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Truckie

Is 5/8" sharpen better for a Noob than 1/2"??

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Is 5/8" sharpen better for a Noob than 1/2"??  I am having trouble even shaving ice while holding on to the boards... shop said try a 5/8"   instead of the 1/2" I originally got...

does that make sense?

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You just need practice. I started on 1/2 and went to 5/8 to try and get a little more gliding speed, but really, I think you just haven't figured out the motion yet. You can give it a shot, but I think that will have less of an effect than you think. Just keep working on it (both sides), build the muscles, do the skating drills, and the progress will come. Good luck

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49 minutes ago, Truckie said:

Is 5/8" sharpen better for a Noob than 1/2"??  I am having trouble even shaving ice while holding on to the boards... shop said try a 5/8"   instead of the 1/2" I originally got...

does that make sense?

... if you are pushing well north of 200lb. (like myself). Shaving ice is in how much weight you put on the "Shaving" foot and a bit of technique or feel. If you blade is too dull, it will just slide on ice instead of shaving. Try just barely touching ice, first, bend your knee on the support leg, try to put a bit more into the heel of the Shaving foot. Shaving ice is about getting the fill for how and what to push, so try to change the way you push, angle. Each stroke is a bit of a process, you'd change the angle, pressure, and speed as you push your Shaving foot. Once you get the feel of it, you will be good to plow-stop... watch the skaters hockey stop. They kind of pull themselves up, almost jump up prior to turning the skates. If you apply full pressure and force at the get-go, you skate will just get stuck and that is what happens to you. 

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5/8" generally sounds shallow for the average sized beginner. 1/2" should suffice. By and large shallow hollows require above average technique. You'll see NHLers on 1"up to 1 1/2"

You could always try 5/8" for the duration of the sharpen and judge for yourself. 

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Yes and no, it will help a little to get that slide motion but it makes it harder for edge control. I have found the pitch of the boot and the profile of the blade has more impact for a beginner, for example grafs put you more on your toes and learning to stop in these is much easier than say supremes which pitch you further back. The reason for this is that stopping is a toe drill (toes for stopping, heels for turning) and until you learn to shift your weight onto your toes (as well as stand up straight over the top of your blades instead of them leaning inwards) you will struggle to stop. One drill I give beginners for the shave the ice drill is for them to to get ready in a balanced ice stance, lift the heel just off the ice (about 1cm), turn the heel slightly outwards and then gently push the toe out sideways from you. As the foot slides out let the heel slowly sink back onto the ice. As they get better they stop turning the heel outwards (lift, push, sink) and once they have mastered this they stop lifting the heel. From here you can now move to a moving pizza wedge stop and once you have mastered this you are away.

but there is nothing stopping you from trying the hollow then going back to 1/2 at a later date, it's just another sharpen.

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BTW.. I am 5'10" 205lbs... the CCM Tacks 4092.. Baked and they re-baked the right one.. and have like 20 hrs break-in time from new  with the original 1/2" sharpen..... and 35 years ago I could stop on the pond after school with my buddies... I  had some high end bauers ( xmas gift) back then and don't remember ever taking to be sharpened. was thinking it was easier to hockey stop on outdoor ice with duller blades???

I told the shop to do 5/8" this time to try it... I guess if my edge work suffers I will go back... they have the skates for a day or so to stretch and work out the bad right arch issue.

Thanks for the input.. who knew there was so much to know?

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35 years is a long time even for riding bicycle :) I am sure you have misplaced a couple of tidbits over the years, but they will get back in order sooner than expected.

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Howdy,

 

Put me in the camp of going to 5/8 to try and make sliding for stops easier.

 

See if it helps.  If not, it's just another sharpen.  Hell, go to 3/4.  :)

 

Mark

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Well they did them at 5/8"... will try it and see... and report back

 AND...The guys at the shop stretched the right boot... NOT IN THE RIGHT SPOT! ...and they do not have a punch out machine

I ended up with my wife putting some blue powder eyeshadow on the sore area of my foot then put the skate on and tightened it up really tight...  walked around... took it off and the eyshadow now marks the area that needs to be punched out... for now I installed the ELITE HOCKEY gel pads they sell for Achilles heel pain, it seems to help some

 

 

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33 minutes ago, Truckie said:

I ended up with my wife putting some blue powder eyeshadow on the sore area of my foot then put the skate on and tightened it up really tight...  walked around... took it off and the eyshadow now marks the area that needs to be punched out... for now I installed the ELITE HOCKEY gel pads they sell for Achilles heel pain, it seems to help some

 

 

Lipstick also works well to mark the spot. Punch them out yourself, it only costs a few dollars for the tools, I've done many boots with these tools and have refined the setup (by adding more clamps and bits of wood) so I can now punch / stretch any area of the boot.

 

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On 8/17/2016 at 11:05 PM, Truckie said:

BTW.. I am 5'10" 205lbs... the CCM Tacks 4092.. Baked and they re-baked the right one.. and have like 20 hrs break-in time from new  with the original 1/2" sharpen..... and 35 years ago I could stop on the pond after school with my buddies... I  had some high end bauers ( xmas gift) back then and don't remember ever taking to be sharpened. was thinking it was easier to hockey stop on outdoor ice with duller blades???

I told the shop to do 5/8" this time to try it... I guess if my edge work suffers I will go back... they have the skates for a day or so to stretch and work out the bad right arch issue.

Thanks for the input.. who knew there was so much to know?

I'm the same height and only ten pounds lighter than you. I've skated on 5/8 since I started a couple of years ago. I switched to 3/4 for a bit but went back to 5/8 due to lack of grip. For my weight and skill level, I've found 5/8 to be a good balance of bite and glide without issues stopping. You never know what you like until you try it. While weight can give you an idea of your hollow, it will never be a tell all. Skating on a certain hollow will tell you how your technique responds to it. 

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9 hours ago, Vet88 said:

Lipstick also works well to mark the spot. Punch them out yourself, it only costs a few dollars for the tools, I've done many boots with these tools and have refined the setup (by adding more clamps and bits of wood) so I can now punch / stretch any area of the boot.

Thanks for this info!!  I have most of this already  , and was thinking about just using my heat gun to spot punch my own spots.....

 do you heat the inside of the boot with the gun or heat it up from the outside of the boot?

 

 

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1 hour ago, vinprun71 said:

I'm the same height and only ten pounds lighter than you. I've skated on 5/8 since I started a couple of years ago. I switched to 3/4 for a bit but went back to 5/8 due to lack of grip. For my weight and skill level, I've found 5/8 to be a good balance of bite and glide without issues stopping. You never know what you like until you try it. While weight can give you an idea of your hollow, it will never be a tell all. Skating on a certain hollow will tell you how your technique responds to it. 

If I like the 5/8  I may get Mrs. skates done at 5/8... she is brand new to skating at 51 ( go figure.. her  Vapor X500  dont hurt her feet at all...ugh)   and is having a ton of trouble learning to glide at all... some of it is fear of falling   ( she now has helmet ,elbows, knees, gloves and hockey pants)... but  even on just the beginner swizzles her skates kinda hang or bite mid swizzle...

 with it being the south and it has been really hot and humid  and they zamboni like once and hour,  day after day, I think the ice is kinda soft right now....  The ice is usually pretty wet when the session begins and at class the other night the pucks would just come to a dead stop if you got near a wetter area...I have even found lumps on the ice from where the metal roof is dripping condensation down on to the ice and causing what looks like ice ant hills... I found the ant hills the hard way...LOL

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7 hours ago, Truckie said:

 

Hmm, something wrong with the quote window. 

For a spot punch I just heat up the outside area of the punch, around a minute with a heat gun always keeping the heat moving over the boot. You don't have to heat if you have time, the boot will move just as much with no heat but it takes 3 or 4 days of continual small adjustments. The advantage of no heat is that you have more control over the surrounding areas (eg working around the toe cap area and the risk of separating the toe cap from the boot easily by using heat) but with heat it makes it fast and the boot material moves easy.

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Yes... ended up using heat gun, a puck, and quik grip clamp... got a too defined edged punch... so I used a wooden stick handling ball.... added in the elite hockey Achilles gel pad,on the punched area.. and the skate is really nice now... Did hour of power skating class... and didn't hobble... thanks for the help....   Bad news is  I stayed for fireman league and fell very awkwardly.. and  I am at the hospital with internal bleeding from my abdomen.. figures.. got my skates right.. and now this.... ugh

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8 hours ago, Truckie said:

Yes... ended up using heat gun, a puck, and quik grip clamp... got a too defined edged punch... so I used a wooden stick handling ball.... added in the elite hockey Achilles gel pad,on the punched area.. and the skate is really nice now... Did hour of power skating class... and didn't hobble... thanks for the help....   Bad news is  I stayed for fireman league and fell very awkwardly.. and  I am at the hospital with internal bleeding from my abdomen.. figures.. got my skates right.. and now this.... ugh

Ouch! That's a rough start. Get better!

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13 hours ago, Truckie said:

Internal bleeding stopped... out of the hospital... hockey is a lot harder than I thought...

Ouch! 

Yes it is. Don't bite off more than you can chew. It doesn't take much to get seriously hurt and no one wants that.

On the hollow. I can see points for both 1/2 (better grip makes edge work easier) or 5/8ths (less grip makes stopping easier). A 5/8ths may feel like a 1/2 on soft ice, something to consider.

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I agree I am on soft ice and had zero slide for stopping with 1/2.. with 5/8 on the fresh sharpen I can now get some slide to stop and found crossovers were easier and I was able to slow myself and  change directions for the first time.. It really makes a difference when you can face the play and not have to look over your shoulder and then try and turn to where the play is going...

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11 hours ago, Truckie said:

I agree I am on soft ice and had zero slide for stopping with 1/2.. with 5/8 on the fresh sharpen I can now get some slide to stop and found crossovers were easier and I was able to slow myself and  change directions for the first time.. It really makes a difference when you can face the play and not have to look over your shoulder and then try and turn to where the play is going...

Hopefully you recover quickly so you can get back on the ice. 

I'm 6'2" and 200 lbs, been playing for about 2 1/2 years. for the past year and a half, I've been skating on an 11/16th hollow.  I found fairly early on that I didn't like how my skates felt after getting them sharpened, so I went progressively shallower until I got to where I'm at now. 

It is all personal preference, obviously, but with a deeper cut I always felt as though I was about to catch an edge and eat it.  I also felt "locked in" to whatever direction I was moving.  A shallower hollow allowed me more subtle (and not so subtle) control over my skating, especially directional changes.  Transitions forward to back & vice versa are much easier for me as well.  The only downside has been my outside edgework, which has suffered a bit. 

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UPDATE:

 Dr. said 2 more weeks of healing and to wait to see cardiologist to find out if I can play while on my Blood thinner.

 

so no hockey until October (at least)...

On a good note one of my other FIRE buddies has bought gear and skates and is hitting the rink

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8 hours ago, Truckie said:

UPDATE:

 Dr. said 2 more weeks of healing and to wait to see cardiologist to find out if I can play while on my Blood thinner.

 

so no hockey until October (at least)...

On a good note one of my other FIRE buddies has bought gear and skates and is hitting the rink

Definitely do not play while on blood thinners. 

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1 hour ago, IPv6Freely said:

Definitely do not play while on blood thinners. 

I have been on them since thanksgiving...

the way I was looking at it was,   If I am cleared to be a firefighter,  that no check hockey would be an ok activity

guessing he will say go for it

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