Bad mounting on new blades

[jgraham44]

I just got my new blades mounted, and I don't think it was done correctly.  Basically, he put them on my skates and looked at how I was standing (on a piece of hard plastic), made adjustments, then did the permanent mount.  Then I went on the ice and realized that they don't feel quite right, and when I skate on two feet in a straight line, both of the inside edges make snow and are thicker than the outside edges.  Also, I *think* that the back of the blades aren't making as strong of a contact with the ice as I'm used to.

And on a side note, he didn't plug the old holes, and there's a gap between the front of the blade and the boot.

What should I do?   It's a permanent mount and the second pair of blades on these boots so I don't have any unused holes.
Help!!

[hopskipjump]

Let him know - he can shift the blade.

We always get a temp mounting until they need the next sharpening (it can take a couple weeks to know), why did he do a perm mounting?  Are you sure it's a perm mounting?  Are all the screw divots filled with the epoxy?

[jgraham44]

he never mentioned anything about either a temporary or permanent mounting, but also didn't say that I needed to ever come back.

I have 7 screws in each blade.  No epoxy that I can see, but I didn't have it with my last blades either.  Also, there's no way to shift the blade to the inside because the screws are already at the far edges of the holes... to be moved any further, he'd need to drill new holes.

The other thing is that he put in a shim to shift the angle of the blade, which doesn't seem right to me....im starting to think that the blades weren't put on straight in the first place, which is why the shim, and the fact that the screws are at the edges of the holes.

[JSM]

A good skate technician should be able to plug all the holes and start over if necessary.

A shim doesn't necessarily mean that the blades are not mounted properly - on my last two pairs of boots I had one on the left foot to correct my balance (my current skates don't, but these finally fit my heel snuggly so I don't need it).

I (and most of the skaters I know) will start with a temporary mount, just in case, so adjustments can be made if necessary.  I would take them back, ask your technician to plug all the holes and give you a temp mount with your new blades.  Once you are comfortable, and have the blades in the right spot, they can be mounted permanently.

I know it's a pain, but better to do it now than waste training time on equipment that doesn't feel right!

[amy1984]

Hey,

I was having blade mount issues with my new boots and blades and here is my advice: a good tech is worth their weight in gold.  Not only did the tech I went to fix the problem but he passed on a lot of info, so here we go... I'll pass on what he told me

First off, throwing up snow is a signal that the blades aren't straight - I had the exact same problem.  Something is 'pulling' because the blade does not want to go in a straight line.

I would suggest bringing the skates in to a reputable shop or tech but, if you're far away from that type of service, there's a way to eyeball if your blades are atleast 'straight' and judge whether the time and money are necessary.  First, you need to find the middle of both the front and back of the boot.  You should be able to eyeball this if you're just taking a more 'general' look to check things out.

Now, you want to look at the back of the skate.  Does the stantion (the back of the blade that leads to the skating blade... goes vertical out from the plate) match up with the middle of the back of the boot?  It should be bang on center.

Next, the front... your toe pick should be just INSIDE (a half blade width) of the center of the front of the boot.  Don't use the stitching to guage this.  It might be off.

As for the shim, it's better to correct within the skate with insoles but if that's not possible, they can be used on skates to correct pronation.

Hope this helps.  I'm no expert, but this info has helped me quite a bit... it was surprising how much a simple adjustment helped.

Keep in mind that this is just general info.  Different configurations work for different people, but from what I understand, this is sort of the 'zero' point of where you start with blade mounting.