Bauer One100 Cowling Advantages & Technical Challenges

[jimmy 194]

You can change to STEP steel, they have it for bauers, both in 3mm and 4mm. Better quality and taller for better performance and longer sharpening life. IMO, no steel quality is better than the RBK's, that's why you liked it so much. Some companies are innovators with cowling design and steel quality. RBK got it right, the first to have a modern cowling designed for butterfy goalies, first to have a stainless blade, and first to have replaceable steel. Others tried to copy them, but just didn't get it right like RBK did.

[Law Goalie 147]

I think the man is bang on: it's partly a question of steel quality, partly a question of blade width. My understanding (and please correct me if I'm wrong) is that with two blades sharpened at the same hollow *or* FBV shape, the narrower blade will not only play shallower (ie. the edges will be less prominent) but the edges will also be smaller and more easily damaged -- especially if you bang your blades off the posts a lot and don't use Edge Protech post covers (aka bushings).

[jimmy 194]

Law, you got it partially right, a narrower blade will need to be sharpened at a slightly deeper hollow to feel the same as a 4.0mm blade. On my rbk's for example, I went from 1/2" on 4.0's to 15/32" on the 3.1's to get the same feel. But, the width of steel doesn't effect how long edges last. My narrow ones last as long as the wide ones.

[Axxion89 32]

Thanks for the input guys, I'm going to go and have these skates done up in 1/2" one more time and if I still have issues, try for 1/16" more. If I still have issues, maybe i will explore the Step steel route. I can't understand how Bauer doesn't have high quality steel on their top of the line skate, its metal I don't think there is any secret in how to make quality steel in today's day and age, or is there?

[Law Goalie 147]

I don't think it's a secret, but the cost of the raw materials and the equipment used to process them is definitely a factor. Bauer's shooting for a given price-point, and the war between quality and profit rages on...

Law, you got it partially right, a narrower blade will need to be sharpened at a slightly deeper hollow to feel the same as a 4.0mm blade. On my rbk's for example, I went from 1/2" on 4.0's to 15/32" on the 3.1's to get the same feel. But, the width of steel doesn't effect how long edges last. My narrow ones last as long as the wide ones.

Thanks. I thought I might be doing something wonky geometrically speaking. I knew there was a well-known correlation between blade width and sharpening shape, but I overgeneralised that to include edge durability. That's neat that you've got the difference down to 1/32: I did feel like the 1/16th I dropped between the 5K and 9K blades was a smidgen too much.

[jconc1941 0]

great info here