Sharpening Figure Skates

[isk8byu 4]

First, I fully understand this is a hockey forum, and there is a ton of great info on sharpening hockey skates. But if you own a skate sharpener for hockey skates, I am sure you also get asked all the time if you do figure skates as well. I personally have always turned them down and I not sure I should be. So I have a few questions for myself and other hockey sharpeners like me, that may want to provide occasional (or regular) sharpening for figure skaters.

1) Do you need/want the smaller grinding wheel size as found on the Blademaster detail machines? (I own a Fleming Gray with full size grinding wheels along with every Blackstone or traditional Blademaster owner)

2) What are the common ROH settings for figure skaters? (e.g. my rough estimate is hockey players in our town are 80% 1/2" ROH and 19% 5/8" ROH, 1% other...varying by skill, size, habit, feel, etc)

3) Do you need the special figure skate holders, so as not to damage/scratch the finish on the blade?

4) How do you hone the edges, so as not to scratch the finish?

5) Grinding wheel color/type preferences?

6) Any other tips or things to consider when working on figure skates?

Hopefully I don't get booted off MSH for posing such questions, I just know there are folks on here with this expertise.

Thanks!

[JR Boucicaut 3759]

No, but it's nice

Depends on what they're doing, however, if they don't know what works for them, you're in the 5/8" to 7/16" range more often than not.

No

Tip the honing stone and only touch the edge

I used to use white

Plenty. Rounding off the heel is a definite no-no. Also, smoking a toe pick is a no-no as well, or going into the NSZ (no sharpening zone.)

I used to sharpen high-end figure back in the day. Now, not so much, although we do get some former figure skating moms come in with their kids. And even then, we only have two people in our store who are allowed to do them.

[strosedefence34 175]

I drop the holder down 10 notches on each side to start it off.

[mickz 107]

I drop the holder down 10 notches on each side to start it off.

For a thicker blade I'll use a jig that I normally use for goal skates. Most of the recreational figures I've done lately had thinner steel that was only 2-3 clicks from most hockey skates.

[DarkStar50 679]

We have a dedicated holder for figure and goalie skates with the thicker blade. Our standard ROH for recreational figure skates is 3/4". Keep it simple and shallow. You will be grinding all day going deeper on the ROH. In the shop we do have elite Olympic figure skaters that use 3/8" ROH but they are completely comfortable with it. They skate at a level that has to be seen to be believed. Also, there is a huge difference between how a hockey player skates with stops, starts, and tight turns as compared to the figure skater using an entire rink skating backwards to set up a quad jump. As said before, be careful and stay away from the toe pick. It is easy to do. If you can sharpen hockey skates, you can sharpen figure skates.

[EvilPepe 24]

I do a fair amount of figure skates for both recreational and highly competitive skaters. For pure recreational (not taking instruction), I typically do 3/4". If they are taking lessons and are not that experienced, typically it is 5/8". It gets deeper from there, but there are of course a number of variables, including what exact discipline they are in and blade type.

On your question regarding the holder, it is not necessary (especially if you have a holder like the SH3000 that is typically used for goalie skates with 4mm steel). With more people using Matrix and parabolic blades, it can certainly help, though. I'd also suggest being careful with those type blades when it comes to measuring the edges. Devices such as BM's Pro Square don't work as well as something like the "Edge Checker" (the one with the colorful dots) because of the way it attaches to the blade.