Pro-Filer Redirects to Wissota

[tstop4me]

For those who use the Pro-Filer hand skate sharpener, here's an interesting development.  If you enter "pro-filer.com" in your browser, you get redirected to:  https://wissota.com/product-category/edge-specialties/, the Wissota website.  It lists the boot punch, HDI gauge, and rocker bars by Edge Specialties (company that manufactured the Pro-Filer), but not the Pro-Filer.  I'm not in need of a replacement unit, and I was just checking for any updates.  But if you are in need of a replacement, or were considering buying a new unit, you should probably get in touch with Wissota pronto to see what's happening.

[Bill_S]

Curious. Probably not a good sign for fans of hand sharpening.

I hope that I'm wrong and that Wissota picks up the hand sharpeners for distribution, but it doesn't sound good.

[FigureSpins]

I don't think it's redirecting ... the domain was transferred on 10/18/2021.  Maybe their domain ownership period expired and Wissota bought the domain before Edge Specialties realized it had expired.  I think they can reclaim it, if they act quickly.

https://www.whois.com/whois/pro-filer.com

I have a Pro-Filer and this was the contact info from my order:

Edge Specialties  Inc.
320 815 3338
pro-filer@charter.net

[Query]

Eeks!

I hope Edge Specialties comes back. Perhaps someone here should give them a call, and see if they are still around.

Oh well - I have often thought that someone should compete with Pro-Filer, by bringing back a modernized version of the old Berghman sharpener, which, IMO, were better, except for the stone quality.

The good news is that, even if it turns out Pro-Filer is dead, last I checked, there were number of alternate providers of abrasive cylinders (even some with diamond grit), that would fit in the Pro-Filer.

Things to search for on search engines:

    abrasive round stone
    drum sander, sanding sleeve
    sanding drum
    cylindrical stone
    abrasive cylinder

or, in less durable materials,
    abrasive sleeve
    spiral band

or, originally for use in a drill or similar tool, if you could make them fit:
    mandril
    mandrel
    arbor

[Kaitsu]

One alternative product

[Loops]

One alternative product

Well now that one looks interesting.  I love my pro-filer, but hate how it scratches up my blades.  It's only cosmetic, but still bugs me.

Kaitsu, do you have any personal experience with this product?  it looks like it's made of plastic?  Is it durable?  I like how both the sharpening and finishing stones are together in one unit, too.....

[Kaitsu]

I have three of them, all with different radius. You can buy them for here => http://precisionblade.com/index.php/product-catalogue/

As I have power grinder, they are just decorative items for me. I have tried them couple times, as well as SkateMate but personally I didn't like either of them. Most likely I would not like Pro-filer either. Pro-filer was too expensive for me just to try it for fun.

The body is made of nylon, the cylinder is aluminum and it has self adhesive sand paper around it. With the brass screws you can try to adjust the blade thickness and get the tool parallel to the blade. I guess common with Pro-filer and these root honing tools is that you need to push them quite heavily against the Hollow or other ways it starts to travel un-parallel. If you adjust the brass screws to be too snug, the aluminum cylinder slips away.

[tstop4me]

I don't think it's redirecting ... the domain was transferred on 10/18/2021.  Maybe their domain ownership period expired and Wissota bought the domain before Edge Specialties realized it had expired.  I think they can reclaim it, if they act quickly.

https://www.whois.com/whois/pro-filer.com

I have a Pro-Filer and this was the contact info from my order:

Edge Specialties  Inc.
320 815 3338
pro-filer@charter.net

I believe that the practice you've described is called "cybersquatting".  I can't imagine Wissota deliberately doing that to Edge Specialties (especially since Wissota is selling Edge Specialties products).  But who knows what's going on?  Regardless of the technical intermediate route, the end result is the same:  If you type in "pro-filer.com" in a browser, you end up at a Wissota webpage.

Anyway, so we don't go down the rabbit hole of endless speculation, I've e-mailed both Wissota (via their Contact Page on their website) and Edge Specialties (via their last known address as listed in your post pro-filer@charter.net, which is also what I last used in 2016).  I'll post updates if I get any replies.

[tstop4me]

The body is made of nylon, the cylinder is aluminum and it has self adhesive sand paper around it. With the brass screws you can try to adjust the blade thickness and get the tool parallel to the blade. I guess common with Pro-filer and these root honing tools is that you need to push them quite heavily against the Hollow or other ways it starts to travel un-parallel. If you adjust the brass screws to be too snug, the aluminum cylinder slips away.

<<Emphasis added>>  With respect to the Pro-Filer, heavy pressure is not needed.  The Pro-Filer has a fixed-width (non-adjustable) guide slot that slides along the sides of the blade.  Proper centering, alignment, and clearance are nominally achieved by applying one or more layers of tape onto the sides of the blade; the tape also nominally protects the sides of the blade from scratches.  I say "nominally"  because the use of tape is a major neg of the Pro-Filer, and we've had previous posts dedicated to tape issues.

[Query]

I have three of them, all with different radius. You can buy them for here => http://precisionblade.com/index.php/product-catalogue/

I just visited that site, and can't find the item you show... But I've been thinking of making something from standard pipe clamps, and off-the-shelf abrasive cylinders.

With the old Berghman sharpeners, you could tape the pieces that form the (adjustable) gap. I presume you could even use foam tape to deal with side-honed blades. Once applied, the tape would stay on there. (I tried to tape the sides of a Pro-Filer, but can't make it stick, because there isn't enough room to work it in - if you want smooth sides, you have to carefully re-tape the blade every time instead.) Of course, you would want to replace the old crumbly coarse grain cylindrical stones with something newer and better. Also, they only came in 1/2" ROH. But the good news is they are available, used, for about $5-$10.

Too bad no one makes a modern version of the Berghman with other ROH. The patents must have expired long ago - if I remember right they were made from about 1929 to 1949.

I would love to see the response tstop4me's emails. I had tried to email them too, with no response, so far.

[tstop4me]

I would love to see the response tstop4me's emails. I had tried to email them too, with no response, so far.

I did recently get a response from Edge Specialties.  But I'm awaiting clarification (plus permission to post their response).  [ETA:  But I'm happy to report that Wissota is not guilty of cybersquatting.]

[tstop4me]

I just visited that site, and can't find the item you show...

Yeah, their website sucks. 

*  Go to:  http://precisionblade.com/index.php/product-catalogue/

*  Near the top, click on the tab "Burr Removing Products"

*  Near the bottom, click to advance to Page 2.

[tstop4me]

OK.  Here's the word from Jan Anderson at Edge Specialties [Brad and Jan Anderson run Edge Specialties]. 

*  They are retiring.

*  They have sold the "pro-filer.com" domain to Wissota.

*  They have sold the boot punch, HDI gauge, and rocker bar product lines to Wissota.  These are the products featured on the Edge Specialties page of the Wissota website (where you land when you enter "pro-filer.com" in a browser).

*  Edge Specialties still has some Pro-Filers in inventory for sale.  If you are interested, please contact:

Jan Anderson
Edge Specialties, Inc.
phone 320-808-1536
e-mail pro-filer@charter.net

[Loops]

Yeah, their website sucks. 

*  Go to:  http://precisionblade.com/index.php/product-catalogue/

*  Near the top, click on the tab "Burr Removing Products"

*  Near the bottom, click to advance to Page 2.

Hmmm they say they're "honing" tools, for removing burrs "post sharpening".  So not really a replacement for the pro-filer.  And yes on this latter unit the tape, and especially the interaction of the tape with the chassis, is a bear.  I only use it now for emergencies.

[tstop4me]

Hmmm they say they're "honing" tools, for removing burrs "post sharpening".  So not really a replacement for the pro-filer.  And yes on this latter unit the tape, and especially the interaction of the tape with the chassis, is a bear.  I only use it now for emergencies.

Also, since you are concerned with cosmetic scratches:  A plastic, rather than aluminum, chassis by itself may reduce, but not eliminate, scratches on the polished sides of your blade.  Inevitably, abrasive grit or fine metal particles will get lodged between the chassis walls and the sides of the blades and cause scratches.

[Query]

AFAICT from the pictures, they work the same way as Pro-Filer and Bergman sharpeners - i.e., a slot centers the blade on an abrasive cylinder.

So maybe they can do more than remove burrs. I wouldn't be surprised if they can do everything - though, as with Pro-Filer, it is possible they are too slow (and would create too much wear on the cylinder) to change profiles in a reasonable amount of time - and even changing ROH would take a lot of time. To do those things in reasonable time, they would need a very coarse grit stone.

And of course a powered sharpener, that rotates, will be faster still. Like the Wissota tools, etc. For a professional skate tech who gets a lot of skate sharpening business, the powered tool would quickly pay for itself.

There was another company in the hand sharpener business at http://www.thebladedoctor.com that made somewhat similar devices (but the handle was made out of flexible materials) that only fit hockey blades. But Edge Specialties sued them out of existence for patent violation.

The truth is, the idea behind such devices is very simple. But I assume machining them to high accuracy isn't something most home shops, even if they have metal working tools, could easily handle. Since abrasive cylinders are available for other purposes off-the-shelf, perhaps centering the slot on the cylinder is the hard part. Otherwise lots of people would do it

I'm not sure the Berghman device was a super-high-accuracy machining project. But it used spring pressures to make the device self centering, and to make it easy to adjust the gap size. Perhaps the Precision Blade device uses a dual pipe mounting bracket somewhat the same way? I thought of doing that, but wasn't sure it would work well enough.

As far as finish quality is concerned, a hand tool can do a very good job - if you lubricate it or use polishing fluid.

[supersharp]

Well now that one looks interesting.  I love my pro-filer, but hate how it scratches up my blades.  It's only cosmetic, but still bugs me.

Kaitsu, do you have any personal experience with this product?  it looks like it's made of plastic?  Is it durable?  I like how both the sharpening and finishing stones are together in one unit, too.....

I also have this tool. If you don't like scratches on the sides of your blades, you probably won't like it.  The brass adjustment screws are used to fine-tune the clearance on the side of the blades, and unless you tape the blades (and probably even if you do), the screw ends will scratch the blades.  I can't stand the sensation of the screws digging into the blades, it's like fingernails on a chalkboard...and unless I'm gouging the sides of the blades, the cylinder doesn't necessarily run down the center of the blade. Definitely could be user error. I wish the brass screws were attached to a smooth plate on each side that would glide along the sides of the blade.  That could also have a specialty version (maybe garnet cloth) to polish the chrome relief at the same time.

That being said, the cylinders are nicely made and the two different grits are useful for hand-honing blades. 

I use the 15 micron cylinder for polishing after sharpening skates on my machine, but I use it without the holder and with the skates clamped to the side of my workbench. I would not recommend this without cut-proof gloves.  If you have a lot of practice, you can feel the cylinder sitting in the groove and guide it by hand better than with the holder.

I went on a trip recently and took the holder and cylinders with me in case of emergency need.  It would take awhile, but if necessary, you could sharpen your blades with this device.  Happily, I didn't need it.

[Kaitsu]

It seems Pro-filers are now available in Blademaster.

https://blademaster.com/web/en/2560-retail-products

Can someone give me dimensions from the Profiler? How long honing cylinder is and how the cylinder can be removed from the aluminum holder. I am planning to 3D-print holder which works better for figure skates. I do not have this tool. Some outer dimensions I can get from the Bills photos. Those whom was this tool can give tips how would you improve this tool.

[Bill_S]

The abrasive cylinders are 2" long. They can be removed on an original ProFiler by knocking out one of the two roll pins that retain the cylinder. That's simple enough to do, but I also drilled and tapped a ProFiler body to take screws to make it even easier.

Thread here...

http://skatingforums.com/index.php?topic=7896.msg94487#msg94487

The shape of the chassis on the new models offered by Blademaster are different. The opening that guides the blade on the new models doesn't have an extension on the top of it. It's simply a slot that lies flush with the top of the chassis. I don't know if the whole chassis has been extended to keep the slot depth the same to help guide blades, or if they simply designed it without that extra extension (greater chance of uneven edges).

It's being marketed for hockey skates, so I assume the slot for the blade will be narrower. Your 3D printed chassis could take care of that issue for figure blades.

[tstop4me]

It seems Pro-filers are now available in Blademaster.

https://blademaster.com/web/en/2560-retail-products

Can someone give me dimensions from the Profiler? How long honing cylinder is and how the cylinder can be removed from the aluminum holder. I am planning to 3D-print holder which works better for figure skates. I do not have this tool. Some outer dimensions I can get from the Bills photos. Those whom was this tool can give tips how would you improve this tool.

Here's a previous thread I started brainstorming improvements to the Pro-Filer:  http://skatingforums.com/index.php?topic=8385.msg100071#msg100071.  The major improvement would be an adjustable gap on the chassis to handle blades of different thicknesses.  If you're making an entirely new chassis, this should be much easier to do than modifying the existing chassis.  Also, note that the chassis of the figure skate kit needed to be modified to work with Paramount and Matrix blades.

If you're planning to buy the stones from Blademaster, you should check with them what the current length is.  It might not be the same (2") that was supplied with the Pro-Filer figure skate kits.   There were separate hockey skate kits that used a different chassis and a different length for the stones; the original Pro-Filer hockey skate kits were different from the Blademaster ones.

ETA:  Looks like the Blademaster Pro-Filer has the coarse diamond stone only.  The original Pro-Filer kit for figure skates came with two units:  one with a coarse diamond stone (for sharpening) and one with a finer silicon carbide or aluminum oxide stone (for finishing).

[Query]

And I think hockey sharpeners tend to use a coarser grain than the fine grain stone in the Pro-Filer figure skating kit.

If you don't need super-sharp blades, that might be good enough - in fact, it might negate the need for using a flat stone to de-burr or to redirect the burr into a foil edge. I've recently been using my coarse Pro-Filer without a flat stone.

BTW, I'm not sure the Pro-Filer patents are still in force. How would one figure that out?

The old hockey style Pro-Filer I bought did have a slightly adjustable gap size - it had screws instead of punch pins. But not adjustable enough to accommodate figure blades. That's why I had to file it wider, which was a bit challenging, because I wanted to maintain proper centering. 

[tstop4me]

The old hockey style Pro-Filer I bought did have a slightly adjustable gap size - it had screws instead of punch pins. But not adjustable enough to accommodate figure blades. That's why I had to file it wider, which was a bit challenging, because I wanted to maintain proper centering.

At some point, Brad sent me a sample of the new figure skate chassis that he was planning to use.  Similar to the hockey skate chassis.  It does have two halves screwed together, but no adjustable gap, unless you intentionally don't tighten the screws to leave a larger gap (but then everything would just flop around, and centering is not maintained).  You should check carefully the unit you have.

[Bill_S]

Can someone give me dimensions from the Profiler?

I spent a little time with calipers and a radius gauge set measuring a 3/8" ROH ProFiler that I have here. With these dimensions, someone should be able to replicate the chassis in a machine shop.



If you can 3D print, this might help you get started. Dimensions are in inches.

Click the picture to make it bigger (on some computers/browsers).

[Leif]

There is also the Blade Barber:

https://www.bladebarber.ca/

They claim it can sharpen hockey and figure blades to 4 mm thick. I don't see how it can get even edges without being tailored to a specific blade thickness. Presumably they allow for a certain tilt, maybe one thousandth of an inch. I did a quick calculation assuming a 0.5" hollow, and I think using this tool the edges could be out of kilter by 3 thousandth of an inch, which is unsatisfactory in my opinion.

[Kaitsu]

Thanx Bill. I was too unpatient and made first 3D model based on your old photos where you instruct using of Pro-Filer. This means that print dimensions are not as per as your excellent dimensional drawing. Print is also with 1/2" radius.

At the moment my target is to study how far this tool goes in to the chromed surfaces. In the other words, how big risk there is that chromed surfaces are scratched with tool which slot has same width with the blade. Means no any protective tape cannot be used. Another thing what I try to understand, how well this tool ensures edges evenness and does it round the edges like so many other tool what I have tried so far.

Even the adjustable slot would be nice, I dont think that I am able to tune this specific tool design so that it would work as well as without any adjustments. Its easier just to print bodies with different slot widths. Cost of one print is so low. During the weekend I might have time to draw Bergham sharpener. I have planned to print it also just from pure curios how it works. Can centering work so well that it could be really used. These all are just tests to feed my study hunger. Maybe this help also those whom does have Pro-filer and they would like to improve their tool.