A Parent’s Guide to Skate Sharpening

Find a local skate sharpening shop that gets your skates right every time and stick with them. This is about the only thing you’ll need to remember when it comes to getting your skates sharpened. As you get closer to 1″, there’s less of the blade “cut out” or “hollowed”, and you’re gliding more. The further a hollow goes from 1″, the more cut you’re getting with the ice and in theory..

You will have an easier time gliding, stopping, and turning if the skates have a higher degree of sharpness. It is essential that the blades be sufficiently sharp in order to guarantee that they have bites, which will assist you in making turns. Cheaper home sharpening models that are fairly automatic are available.

FBV is similar to a traditional sharpening in the sense there’s still a grinding wheel which the skate blade is passed along. But instead of a round profile, the wheel is now flat in the centre and cut away further out, where the edges of the blade will be. This makes your skate blade’s cross-section flat in the middle and angled into the ice along the edges. It’s intended to give the user more glide without sacrificing bite as much as a traditional sharpening would. Everyone seems to have their own opinion on it – some users find it to be largely the same as a traditional hollow, while others find it greatly improves their game. I would encourage you to try it out and form your own opinions.

Look down the center of your blade to make sure that the hollow is in the middle. Enroll in one of our goalie specific training programs for unreleased drill videos, workouts, and massive discounts in the Goalie Coaches store. I am a mountain guide and outdoor educator have have roku memory card been active in these fields since 1985. I have lived in California’s Eastern Sierra since 1988 and can’t imagine living anywhere else. My passion is helping people learn about wild-lands and through that building constituents for the protection and preservation of such places.

However, ice skates can still be very dangerous when used at a high speed. Skate sharpening machines hold the skate in place with a jig while the skate blade is run back and forth over a grinding wheel. This grinding wheel is what creates the hollow of the blade and sharpens both edges.

If you have ever felt or looked closely at the bottom of your hockey skates, you’ll notice that they aren’t so much a knife or blade as they are two sharp edges with the middle hollowed out. This hollow can be deeper or shallower depending on your preference, and logically enough, this is called your skates’ hollow . But they do shed light on just how sharp hockey skates are and how dangerous it can be when those skate blades touch areas they shouldn’t. It’s important for players and parents to understand what can go wrong on the ice, and to know what precautions they should take to ensure a safe game every time.

That gap between the main points of contact with the ice can make a significant difference in the performance of the skate. You ought to log the number of hours you’re on the ice to see when they begin to become dull. This will help you determine when you’ll need to sharpen them again. A deep hollow is when a small radius is used, 3/8″ for example.

Generally, a machine will make multiple passes on your blades. The first few passes are typically done on the cross-grind machine to remove major impediments like rust, nicks, and dings. After all impediments are removed the skate is moved to the sharpening stone that will apply your desired hollow. A finishing stone will deburr the blade, removing any imperfections left by the sharpening process.

Hockey skate blades are sharp enough to cut someone when swung at high speeds but also dull enough that you could softly run your fingers across without even breaking the skin. In fact, it is common for skate sharpeners to use their finger to feel the edge of the blade to make sure the skates are properly sharpened. Some hockey players like the feeling of skating on unsharpened blades. Like we discussed above, it’s likely that they don’t actually enjoy a dull hockey skate, but rather they have yet to find the hollow they enjoy skating on. If you don’t have a skate sharpener, you can still sharpen your ice skates by yourself.