Sorry for the delay in responding to the input so far. also thank you for straightening me out on not being so vague on my next post... before skating yesterday I straightened the blade out...only this time I leaned in on the leaver much harder and kept it there for nearly a minute and bent the hell out of it right in the middle...then I did the same thing moving half way to the Heel and then the Toe... normally when I straighten the skate just before I play it will stay straight for almost an hour and then have a pretty good-sized bow in it, and the next day the Curve will even will be even bigger. As I look at the Skate today it is perfectly straight... also I did neglect to state that I did take one rather hard shot directly in the front of the toe and ever since whenever I go to swap out the steel I have to put the blade in a vise and smack the front of the toe with a hammer to get the steel out of the Holder.