it if it's in question.

I believe the OP has recreational skates...not sure if she uses guards, so I think 20 hours is probably about right for an indoor-rink skater under those circumstances.  The rec skates' blades aren't made of hardened steel, so they wouldn't hold their sharpening as long as a name-brand like MK or Wilson.

[Query]

Some skaters sharpen every day, some go a year between sharpenings. Even the various edge shape parameters, such as radius of hollow, are very much a matter of taste.

I don't know the details, but people have said that figure skating judges are taught to mark down skids, and to favor clean narrow blade tracings and high speed over the ice. Sharpening can help with those. Major imperfections in edges that interfere with balance can be fixed by sharpening. But good skating technique helps all these things too. And the jump video ISk8NYC posted at http://skatingforums.com/index.php/topic,901.0.html clearly shows that even very good skaters skid on some moves.

So talking to your coach is a good idea.

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I didn't take AgnesNitt's bait because using a hand tools to remove nicks isn't going to produce a significantly different result than using a professional sharpening machine to do the same thing, unless there is something clever I haven't thought of (quite possible). I sharpen my own blades because it is fun, and lets me control and experiment with the edges. It also saves me time and money in the long run. But a first rate professional sharpener can do the job just fine.

Hockey skate sharpeners often remove enough metal (and therefore blade lifetime) to remove all nicks and gouges. But most hockey blades are cheaper, and good sharpeners can complete retain the blade profile. Good figure blades are expensive. Even if the sharpener modifies the toepick in the best possible way, it is going to behave a little differently, after metal is removed. So I personally think removing all minor nicks on figure blades is a sign of a sharpener to be avoided.