How often do you sharpen your skates?

[Query]

This is sort of an FAQ.

AFAICT, it depends on how smooth the ice is where you skate, how dirty the ice is (dirt destroys edges very quickly), whether you ever skate on "synthetic" (plastic) ice (likewise), whether you use blade guards when you are not on the ice, what metal your blades are made of, whether you dry and/or oil your blades after use (which reduces corrosion), how you store them, your personal skating stylle, and how sharp you personally feel you need the blades to be.

A well respected sharpener tells me that some of the world's top competitors, some of whom use him, only sharpen once or twice a year, despite that they skate hundreds of hours or more per year. Partly because they may not live near someone who can do a good job - so getting them sharpened is a big deal, involving long drives or shipping blades and/or skates back and forth to an expert. So it is most practical for some of them to adjust their technique to not depend much on sharp blades.

But many of his customers, also including some of the world's best, sharpen much more often. He says every 30-40 hours on the ice is a good rule of thumb for most figure skaters. Bear in mind, though, that he tells most of his customers that ultra-sharp is not good, because you have to vary your skating style too much immediately after a sharpening - in fact he deliberately dulls the edge a fair bit, unless you ask him not to.

I need sharp edges, because I'm not good enough to make do without them. I can do it more often, maybe every 10-15 hours, because I do it myself by hand, usually using abrasives that are finer than most professional sharpeners use, and take off very little metal at a time - maybe .0005" - it's hard to measure. Essentially, most of my sharpenings are just edge straightenings rather than true sharpenings.

When you slip sideways when you shouldn't, you likely need to sharpen. However, there is a substantial extent to which the alignment of your blades relative to your feet (adjustable by shimming), and of your body weight relative (+ inertial forces, like centrifugal force on edges, and other accelerations) to your skates, affect how sharp you need your blades to be. I do occasionally let my blades go dull in order to refine my alignment.

With most (not particularly great) sharpening professionals, the amount of metal removed (which is usually inverse to the blade lifetime) costs you more money in the long run than the sharpening itself, and you waste time getting them sharpened, so you obviously save time and money by sharpening less. So if you can adjust your technique to need less sharp blades, that may be worthwhile. On the other hand, since most of us want to skate as well as we can, we don't want to do so to the extent it degrades our ability to skate too much.

As you can see from the big variety in answers here, you may have to find your own answer.

(I know - that's an answer that's not an answer. So sue me. )

[skatingintexas]

Is there a specific way you use to tell if they need to be sharpened? I keep meaning to keep a log of how many hours I skate between sharpenings, but it never happens. I feel like they are starting to slip, but I don't want to over-sharpen them as it doesn't seem like it's been that long since I've sharpened them.

[ChristyRN]

I've got MK Pros and I start skidding (worse that usual) at about 25 hours. Part of my skidding is technique, but I sharpen when it gets worse and I skid *everything*.