Wilson Gold Seal vs. Eclipse Pinnacle

[DressmakingMomma]

DD's custom Riedells should be done any day and we will be driving back to the factory to pick them up. There is a chance her current Gold Seals will fit (hoping so) but there is also a chance she will need longer blades. It looks like standard Pinnacles is about $150 cheaper than Gold Seals, but she loves her blades (had them for two years now) so I'm not sure changing would be worth the savings.

The Pinnacles which are advertised as comparable to Gold Seals but I'm having trouble finding direct comparisons on the internet, or even reviews. If you have tried them both, do they have the same profile or are there differences? What did you think of the Pinnacle overall?

[ansk8]

I haven't skated in either Gold Seals or the Pinnacle, but I tried to switch from Pattern 99 to the Eclipse Infinity (advertised as equivalent). They aren't. The Infinity blade has a much more consistent curvature from front to back compared to the Pattern 99 blade. I really noticed the difference and neither I nor my coach thought it was a good change for me. The stainless steel blade also feels different. I felt like it slid sideways more easily although it was OK as long as I was balanced properly. (Some of this was also because something was wrong with the left boot so I could never get the blade aligned properly. I did a lot of skidding.) The toe picks also feel different. With the Pattern 99, the toe pick can rotate in the ice some. With the Infinity, the toe pick locked in place. Fortunately, I had no trouble returning the blades using Riedell's return policy. I went back to Pattern 99.

[TropicalSk8ter]

Yeah I'm going to have to agree with ansk8. I know from personal experience that infinity doesn't feel like p99 it does have a similar rocker but not the same feeling. Also there is a video on YouTube that paramount skates posted showing the actual profiles of a few blade makers including ultima and Eclipse. Hopefully this link works. https://youtu.be/G3gMYm18bdA

Sent from my SM-J727T1 using Tapatalk

[FigureSpins]

Great video - thanks!

[tstop4me]

DD's custom Riedells should be done any day and we will be driving back to the factory to pick them up. There is a chance her current Gold Seals will fit (hoping so) but there is also a chance she will need longer blades. It looks like standard Pinnacles is about $150 cheaper than Gold Seals, but she loves her blades (had them for two years now) so I'm not sure changing would be worth the savings.

The Pinnacles which are advertised as comparable to Gold Seals but I'm having trouble finding direct comparisons on the internet, or even reviews. If you have tried them both, do they have the same profile or are there differences? What did you think of the Pinnacle overall?

I can't give you the info you want:  a direct A-B comparison between the Wilson Gold Seal and the Eclipse Pinnacle.  However, I was faced with exactly the same issue this past Nov.  I was skating on the Eclipse Aurora (a stainless-steel blade comparable to, but not identical to, the Wilson Coronation Ace).  My main goal is a decent scratch spin, and my coach strongly urged me to upgrade to the Wilson Gold Seal, which has a pronounced (small radius) spin rocker.  But I really liked the longer edge life of a stainless-steel blade, so my natural inclination was to consider the Eclipse Titanium Pinnacle, which has a stainless-steel runner and is nominally comparable to, but not identical to, the Wilson Gold Seal.  What nixed it for me, though, is that the Pinnacle has a substantially flatter (larger radius) spin rocker than the Gold Seal.  I ended up buying the Paramount Freestyle 12", comparable to, but not identical to, the Gold Seal.  The price of the Freestyle in 440C stainless steel is absurdly high, but it has the same small-radius spin rocker (there are other differences between the Freestyle and the Gold Seal).

In your instance, your daughter is already accustomed to the Gold Seal.  My feeling is that she probably won't like the flatter spin rocker on the Pinnacle (the pronounced spin rocker is what many skaters and coaches rave about on the Gold Seal), or at least need time to readjust.  There are other blade differences as well that will require readjustment.  E.g., Gold Seals come in a tapered or parabolic profile; what does your daughter have?  The Titanium Pinnacle has a parallel-edge profile; while the standard carbon-steel Pinnacle has a side-honed profile (no further details on the Eclipse website as to what the side-honed profile entails, but you can e-mail Eclipse if you want to pursue it).

In my experience, Eclipse customer service is responsive in replying to my e-mail inquiring for details of their blades.  I also like their choice of materials, quality of construction, prices, and 60-day money-back refund policy.  But, in your daughter's instance, it would probably not be worth the risk to save on the initial cost of the blades (especially if you are considering the standard carbon-steel Pinnacles).  If your daughter doesn't like them, you'll get your money back, but your daughter would have wasted valuable practice time and associated fees (which may wipe out any projected cost savings).

[tstop4me]

I haven't skated in either Gold Seals or the Pinnacle, but I tried to switch from Pattern 99 to the Eclipse Infinity (advertised as equivalent). They aren't. The Infinity blade has a much more consistent curvature from front to back compared to the Pattern 99 blade. I really noticed the difference and neither I nor my coach thought it was a good change for me. The stainless steel blade also feels different. I felt like it slid sideways more easily although it was OK as long as I was balanced properly. (Some of this was also because something was wrong with the left boot so I could never get the blade aligned properly. I did a lot of skidding.) The toe picks also feel different. With the Pattern 99, the toe pick can rotate in the ice some. With the Infinity, the toe pick locked in place. Fortunately, I had no trouble returning the blades using Riedell's return policy. I went back to Pattern 99.

It's not likely that the stainless steel was responsible for your skidding.  I've skated with the Eclipse Aurora and the Paramount Freestyle 12", both in 440C stainless steel.  Both blades can be sharpened to really sharp edges and hold the sharp edges longer than high-grade carbon steel.  Note that sharpening high-grade stainless steel is more difficult than sharpening high-grade carbon steel.  So if your sharpening guy doesn't have much experience with stainless-steel blades, he could have botched the sharpening.  Another factor to consider is whether you need a different ROH:  for a constant ROH, the blade edge angles vary with the blade thickness.  For example, the Wilson Coronation Ace has a blade thickness of about .16 inch, whereas the Eclipse Aurora is thinner, about .15 inch.  If you sharpen them both at the same ROH, the Eclipse Aurora will have slightly less bite than the Wilson Coronation Ace.  If you want to maintain the same bite, you will need a smaller ROH for the Eclipse Aurora.  I don't have info on the blade thickness of Wilson Pattern 99 vs. Eclipse Titanium Infinity.

[DressmakingMomma]

Thank you all, you guys are always awesome when it comes to these kinds of questions. Sounds like sticking with the Gold Seal is probably the best option. Fingers crossed that her blades will fit the new boots (there is a slim chance) because she has at least one more season before they need to be replaced.