Has anyone switched to paramount blades and hated them?

[severina]

I went from gold seals to the paramount 440ss12 which is the gold seal profile paramount.  They are scary.  I have had them for 2 months and have had them sharpened twice already because they start feeling dull fast.  I can't describe it - my spins feel great.  My jumps however are scary.  Landings are scary.  Takeoffs on my axel skid and I've had the blades checked out and they keep saying the blades are fine.  The only thing I can think of is that my old blades were pretty much sharpened til they were close to being flat (lol barely a rocker) and I got used to them being so flat that now that I have a rocker I need to adjust?

I'm going to try a pair of phantoms tomorrow just to see if I just don't like the steel of these paramounts.  It's hard to describe, they feel like they sit on top of the ice rather than grip the ice.  Do I make any sense or am I out of my mind?

Ever since I got these paramounts I've completely lost my double loop which has been one of my most consistent doubles since I started skating again.  Even a flip/loop combo sometimes seems scary during the transition from the flip to the loop.

Am I just not used to the rocker or has anyone heard of or experienced something similar?

[Clarice]

The problem is not likely to be that they're not holding a sharpening.  The point of Paramount blades is that they don't need to be sharpened as often.   My daughter was a fanatic about needing blades with a lot of bite - she used a very deep hollow for a freestyler, and had her skates sharpened every three to four weeks.  After switching to Paramounts, she could go for several months between sharpenings.  I'm afraid I can't be of more help with what you're experiencing, but I very much doubt they're actually becoming dull quickly.

[Skittl1321]

Clarice- If they are the cheapest paramounts, they don't have the harder steel (paramount calls them mid-level, and they are Carbon steel).  I found that they had a similar sharpening life to my Gold Seals before them.  I liked the blades a lot though.   They are so much less expensive than gold seals though that I can't imagine someone who uses blades at that level (mine just happened to be attached to the used boots I bought) would go for the carbon steel paramounts and think they are equivalent, so I'd assume the OP has the stainless steel blades.

If they are the ones with the harder stainless steel though- you're right, that stuff holds a sharpening for a long time.  On my normal blades I would sharpen every 6 weeks, on my Ultima Matrix blades (which uses the same stuff as the good Paramounts) it was more like every 16-24 weeks.


Severina- it is difficult to say if you are 'not used to the rocker', as there are lots of different kinds of Paramounts.  Some are designed to have the same rocker as Gold Seals, so if you got those- this sounds like a weird problem.  If you got a different one, it could be that the different design is just something you aren't comfortable with.  But 2 months seems like enough time to get used to them.  It is very weird you've already had to sharpen them twice.  Can you call the shop who sold them to you? or even the company.  Maybe you got a dud?

[sarahspins]

I would suspect that you may have two issues at play - one is the adjustment from an old worn down rocker to a "new" rocker and you will just feel out of sorts for a while until you get used to the roll up to the drag pick, and the second is that you might need a slightly deeper ROH on your paramounts.  I did, because I found that while stainless holds an edge longer, they definitely felt like they had less "grip" when freshly sharpened until I asked for a slightly deeper hollow (I was also going from dovetailed blades to paramounts, so they had less of a bite angle at the same ROH - the effect would be similar, but reduced, coming from side honed blades).

[severina]

So today I switched from their top of the line 440ss12 gold seal profile to their brand new c9 blade with a pattern 99 profile. This is the same lightweigh t design but it uses carbon steel.  I was in heaven.  Didn't want to leave the ice.  I landed my double jumps easily and no jump felt scary.  My spins were fast.. so fast thatt my layback literally made me see stars.  I even called paramount to tell them woooow.  I think I am just way too used to the way carbon steel feels.  I assume the reason I like the pattern99 profile is that my old gold seals rocker was so flat from so many sharpenings that I took to the slightly flatter rocker of the p99... pair that with these new ones that use the carbon steel and we have a winner.  Even feel like starting to work on a double axel again.  Woo!

[sarahspins]

Thee pattern 99 profile is definitely "flatter" in the spin rocker, so I'm not surprised it feels more comfortable for you coming off an older blade   Glad you found something that works for you.