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PH_Hockey2

What skate hollow do you skate on?

What skate hollow do you skate on?  

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My first grind was 5/8" and I couldn't stop very well, ok at all but this was early in my skating career :lol: so I switched to a 3/4" and it's been love ever since.

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For those of you who are wondering "what the heck are they talking about?", the hollow radius is the radius of the rounded part of the grinding stone that the skate sharpener uses. There is a tiny diamond dressing tool that they pass over the stone while it is spinning, and it makes the grinding stone have a curved edge. A 3/8" radius is VERY rounded, while a 1" radius is almost flat. This drawing should help:

http://chuck-wright.com/Skating/blades.html

In the drawing, the radius we are all talking about is labeled "ROH".

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In general, if your skates are chattering when you try to stop, your radius is too small. You can probably turn on a dime but can not skate very fast in a straight line (too much friction between blade and ice).

If you constantly are "losing and edge" when you are doing a turn, your radius may be too big (too flat). You can probably skate very fast in a straight line, since the skate blade has very little friction with the ice.

The heavier you are, the flatter (bigger) radius is probably your preference, since your added weight lets even the flat blade dig in on the tight turns, and you need the flat hollow for less resistance to keep up with the lighter guys for speed.

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3/8th's . . . the house cut by me is 1/4" and the sharpener dude said anything above 1/2" is basically a goalie cut and is not advised.

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3/8th's . . .  the house cut by me is 1/4" and the sharpener dude said anything above 1/2" is basically a goalie cut and is not advised.

Damn...he's an idiot. Most NHLers skate on 5/8" and up.

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I think your ice is a little softer as well though. I know of one in the OHL with 1/2" at his shallowest. One if my goalies is on 3/8 and is going down to 1/4 (I believe). There's a few others I know that are 3/8 - 1/2. They like the extra grip when they push off.

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1/4 is very deep. I would think that was much too deep for a goalie unless he were playing in slush.

The softer the ice the shallower it should be. If the ice was "slush" he'd probably go higher. Its so they can grab when they are pushing off. It makes sense, they don't really need alot of glide, but I can see how others like very little edge. It's just PP.

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A 1/4" on a goalie skate? How wide are goalie skate blades? You wouldn't be able to go much deeper than that would you? Deepest I've done on goalie skates is 1/2", with most being around 3/4".

Had a guy that just wanted deeper and deep cuts on his player skates, and in the end I gave him a 1/8" cut - although I tried to talk him out of it first. The edges on the skate were incredibly thin at that depth. He tried it once, nearly broke his ankle, and came back to drop it back to 1/4".

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I've told people no when they ask for 3/16 hollows. I won't put myself in a position to be sued when they hurt themselves.

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Would it be possible to have a shallow hollow on the flats of the blades, and a deeper hollow at the heel and toe? Then, theoretically, you would be able to turn on a dime but still get the good glide.

OT, I remember in the early- to mid-90's, there was a skate blade (for these red-white-blue TUUK holders, I think) that was the standard width in the toe and then narrowed the rest of the way back. The marketing posters for these blades was that the thicker toe gave you a better push-off, while the narrower rest-of-the-blade was supposed to give a better glide and quicker turns (off the heels). Did it really work? Was it too radical to stick around?

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Would it be possible to have a shallow hollow on the flats of the blades, and a deeper hollow at the heel and toe? Then, theoretically, you would be able to turn on a dime but still get the good glide.

OT, I remember in the early- to mid-90's, there was a skate blade (for these red-white-blue TUUK holders, I think) that was the standard width in the toe and then narrowed the rest of the way back. The marketing posters for these blades was that the thicker toe gave you a better push-off, while the narrower rest-of-the-blade was supposed to give a better glide and quicker turns (off the heels). Did it really work? Was it too radical to stick around?

The V2 blade! I remember those. I think good skaters could handle them, but they were pretty radical and not for everybody. I think they lasted about 3 years in the Bauer lineup...

As for the "compound" sharpening you're talking about, I have done a few goalie skates like that, but not player skates. Your sharpener would REALLY have to know what he's doing, because even a slight slip-up could ruin your profile.

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i go 3/4, with the soft ice around me, i try to get guys to try flatter. i push our 3/8 guys to 7/16 and on up.. they are always surprised about how much better they feel on their edges.

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