Nealoc187

I do this now too since I started using Reebok 11K blades. I have never (literally NEVER) had one lose structural integrity in the heel or hosel or midblade, but the toes just chip to hell. I have one (don't use it anymore) that is basically like an inch shorter than it started out because the toe just chipped away.. Now I tape the toe and have been making a point of repairing small chips and cracks before they become big chips and cracks and I've been able to keep them from shortening for a long time now.

I just hit mine with a grinding wheel. i can see how sanding would take a lot of time.

I can't speak to the feel of a modern high end true one piece because I've never played with one, but I am using a 2 piece combo that comes in at about $200 if I were to purchase the pieces not on sale and I like it as good or better than the one pieces I used to use (Mission Fuel Ti, I loved that stick by the way, just found it in my storage unit and I'm going to try to repair it), Bauer Vapor XXX (liked this one too) and Reebok Sickick III 7K. I play B level so it's decent hockey. I usually just chip blades away rather than break it clean, so repairing them really gets some extra life out of them for me. As far as repairing chipped blades goes, I have had pretty good luck recently with simple gorilla glue super-glue, i'm using it to "fill voids" left in the toe of a chipping blade. I have some epoxy and carbon fiber fabric generously given to me by another forum member that I'm going to try next time I need to repair a blade, but I fixed on blade about 8 or 10 games ago with gorilla super glue and haven't had to repair it again since (watch I'll probably break it in my game tonight lol).

just years of sharpenings with no refresh to a repeatable standard profile i guess. last profile i got was in probably 2007 on my old skates, and then since then i got my one.9s used which just happened to have steel worn to essentially the same shape as the steel on my old skates, so there was no transition period there.

i just finally broke down and i'm having the heel of my step shaved. I had gotten about 90% used to it over the course of 4 or 5 ice times, i could have lived with it, but was getting frustrated by certain movements or actions causing an uncomfortable feeling. being in the middle of a board battle or charging hard around a defender and having a weird wobble or feeling i wasn't used to is disconcerting. Here's the shape difference between what i was using before and brand new step i was trying to get used to.

I'm 16 dark blue - this would have been somewhere from 2008 to early 2009, back when I was living in Kalamazoo but after I had gotten my BNIB Mega Air 90s (ebay find). RIP Todd wearing #19 white, a great guy.

I have essentially given up trying to find a good sharpener in the western burbs (I live in Downers, work in Palatine, and Play in Aurora). I gave up on FBV a while ago because the places to sharpen that are most convenient for me don't have it, and the people that are good (either FBV or the Blademaster fake FBV or ROH) are never there when I need a sharpening it seems. Though I may go back and give TH another try now that I found out JR works there and helped develop their sharpening standards. I have a friend who works at TH in Elmhurst, but he doesn't sharpen unfortunately. Soooo... defense18, it sounds like you should buy an X01 or X02 and you should let me pay you to put a good sharpening on my skates. Whaddaya say? lol I've been kicking around the idea of picking up an X01 myself actually. I've never sharpened before but I worked in a machine shop for a lot of years so i understand the basic principles involved. Is 'grumpy' the bigger guy who usually wears a backwards hat who is there basically all the time? i didn't know he sharpens (never really talked to the dude except just to say hi or bye or to check out the locker room.

I assume it is because of liability reasons. I think I recall that my brother was not allowed to sharpen til he was 18 at the LHS he used to work at.

I was just generalizing and probably exaggerating a bit how young he looked. I don't know how hard he was pressing, i only watched him for a couple seconds. Very possible it was completely acceptable, i'd just never seen anyone doing a movement like that during skate sharpening.

I happened to be at Total Hockey the other day looking at some equipment and the 17 year old kid operating the sharpener was running the blade back and forth on the wheel really fast over a very short distance (like 3 inches) like he was scrubbing dried food left on a counter top. I've never sharpened a skate but I did work at a machine shop for 4 years in college and my brother sharpened skates. I can't figure out why he was doing that.

Do all you guys have really consistent ice where you skate? I am coming from D1 NCAA newly renovated facility ice which was awesome, to west suburban Chicago ice on which there's been figure skating, open skate, and 3 high school practices in the hours preceeding my late night games, which makes the ice range from mediocre, to bad (most often) to utterly terrible. Makes it hard to decide on a hollow or FBV setting. I always get 100/50 (that's what I settled on when I first started using FBV back years ago) but it (and any other hollows) seem to vary in effectiveness from one ice time to another, depending upon how fat the figure skaters were before my game and how long some facility worker left the Zamboni door open (humidity, temp).

I know it's a post that's almost 2 months old but I just wanted to say 'nice pick up' on those Air90s. I picked two pairs of Air90s and some 10-90 red stripes w/ V2s on them myself last year off ebay. I'll never need to buy skates again heh.

I would say it was about time to get some new gloves lol... lol yeah I played with those like that for quite a while but finally bought some Eagle X80s.

Hey man, crazy seeing you on here especially right after I posted them. Thanks for the great gloves, I'm using them about twice a week and they're awesome.