How bothered are you by a bad sharpen?

[SacredPetra]

I recently got my holders replaced and when I tried skating on them I felt like I couldn't do anything. Finally after another coached practice and a stick and puck where my skates kept feeling worse I had a different skate sharpener look at them to see if they'd missed an edge. Turns out my edges were all different heights and my inside edges were 1-1.5mm taller than my outside edges.

1mm doesn't seem like it should make that big of a difference, but if that's all that's wrong, it made a huge difference in my skating ability.

Do people here skate through a bad sharpening or does it really effect your performance? Does it get easier to ignore a bad sharpening as you become a stronger/better skater?

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[intangible]

It really pisses me off when they don't get it right or it's uneven. Sharpening skates is not that hard if you take your time to do it and are careful. When possible I only let a few choice people do my skates, as I trust them to do it correctly every time.

 

[AIREAYE]

It really pisses me off when they don't get it right or it's uneven. Sharpening skates is not that hard if you take your time to do it and are careful. When possible I only let a few choice people do my skates, as I trust them to do it correctly every time.

Bang on.

Shops should have some sort of gauge or level that they put on your skates to see if the edges are the same height. If you pay attention to what they're doing and they don't do this and cannot explain why, then you should consider another sharpener.

Like intangible said, it's not hard to do a simple sharpen. Basic steps and care should be taken.

 

[Devil Dancer]

I kind of expect it. A really good sharpening is the exception in the D.C. area.

 

[TieClark]

I do mine myself so I don't ever have problems, but I guess the question would need to be what would you consider a bad sharpen? I've had guys come in and the line is way off (what has been said above is "the line") which would render the skate useless imo. But other times I have guys say the strangest things where I don't even know what the problem is too though.

 

[CarpeNoctem]

Uneven edges are a royal pain in the ass. I've had crappy sharpening jobs before where it felt like only one side of the blade was sharpened. Not fun to skate on.

 

[Ozz]

I pull a Roenick

 

[Evergreen]

I hate it. It throws me off all game and I get so frustrated.

 

[intangible]

I do mine myself so I don't ever have problems, but I guess the question would need to be what would you consider a bad sharpen?

I've had it all, from the guy simply not doing them enough to completely uneven edges. My favorite one happened about a month ago.. I play both goalie and skater.. and I wanted to try the new A-trap sharpening. The guy doing it even said he hadn't done it yet, but I figure everyone has to start somewhere, and he's a good guy.. I've known him for a while. The A-trap allows goalies to get different edges on the inner and outer edges, so, for example, I got 3/8" on my inside edge to give me greater bite on my pushes, but the outer edge is 5/8" so I don't dig too far into the ice. His problem? Somehow he forgot to switch them for each skate.. so I ended up with a perfect left skate and a right skate that had 5/8" on the inside and 3/8" on the outside, lol. It was terrible, but fortunately I was only playing in a scrimmage that night and got the fixed the next day from another sharpener.

Another thing that drives me nuts is when they rush the sharpening and don't go all the way up the toes or heel, just leaving it unsharpened. I like a full blade sharpening and one of the first "tests" on the ice is to see how well the toe and heel are done. They almost never get it right.

 

[LarryO]

I recently got my holders replaced and when I tried skating on them I felt like I couldn't do anything. Finally after another coached practice and a stick and puck where my skates kept feeling worse I had a different skate sharpener look at them to see if they'd missed an edge. Turns out my edges were all different heights and my inside edges were 1-1.5mm taller than my outside edges.

1mm doesn't seem like it should make that big of a difference, but if that's all that's wrong, it made a huge difference in my skating ability.

Do people here skate through a bad sharpening or does it really effect your performance? Does it get easier to ignore a bad sharpening as you become a stronger/better skater?

1mm difference is enormous and I'd be really peeved to get that. I don't think I'd be able to skate on that. Too much grip on one side and not enough grip on the other. Maybe I'd try to tough it out for the rest of the game if I didn't notice the bad sharpening before getting on the ice. After having it fixed, that would mean that you've lost 1mm of blade on one sharpening. Considering that a brand new blade sticks out by around 13-14mm, that's a big chunk of the blade's life wasted.

 

[goodriddance628]

when I bought my new skates at a popular chain store the kid that sharpened them was taking for ever so I went to see what was going on and he was having trouble getting them level he finally got them done and the first time I hit the ice I had no inside edge from the middle of the blade back I took them back and the manager was there and put the level on them he couldn't believe the kid let them leave the store like that, I don't take my skates there to get sharpened anymore even though they offer free sharpening 2 days a week

 

[TieClark]

I've had it all, from the guy simply not doing them enough to completely uneven edges. My favorite one happened about a month ago.. I play both goalie and skater.. and I wanted to try the new A-trap sharpening. The guy doing it even said he hadn't done it yet, but I figure everyone has to start somewhere, and he's a good guy.. I've known him for a while. The A-trap allows goalies to get different edges on the inner and outer edges, so, for example, I got 3/8" on my inside edge to give me greater bite on my pushes, but the outer edge is 5/8" so I don't dig too far into the ice. His problem? Somehow he forgot to switch them for each skate.. so I ended up with a perfect left skate and a right skate that had 5/8" on the inside and 3/8" on the outside, lol. It was terrible, but fortunately I was only playing in a scrimmage that night and got the fixed the next day from another sharpener.

Another thing that drives me nuts is when they rush the sharpening and don't go all the way up the toes or heel, just leaving it unsharpened. I like a full blade sharpening and one of the first "tests" on the ice is to see how well the toe and heel are done. They almost never get it right.

That first one is very different, I'm not even sure how you'd do that unless you mean the front half of the blade is one and the back half another? I've done that once about a week ago for a guy.

As for the second that seems to be a common complaint but I'm not sure why you'd ever get that even with rushing. I'll admit I've rushed skates when guys come in during the middle of the Leaf game but even a rushed job should be good enough to skate on. Make sure it's level real quick and fly through it... won't be the greatest but why would you not go toe to heel? Doesn't make sense to me.

1mm difference is enormous and I'd be really peeved to get that. I don't think I'd be able to skate on that. Too much grip on one side and not enough grip on the other. Maybe I'd try to tough it out for the rest of the game if I didn't notice the bad sharpening before getting on the ice. After having it fixed, that would mean that you've lost 1mm of blade on one sharpening. Considering that a brand new blade sticks out by around 13-14mm, that's a big chunk of the blade's life wasted.

It'd definitely be unusable. You'd slide out from under yourself every time you put pressure on the one side.

 

[SacredPetra]

It was pretty difficult skating in them! I couldn't even really concentrate on puck handling drills because I could never be sure when I was going to have an edge. Forwards crossovers made me feel like a lame gazelle because I'd get to the point where my outside foot was over my inside and suddenly I didn't have an edge. It was frustrating too because the two coaches I was skating with had never really seen me skate before so they just kept saying maybe I just needed to get used to them. I don't think I've ever cine that close to having a full out tantrum because they just felt wrong and I couldn't explain what felt wrong.

I hadn't even thought about the difference in blade life, I was already warned that I'll go through these bosses faster because I like a 3/8ths hollow and will be playing at least 4 days per week, so I planned to replace them within the year.

 

[lokomotiv15]

Its pretty bad. I sharpen my own skates at work, so I never have to worry about that, but before when id get them done shops id feel any unbalance right away and get it fixed accordingly.

 

[Canadiens1958]

Montreal Sharpeners

1mm difference is enormous and I'd be really peeved to get that. I don't think I'd be able to skate on that. Too much grip on one side and not enough grip on the other. Maybe I'd try to tough it out for the rest of the game if I didn't notice the bad sharpening before getting on the ice. After having it fixed, that would mean that you've lost 1mm of blade on one sharpening. Considering that a brand new blade sticks out by around 13-14mm, that's a big chunk of the blade's life wasted.

Very familiar with Montreal area sharpeners.

Who would you consider amongst the top 5?

Arena list would be fine.

 

[chippa13*]

Bad sharpenings are the worst.

Luckily haven't had a bad sharpening in years because the two people I have been using for the last 3 years are always money.

Zwickers in Bedford, MA
or
No Icing in Hudson NH

http://www.noicingsports.com/ (you can mail your steel to Bob)

Z

 

[CornKicker]

i get pissed when i blow a wheel cause an edge is wrong and i slam into the boards. there is no way for me to check them i just assume they are good. i now only go to one place and would rather play on dulls than go somewhere else.

 

[Jarick]

1-1.5mm difference? That's wasting a ton of steel. I'd go somewhere else or make them re-do it.

 

[Terry Yake]

a good sharpening is hard to come by in socal

can't remember how many times i've taken my skates to a shop and they mess it up

 

[TLow97]

Took my skates to a hockey shop attached to the arena once for a sharpening. Didn't sharpen the inside edges at all. Very aggravating.

 

[Cursed Lemon]

I pull a Roenick

"He says he doesn't see why it's a bad sharpening, well what the **** is he looking at? Wake up. Pro shop, WAKE UP."

 

[Cursed Lemon]

Also, the Centennial Sportsplex in Nashville (the only rink that's actually in the city of Nashville) has a pro shop, but it's run by the city and they won't allow the pro shop to do on-site sharpenings.

And in EITHER CASE, you have to leave your skates overnight to get them sharpened, which I have never seen in my life. The in-house sharpenings are usually poor quality.

 

[Canadiens1958]

Good Quality

Perhaps it would be worthwhile to recognize the quality sharpeners in various areas. Started with Montreal. Building a positive data bank would help everyone.

 

[sanityplease]

Uneven edges are unskatable, even dangerous. I had a botch job done a month ago or so. Edges were so uneven, it was obvious just looking @ them, & very obvious skating on them. I put a steel straight edge across them so that both points were touching, it was at about a 20 degree angle.... Took them to another sharpener who isn't very good (had to it was an emergency), they used a gauge, & said that they looked pretty good & didn't see a problem...

 

[LarryO]

Very familiar with Montreal area sharpeners.

Who would you consider amongst the top 5?

Arena list would be fine.

I may be a bit fussy about my sharpenings but to be quite honest, surprisingly, I still have a hard time finding really good ones in Montreal.

Jean Roy pro shop at Fleury Arena are very good whether it's Jean himself or his son. Jean doesn't even need to start with a crossgrind to get a nice level sharpening, and they won't give you a weird look if you ask for a specific ROH. They also make Graf Sidas custom footbeds. They're just a little far from my home so it's not the most convenient location to go to regularly for a sharpening.

I've gotten a lot of good sharpenings at Etienne Desmarteaux arena also but some of their sharpeners are better than others.

Now I need to vent about ARS on Bennett street. The first time I went there, he took out his level gauge to show me how bad my previous sharpening was, and showed me again how level it was after his sharpening. I thought, "Finally I've found a decent sharpener!" That was the only time he used the level and the only time I got a good sharpening from there. One other time I noticed him seemingly struggling with one skate. It seemed like he tried sharpening it twice to correct his mistake. That sharpening ending up being off-level at one end of the blade and off-level in the other direction at the other end of the blade, as if the blade wasn't perfectly horizontal when he sharpened it. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. And forget about asking for a specific ROH. He goes by numbers like 4, 5, 6, etc. They do good repair work and holder mountings but I now avoid them for sharpening.

If anyone knows of great sharpeners in Montreal, especially in the east end, please let me know.