Do you really mean less ROH?
ROH means "Radius of curvature", so a smaller ROH means more curved, i.e., a deeper hollow, which would be more grabby, and a shorter glide (and I think a shorter spin), all other things being equal. In principle it needs more frequent sharpening to keep the effective sharpness the same because the area of contact is less, so the wear is greater. (You could look at it differently - it might maintain some level of grab for longer, but doing that would mean there would be a bigger difference between initial and final sharpness.)
A larger ROH is the opposite of all those things.
But all other things are not always equal, depending on who sharpens things, and how. There are many other factors to effective sharpness, like whether and how much the edge is rounded off after sharpening, how long the burr extension is, how smooth the sides are (affected by things like whether the sharpener uses a polishing fluid or oil), etc.
I am so impressed that you travel 20 hours to sharpen. True devotion. You must love your sharpener. Who is he/she?
Assuming you drive, let us see: the total cost of driving (gas, oil, tires, maintenance, depreciation, replacement cost, incremental accidents and insurance, etc.) has been estimated by the IRS at $0.51/mile. If you drive 1000 miles, and you don't share the drive with someone else (or their skates) that's $510/visit. It must be a nuisance too.
So I think you are a possible candidate for learning to sharpen yourself - though very few on this board do that - or getting a second pair of skates, so you can mail one to your sharpener instead of driving. Some skaters just get a second pair of blades, and mount and demount the blades every time, but you have to be very careful not to strip the screw holes (hint: push hard with the screwdriver), and manage to find a second pair of blades with the holes in almost the exact same place (not always as easy as you think - many blades are not manufactured to high precision).
Sharpening yourself has a learning curve, which means you can make mistakes at first (I did). I notice most figure skaters are afraid to try. If you are hesitant, and are afraid to make mistakes, maybe not.
P.S. Why not talk to your pro about your question? If he is worth a 20 hour drive, he must have a lot of expertise. If Mike is your sharpener, he certainly does, and a fair # of his customers do the second pair of skates things.
Topic: Does ROH affect time between sharpenings (Read 3180 times)