Skate sharpening thread

[RichMan]

Here is a good video from Pasco Valana. What exactly would you call his set-up?

 

[Chenner29]

15 minutes ago, RichMan said:

Here is a good video from Pasco Valana. What exactly would you call his set-up?

 

He's talking about rocker/forward lean

[RichMan]

10 minutes ago, Chenner29 said:

He's talking about rocker/forward lean

Yes, I understood that part, but how or where would that fit with the flat spot and its length?

[Chenner29]

4 minutes ago, RichMan said:

Yes, I understood that part, but how or where would that fit with the flat spot and its length?

Sorry, I'm not following.

He doesn't bring up or recommend any kind of flat spot.  His suggestion is to profile the skates down to 11 or 15' with a forward lean to keep the goalie on the balls of their feet.

[RichMan]

5 minutes ago, Chenner29 said:

Sorry, I'm not following.

He doesn't bring up or recommend any kind of flat spot.  His suggestion is to profile the skates down to 11 or 15' with a forward lean to keep the goalie on the balls of their feet.

Bringing in a rocker to the blade would not affect the choice of CAG?

 

[Chenner29]

49 minutes ago, RichMan said:

Bringing in a rocker to the blade would not affect the choice of CAG?

 

No, you can add a CAG to any existing profile

[DL42]

sam and spry flat spot are both CAG,  SAM is a profile template that the skate sharpening profile machine company made up to generate additional revenue by selling the template bar to existiing company besides all the cheap stuff they sell, highest markup profit margin prob.  Same with spry and Tydan , but they are prob trying to generate skate sharpening and profile business by offereing something others dont have.  Anybody with the machine which is expensive can do those templates, just need two machine, but they usually have the only the prosharp machine and not the CAG.

 

the 11'-15' pasco recommends is almost the same flat spot as a cag b/c its so long except its still 1 point on a curve surface vs CAG which is  flat like a square vs circle.

 

Cam WARD, kevin weeks, brent johnson, quick, arturus irbe all use CAG.  Prob more but hard to get that info.

 

one thing not mentioned is how you lace the skates, if u do the skates all the way up u do not have ankle mobility and harder to engage the edge when having a long CAG 100mm and above.

I use a a 80/160  CAG at 3/8 or 1/4 depending on conditions.

Skating stance and ability is another factor.  

Someone mention eariler the front radius with 8' or 10' or whatever vs 30' has less edge to push is true also same with the back.  The front and back doesnt matter much to me i go with stock 30' dont even touch that and do a straight 80/160 across the bottom for last 5 years.

[RichMan]

All great info...but all these numbers make me feel like

[Gunleather]

I use 1/2” hollow on 4 mm step steel 

[KootenayKeeper]

On 8/28/2019 at 6:27 AM, beansbats said:

I sold my Sparx and bought a Wissota so that I could mess with in between hollows.  On my 3mm steel I usually run approximately 3/8", and on my 4mm it is closer to 5/8".  I'll make minor adjustments based on outside air temperature.  I also raise the inside edges and dull the outside ones.  Frequency?  Every three or four skates in the summer on softer ice, and every couple of skates in the winter.  I have purchased the FBV adapter from Wissota and some dressing wheels from Blackstone and plan to give FBV a shot in a couple of weeks.   I love sharpening my own skates!

-steve

how do you raise the inside edge? do you offset the blade up or down from the centre point?

[beansbats]

On 2/21/2022 at 6:26 AM, KootenayKeeper said:

how do you raise the inside edge? do you offset the blade up or down from the centre point?

I've tried it multiple ways by adjusting the holder tilt or centering, but all I do now is run the de-burring stone on the inside edge like I'm de-burring, and then use the stone to flatten and dull the outside edge.  I don't mess with the holder anymore just because it is too easy to screw it up, and I do sharpen other skates besides my own.

[KootenayKeeper]

22 hours ago, beansbats said:

I've tried it multiple ways by adjusting the holder tilt or centering, but all I do now is run the de-burring stone on the inside edge like I'm de-burring, and then use the stone to flatten and dull the outside edge.  I don't mess with the holder anymore just because it is too easy to screw it up, and I do sharpen other skates besides my own.

hey thanks for the reply. I just bought a used fleming gray b2 machine so still learning, but i can only raise/lower the blade relative to the grinding wheel.

is convenience the main reason for doing it this way? does it perform the same as if you did it the 'traditional' way?

[A.YOUNGoalie13]

The hell is CAG?

I use the profile that comes on the skates and get 3/8ths. What is all this fancy stuff @DL42

[Chenner29]

2 hours ago, A.YOUNGoalie13 said:

The hell is CAG?

I use the profile that comes on the skates and get 3/8ths. What is all this fancy stuff @DL42

CAG is a true flat spot placed in the center of the blade.

The numbers refer to the number of millimeters of the flat spot in front of blade center/overall flat.

So if you see 60/120, you have 60mm flat in front of center and another 60mm flat behind.

If you see 65/120, you have 65mm flat in front and 55mm behind

The principle is that the flat spot grants you stability and grin, which can also allow you to go shallower on your ROH

[beansbats]

4 hours ago, KootenayKeeper said:

hey thanks for the reply. I just bought a used fleming gray b2 machine so still learning, but i can only raise/lower the blade relative to the grinding wheel.

is convenience the main reason for doing it this way? does it perform the same as if you did it the 'traditional' way?

Convenience only. The traditional way probably performs better.  I have made my life difficult when I forget to re-zero the holder for a different pair of skates   

[KootenayKeeper]

23 hours ago, beansbats said:

Convenience only. The traditional way probably performs better.  I have made my life difficult when I forget to re-zero the holder for a different pair of skates   

i'll concentrate doing a basic sharpening first then trying other customizations later. thanks.

[creasecollector]

Since covid shutdowns. etc I still haven't gotten my skates sharpened in a while. When I finally do it's going to feel extra weird. I already don't skarpen my skates to begin with, maybe 1-2 times a season at most. 

[A.YOUNGoalie13]

What does CAG and SAM stand for

[Scythe]

The shop I go to has you make an appointment for sharpening. I bring beer too. 

 

A couple of Icehouse. That's what it's worth.  

Edited March 1, 2022 by Scythe

[KootenayKeeper]

Did my skates for the first time after practicing on some old skates. I had my first skate on them on Saturday and they were fine. I was worried that I would f*ck them up. The edges weren't perfect, i.e. level, but close enough that it wasn't adversely affecting my movements. Hopefully will get better and I will experiment with the inside edges.

Edited March 5, 2022 by KootenayKeeper

[KootenayKeeper]

So it's our year end tournament, the Mashup, and I experimented with sharpening my skates with a high inside edge. The result, better pushes and I felt more stable in my stance. Keep in mind, that's all relative - I'm just an okay skater.

I did more skating by reffing the following game in my goalie gear. I felt smoother and more stable too. I'll say that it was a successful experiment, and I'll give the edges a touch up before tomorrow's game.

[johncho]

Sorry if it's been asked before, but what adjustments do you guys do, if at all for really really soft ice? Not sure if I need to go deeper in my hollow, or not.

I've been blessed until now playing at really decent rinks in the summer as well, but recently, I've come across a few in my area that seem to have a lot of water in the crease in the beginning, and ice that's a lot softer than I'm used to.

I've tried clearing the water with my stick a bit, but scraping the surface to clean it with my blades in the beginning seems to make it worse. If my blades are freshly sharpened it's more manageable, but often times when I try to push (especially in the beginning), I'm just scraping the ice and not going anywhere. Or is it more that my pads that are getting stuck?

[Chenner29]

1 hour ago, johncho said:

Sorry if it's been asked before, but what adjustments do you guys do, if at all for really really soft ice? Not sure if I need to go deeper in my hollow, or not.

I've been blessed until now playing at really decent rinks in the summer as well, but recently, I've come across a few in my area that seem to have a lot of water in the crease in the beginning, and ice that's a lot softer than I'm used to.

I've tried clearing the water with my stick a bit, but scraping the surface to clean it with my blades in the beginning seems to make it worse. If my blades are freshly sharpened it's more manageable, but often times when I try to push (especially in the beginning), I'm just scraping the ice and not going anywhere. Or is it more that my pads that are getting stuck?

I'm not sure this has been asked before.

My local rink had this issue with the first couple games back after Covid in 2020, to the point that after warmups, it looked like we were skating on a snow cone.  And by the third, I had maybe an 1/8" puddle of water in the crease up to the middle hash marks.  IIRC it was an issue with the compressor.

IMO softer ice needs a shallower cut to maintain the same bite.  Phrased another way, a 1/2" cut will feel sharper on soft ice than on hard.

If you're having issues sliding around the crease, your pads may be getting stuck in the puddles around you.  Scraping up your crease is going to create more ice shavings which will melt down into water.

[ilyazhito]

On a different note, how would a profile, such as a senior Goalie SAM affect sharpening? I used to play with a 3/8 hollow when my skates had the factory single radius profile, but I then took a profile assessment and changed to a 5/8 hollow with Goalie SAM based on the results. I found out that the settings are great for shuffles, but suck for sliding, because I can't seem to get a good edge to push off from. I then moved to a 1/2 hollow. Hopefully this helps. Anyone else alter their sharpenings due to profiles? 

[Puckstopper]

Agreed.  Go shallower on your hollow if you'll be playing at a rink with known soft ice.   I haven't had to do this in a while, but years ago I'd go from a 3/8" to a 1/2" cut in the summer.   If I'd have had access to a sharpener back then I'd have gone all the way to 5/8" for one rink.

As far as a wet crease goes, I usually leave the net on the side boards for the shooters to aim at, and wait to set the pegs until right before the game.  I hang out near the crease to keep skaters from gouging it up too much and try to push the water behind the goal line instead of out into the slot or the sides of the net.    

Back in the day, at the warm/soft rink where I'd have gone to a 5/8" cut, I saw the other team's goalie spend the whole warmup scraping the area that would be covered by the net.  I skated down to see what he was doing, and he had a visible hollow scraped behind the goal line that he was pushing water from the crease into.   It was weird to watch, but his crease was dry/frozen several minutes before mine.  .

I've never adjusted hollow due to radius, but I did get off the SAM radius and back onto a NoIcing triple radius as quickly as possible after trying SAM on a set of Tyden blades.  I had the same issue you did, just couldn't grab an edge confidently. 

Edited June 20, 2022 by Puckstopper