Maryland/DC Fall 2010 class: Sharpen Your Own Figure Skates, Fall 2010
Copyright Mitchell R Grunes, 2010
I am offering a class on Sharpening Your Own Figure Skates, Using Hand Tools, in Maryland or DC.
Class will last several hours on a Sunday, and will be followed by a test and fine tuning at a local rink.
Cost
would be $60, including cost of tools needed to do routine sharpening.
We will also practice fixing and modifying
blade shapes (performance tuning, salvaging old blades). If you want to do these at home, or use deluxe sharpening
tools, you can buy additional tools from
other sources, for about $20 - $100.
If you
are interested:
- How likely would you be to come, on various dates?
- What type of blade do you have?
- What
hollow radius does your sharpener use, on YOUR skates? Ask your sharpener! New blade
factory hollows are at here and
here,
but are often changed to suit the skater's needs or sharpener's convenience.
I
don't need an absolute decision now, but need to gauge the level of interest.
If
this works out, I might offer a class on modifying your own boots to fit
better. I’d love to offer a class on falling gently too, but no facility I know
would risk it.
Hockey skaters are
welcome, but some of what I say
won't apply. I have no experience sharpening those skates, but will give sources of info on how
sharpening them is different. Routine sharpening of hockey skates is
similar to that of figure skates, with some modifications,
but blade profile modification ("rockering") is very different. Sharpening
of speed skates and ski edges is quite different, and requires special equipment if you
take them seriously.
FAQ
Why
sharpen your own blades?
- It's FUN and cool to do stuff yourself.
- You
can produce consistent edges with just the right sharpeness to suit YOU and the hardness of the ice, and make it even and
balanced. Maybe the available professional sharpeners can't. Proper sharpening reduces skid, helps produce clean edges,
may simplify turns, spins and jumps, and makes skates run faster. Since you do it
yourself, you can do minor touch ups more often, and always have the same
amount of bite. If you want, you can shape the edge to have more bite than
almost any professional sharpener does, though so edges are less durable.
- It's cheaper. A small fraction of a dollar / sharpening. Compare that plus the
cost of this course to $10-$15 / professional sharpening, which many skaters
do 6 - 24 times per year - $60 - $360 / year total. If you drive to a shop for
sharpening, the cost of gas, vehicle depreciation and maintenance, accidents
and incremental insurance costs are roughly $0.25 - $0.50 / mile. So if you
drive 10 - 50 miles each way, that's another $30 - $600 per year saved. (You'd
save even more if you skate on artificial [fake] ice, because you may need to sharpen every
1 - 5 hours you skate. Fortunately
DC area rinks all have real ice.)
- It’s faster. Once you get used to it, sharpening both skates takes 5 - 10
minutes, less if you do frequent touch ups. A shop with a powered machine
sharpener can do it faster. But you may have to wait in line to be served,
you may have to leave it at the shop, and you may have to drive to a good sharpener.
Then you waste a lot of time on the shop - time you could be skating or doing
other fun things.
- Some professional sharpeners remove too much
metal, because hockey skaters use less expensive blades, and tend to
produce deeper gouges. Most figure skaters
can get away with about 0.003 inch / sharpening - 33 sharpenings worth of blade
lifetime per 0.1 inch of available blade. If you discard the blade
after 0.1 - 0.2 inch loss, and you sharpen 6 - 24 times / year (not counting
minor touch ups that remove very little metal), and your blades cost $50 - $550
/ pair, then blades costs you another $4.55 - $400 / year on new blades. But if your
professional sharpener removes 2 - 5 times more metal, you are spending 2 - 5
times that.
(You do not want to add up all the costs of skating - skates, equipment,
lessons, cross-training, ice time, music, magazines, videos, memberships,
test and competition fees, practice and performance clothing,
cleaning and maintenance of same, make-up and other costs of looking "nice",
driving and other travel costs, incremental food costs, medical bills,
missed work or school, lost jobs, home schooling costs,
personal relationship stress, etc. You might be
discouraged.)
- Maybe your professional sharpener thinks figure skates are just like hockey
skates. He/she just destroyed someone’s expensive figure skating blades by
grinding off the toepicks and rounding off the backs of the blade. Even some
expert sharpeners gradually change the rocker profile in other bad ways that
you can avoid.
- Maybe your professional sharpener removes the "sweet spot(s)" (rocker
change where most figure skating blades are designed to easily turn and spin.) If you
sharpen yourself, you can put it back yourself, move it to where you like to
turn and spin, or make the transition stronger. Then you can turn and spin better,
because it's more
stable to spin there, and you can feel when you are in just the right spot.
(Not everyone
knows or agrees sweet spot(s) should be there, and many sharpeners don't know
about them. So they are often lost after
a few sharpenings. You may or may not care.)
- Maybe all the good professional sharpeners are too far away. Too much time and
money to get there and back.
- When you leave town, you can't use the same professional sharpener, and they
all sharpen differently.
- Just after a sharpening you think the blades are too sharp. Then they wear
dull, and you skid sideways. Then you get them too sharp again. Better to
sharpen them yourself a little bit more often, but remove very little metal
each time, so it always feels the same.
- You like to be feel in control of all aspects of your skating.
- For coaches, it provides you something worthwhile to do while waiting for ice time, and lets
you be sure your students' blades are sharpened right.
- Same as reason # 1. The best reason of all.
Can
I produce edges as good as a pro who has a powered sharpening machine?
Yes!
Perhaps a little better, if you are careful, though it takes practice. The best
professional sharpeners are highly skilled master craftsmen and craftswomen, but the
realities of making a good living from a pro shop make it impractical
for them to spend as much time as they should on your blades.
Is it hard?
A
little bit. Most bright adults and teenagers can learn. I won't assume you know
how to use tools. I will show you everything, step by step, and explain
everything you need to know.
Is
it dangerous?
Blades
are sharp – or will be. I won't take kids under 18 without a parent or
guardian's signed permission. People who are very nervous playing with sharp
things shouldn't come. (But how do they skate?) You could use very thin gloves
if you are nervous, but it would be hard to feel the edges. Because classes
should teach safe methods, I will provide
dollar store gloves and safety goggles.
Can
I sharpen my child's blades?
Yes,
if they are analytic enough to tell you what you need to change.
Do
I have to sharpenmy precious blades during the class?
No. I will bring you each a worn out skate to practice on, and you can
also bring your own worn out skates and blades. But bring your real
skates and blades too so that when
and if you are confident, you can sharpen your own precious blades.
Do
I need your class to learn?
No.
You may be more confident learning things and getting feedback from a teacher.
But given time and confidence, you could work it out yourself.
Where
and when?
I need
feedback from you. An ice rink, with an open public skating session at the end,
would be perfect, so you can fine tune your edges, but so far only one of the indoor
rinks that has tables has even said maybe. (All the local indoor rinks, or their
pro shops, make money from sharpening, so it's a conflict of interest.)
The class will take an hour or two.
P.S. I'm not a world class skater. But I've mostly sharpened my own blades for the past 10 years.
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