Jackson Ultima Dance blades UB115 - a quick peek

[Bill_S]

From a vendor on eBay, I had ordered a set of Eclipse Dance blades to experiment with, but an order mix-up occurred. I was sent a set of Jackson Ultima Dance blades (model UB115) instead. I worked with the vendor and an exchange is underway. The blades were shipped in a box for Matrix blades, so they may have been display models. However they were obviously new.

For the brief time that I spent with these Jackson dance blades, I took some quick measurements. I will not be able to skate on them, so that impression won't be a part of this inspection.





I wasn't a fan of the bold, black "Dance" printed on the side of the blade, but the blade quality looked good. Like the Jackson Ultima Synchro blades I have, they were manufactured in Taiwan for Jackson.

I traced the rocker of these blades and compared them to the Ultima Synchro blades (model UB60). Peas in a pod! If you need to switch between synchro and dance blades, I suspect that if you get used to one, you'd feel right at home on the other.



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[Bill_S]

The blade thickness measured between 0.118" and 0.120" at different places along the blade. The chrome relief was 0.175" between blade edge and the chrome. The chrome relief extended further up than on many freestyle blades. The relief was also more than just a light chrome removal, it's where the blade was ground substantially thinner to dance blade thickness. The rest of the blade material is about 0.140" thick above the thinned relief section, but even that is thinner than a freestyle blade.

The photo below show the difference in edge thickness between the dance blade and a MK Professional blade. It's very apparent to the naked eye.



Like the Jackson Protege blades that I recently tried, it came nicely sharpened with a plastic edge guard for shipping. The blades weighed 305 grams. The lighter weight is partially due to the "ventilated" toe plate for mounting the blade.



If you had these mounted, you'd have to attend to waterproofing tasks thoroughly.

The heel plate with the country of origin sticker...



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[Bill_S]

Heel lift was under one inch (~.95") when the picks were pressed to the table. Because the blades are shorter to prevent tangling with your dance partner, the heel lift will be less than a freestyle blade.



The drag pick on the blade is ground down a bit. Because there are no toe jumps in ice dance, it stands to reason that the picks will be somewhat less aggressive. This reduces scratchy skating.



The brazing was nicely done, with ample fillets where the blade parts were joined.



I also measured the blade profile using a dial indicator fixture. This provides a very close look at the blade rocker.



With the rocker measured in 1/4" increments along its length, it's straightforward to plot the profile. The graph below has an exaggerated vertical scale. I've included two other Jackson blades, and a MK Professional blade. Click the graph to enlarge it.



The main rocker was calculated to be 8.3 feet radius. This was calculated from the 5", 6.5", and 8" points back from the toe pick root.

I find it fascinating the similarity of all the Jackson blades, and how different they are from the English-made Wilson and MK blades. Among other differences seen in the graph, the Jackson's have a higher heel stanchion than the others. This rotates their curves compared to the MK blade (green curve).

Comparing stanchion heights for the Dance blades vs. the Synchro blades shows a very close similarity, while the MK Professional is substantially different...
Blade      Front         Rear
Synchro       1.93"          2.022"
Dance          1.93"          2.030"
MK Pro         1.856"        1.894"

In my limited experiments, going from MK Pro or Wilson Coro Ace blades to these mid-tier Jackson Ultima blades will require some adaptation on the part of the skater. They feel very different.

[Bill_S]

I've packaged these back up and will be taking the box to the post office tomorrow. It was a whirlwind, speed-dating type of inspection. Because these are going back, I got no chance to mount them and skate.

In looking around, I found that this blade (UB115) is an older model dance blade that is being discontinued. Kinzie's has these on close-out for $125, but not in all sizes. The original price shown at Kinzie's was $359.95

When the Eclipse Dance blades arrive, I'll have this data to compare two different dance blades. Even though the shipping mistake cost me time, I was happy to be able to make something of it.

[Query]

Heel lift was under one inch (~.95") when the picks were pressed to the table. Because the blades are shorter to prevent tangling with your dance partner, the heel lift will be less than a freestyle blade.

Incidentally, if I remember right, though it's been a long time since I chose new dance boots, heels are usually chosen higher on dance boots. E.g., you might choose a 2 - 2.5" heel instead of 1 5 - 1.75" heel on a freestyle boot - but don't quote me on those numbers. On top of that, though NOT universal, it is fairly common for ice dancers to use a different lean direction from freestyle (i.e., leaning forwards when skating forwards, leaning backwards when skating backwards), to look more like ballroom dance. I'm not sure how exactly this things relate to what you call heel lift (I assume you mean something like how high off the ice the back of the blade is when the toe pick just barely touches?) - since I was taught that ice dancers should rarely use the toe pick, though I'm not sure if all coaches teach that. But the high heel probably means your foot and ankle needs to be in a different configuration than with freestyle blades.

The thing is, AFAIK, neither the Eclipse Dance, nor the Ultima Dance blades, are popular. That is the one figure skating case I know of where one model (MK Dance) predominates. And my Ultima Dance blades feel very different from the way my MK Dance blades felt - the Ultima Dance blades only feel a little different (mostly the length of the toe picks) from my Ultima Supreme freestyle blades. I'm not certain, but I think it is just as common to ice dance in freestyle or synchro blades, as to use any Dance blade other than MK Dance.

So, if you were going to examine Dance blades just to see how they differ, maybe you should have bought the popular model (MK Dance) - though if you are used to freestyle blades, they would have required quite a change (though if you aren't jumping or spinning, I think you would find the MK Dance blades a lot easier to adjust to than a different type freestyle blade, because the toe picks don't get in the way much, so a little mis-adjustment doesn't matter as much).

Is it isn't too late to switch your order to MK Dance, perhaps you would consider it? Of course, part of the question is whether you are willing to waste that much money (MK Dance are ridiculously expensive) on something you are going to resell at a loss after one or two weeks trial. But perhaps, since you aren't really jumping much anymore, you might actually decide you like MK Dance (though I do think you need more time than that to adjust, and that you aren't giving any of these blades a fair trial), and wouldn't sell them off.

I am, BTW, quite curious whether Eclipse Dance are closer to Ultima Dance or to MK Dance... I've never actually used Eclipse blades.

[Bill_S]

It was an eBay auction, and I got the blades for $110 shipped - much less than buying new. For that savings, I'm willing to try the Eclipse instead of springing for the ultra-popular but expensive MK Dance blades.

I've seen the same high rear stanchion on ALL Ultima blades, including the Protege freestyle blade that I tried last month. I also measured another skater's very basic Ultima Aspire blades at the rink, and they also conform to that geometry. I don't know about higher level Jackson Matrix blades though.

From photos of the Eclipse dance blade, they were certainly looking at the MK toe picks when they designed theirs. While I may never know for sure, I'm hoping that the Eclipse are close to the MK in the blade itself.

At least I had the chance to look closely at the Ultima dance blade to expand upon what I've learned so far.