Stupid Skate Question

[afterhours]

I've played roller hockey my entire life. I just bought a pair of ice hockey skates (CCM Vectors) so I can go play pick-up at my local ice rink. Do you have to sharpen ice-hockey skates out of the box or are they good to go?

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[KBstyle]

Yes you have

 

[Puckboy]

It depends where you buy them I would saw. If you got them a good hockey store they should have sharpened them after you tried them. If you got them at a store like Sports Authority I would sharpen them before you go out. Based on you not knowing I would take them and have them sharpened.

 

[EmptyNetter]

I've played roller hockey my entire life. I just bought a pair of ice hockey skates (CCM Vectors) so I can go play pick-up at my local ice rink. Do you have to sharpen ice-hockey skates out of the box or are they good to go?

Best way to tell is if the bottom of the blade is completely flat then the blades have never been sharpened and need to be. Sharpened blades have a shallow U channel in the middle. Retail shops don't sharpen the skates until they've been bought and paid for -- I assume for safety reasons, plus different people like their skates sharpened differently.

 

[MikeD]

IF you can get to the rink and ask around from parents and players who localy does a good grind, you will be much happier than just handing them to someone you dont know. If you have a local small hockey with an older experienced dude you will prob be much happier than with a grind put on by some 19-21 year old behind the counter of a rink pro shop.

to learn about grinds:

http://noicingsports.com/skate_sharpening_radius.html
http://noicingsports.com/skate_radius_profiling.html

 

[Gino 14]

Even if you decide that the skates were already sharpened, take the time to find someone that is reputable to do your future work. I never would have believed that such a simple thing could have such a huge effect on your skating until I was in a hurry and decided to let the local rink guy do my skates. They did such a poor job that I was unable to skate that night and had to take them back to my normal guy anyway. He showed me what they did and then fixed them for me. I won't make that mistake twice.

 

[Puckboy]

IF you can get to the rink and ask around from parents and players who localy does a good grind, you will be much happier than just handing them to someone you dont know. If you have a local small hockey with an older experienced dude you will prob be much happier than with a grind put on by some 19-21 year old behind the counter of a rink pro shop.

to learn about grinds:

http://noicingsports.com/skate_sharpening_radius.html
http://noicingsports.com/skate_radius_profiling.html

Those are a couple of great links thanks

 

[Greeneye]

Agreed.

I send my steel to Noicing as well.

 

[Twist and Shout]

lol, I remember one of the first few times I skated over a decade ago.

My parents bought me a new pair skates and they took me for a few public skates (while they watched because they couldn't skate). Not knowing anything about skating, they made me wear the skates right out of the box, and my dad kept telling me to hold the boards to support myself because I couldn't move properly. After several less than successful public skates, another parent told my dad that I probably needed to have my skates sharpened.

 

[MikeD]

Agreed.

I send my steel to Noicing as well.

That is a place that is worth shipping to and having two pair of skates to make it work. They use a state of the art CNC grinder that will put the EXACT same grind on a skate every single time. The owner is a goalie so if any G's out there are considering a Radius profile(awesome grind) that is the guy to talk to and have it done by.

 

[TBLfan]

run your finger along the bottom and put quite a bit of pressure, if it doesn't hurt or bleed you need to have it sharpened

 

[hockey_power]

sharpen them just to make sure, cause they probabaly werent sharpened prior to that