I would say that they are more close to Paramount Skates concept than Matrix. Both are using roll pins for runner locking and 420 / 440 steel.
Actually different Matrix blades are made with different steels - e.g., some high end Matrix blades use AUS8 steel. Take a look at their catalog. They don't disclose the composition of some of their blades.
Are you saying Matrix blades don't use adhesive too? I thought at the very least they would put adhesive on the screws, so they don't come loose. It's a bit hard to tell - their video
How to make Matrix blades doesn't show the entire manufacturing process.
BTW, in the above Matrix video, Ultima cools the blade with water (I think) before attaching it - is that to prevent warping due to thermal expansion and contraction, or is there another reason to do that? E.g., does it have to do with how hard the edge will be?
Kaitsu wrote:
What comes to gluing the runners, I believed long time that Paramount Skates has invented genius way to produce blades. Plain grind runner and CNC-machined hollow where runner is fitted ensures 100% surely that blade (runner) cannot have banana shape. Unfortunately I was wrong... I have not seen too many pairs of Paramount blades, but still I have been seen one pair of such a blades where runners were not 100% straight.
By banana shape, do you mean horizontally warped, twist-warped, or something else?
Were they new blades? There are several ways for blades to become warped in use - e.g., if they are struck by another blade (mostly, but not exclusively, a hockey thing), they are used to create a very hard stop (again, I THINK mostly a hockey thing, though under or over rotated jump landings create some torque too, and badly timed split jump landings sometimes break blades, so maybe they can warp them too), or if the blade was mounted in such a way as to apply a significant torque long term (I think that is more common than it "should" be).
I was thinking about the theory that laser and water cutting both create slightly asymmetric blades, because of the spread of the beam or stream as it passes through the runner. But in terms of how that affects skating, wouldn't proper sharpening eliminate the important part of the asymmetry?
I assume both laser and water cutters that can cut steel as thick as figure skating blades, are extremely expensive, right?
Could someone who knew what they were doing in a machine shop make their own reasonably good quality blades using a CNC router, a jig saw (to cut the runner, perhaps with a blade covered in diamond dust, or another very hard abrasive), and a riveting tool or screws, or vaguely equivalent tools? Instead of tempering the upper part of the runner, to gain flexibility, perhaps they could cushion the runner against the chassis with a piece of rubber... Or is that idea crazy?