Does LS3 runners need to be profiled?

[BlueNux 17]

So my new skates have LS3 runners. Compared to my old skates, which went through countless sharpening, the new skates feel more different due to the runners than anything else. If I can explain it, they're closer in feel to inline/figure skates.

I can still skate and do everything I used to, but it's noticeably more annoying to be agile and it takes more effort to get on my edges. I was wondering if others have experienced this before with LS3 and if I should either profile it or just stick with it. I do believe a few focused public sessions or stick and puck would help me adjust, but I'd like to just start taking advantage of the new skates as quickly as possible.

If profiling is your suggestion, what should I profile to? I'd like for something not too drastically different. The main issues is with the heel - doing warmup slaloms, I feed the need to keep my feet even tighter together than usual since there's so much blade contacting the ice. It forces good form during drills, but that's not always possible in a game of actual hockey!

[puckpilot 312]

If you've never profiled your old skates, I suspect over the lifetime of your old skates the radius became smaller and smaller with each successive sharpening and you got use to the smaller radius. This is natural. This is why it's recommend that you profile your skates every year to prevent this.

With your new skates, you're skating on a larger radius than you or old skates. I believe the stock radius is 10', which is pretty typical and pretty good for turning, agility, etc. 

You can get them profiled or you can just wait and get used to them. For me I went from a 10' radius to a 12' and it took me a couple months before I stopped feeling the difference and it started to feel natural. I'm on the ice at least 3 times a week. 

Edited August 8, 2018 by puckpilot

[stick9 881]

Yes. It needs to be contoured to a more played shape. The heel and toe are brutal.

[mojo122 530]

38 minutes ago, stick9 said:

Yes. It needs to be contoured to a more played shape. The heel and toe are brutal.

Don't touch my heel and toe.

 

8 hours ago, BlueNux said:

 

If profiling is your suggestion, what should I profile to? I'd like for something not too drastically different.  

I profile all my new steel mainly because I have no confidence that the set I have is perfectly matched out of the box.  I've tinkered around with many profiles over the years and like a lot of steel on the ice, in the range of a 13.5' radius.  What options do you have in your area for profiling?  ProSharp or CAG?

[BlueNux 17]

5 hours ago, mojo122 said:

Don't touch my heel and toe.

 

I profile all my new steel mainly because I have no confidence that the set I have is perfectly matched out of the box.  I've tinkered around with many profiles over the years and like a lot of steel on the ice, in the range of a 13.5' radius.  What options do you have in your area for profiling?  ProSharp or CAG?

They have both blademaster and prosharp profiling options. Prosharp is $10 more expensive (and more expensive for each sharpening thereafter as well). I’m not sure why. 

6 hours ago, stick9 said:

Yes. It needs to be contoured to a more played shape. The heel and toe are brutal.

I think that’s the main culprit. I read somewhere that the LS3 has the most bulbous toe and heel and it shows during skates. I’m confident I can get used to the 10’ but the huge toe and heel makes edging really weird - I have to be more deliberate.

I compared my old blade to the new ones and they are visibly really different. I think my old crappy skates started on a 9’ and is now 8’ or less now (they were several years old model vapors and were $115 since I was poor right out of college). I never profiled them. The runners weren’t even replaceable from the holder so the steel is probably really bad. I used to sharpen them every 2 weeks when I was on the ice like 4-5 times a week every the winter. 

[stick9 881]

I had the same issues when I switched over from LS2. The shop I went to recommend a simple dual profile (Pro Sharp Toronto 2) with some shaving of the toe to make it a bit more playable. I noticed LS4 wasn't nearly as bad.

[BlueNux 17]

5 hours ago, stick9 said:

I had the same issues when I switched over from LS2. The shop I went to recommend a simple dual profile (Pro Sharp Toronto 2) with some shaving of the toe to make it a bit more playable. I noticed LS4 wasn't nearly as bad.

When profiling, is it only about the radius and the length of contact points with the ice? I ask because the LS3 is 10' just like the LS4, but bulky toe and heels are visibly different. Is it possible to get a 10' profile and just have a different shape toe/heel?

I ask because I don't want something too fancy and become too reliant on that profile in the future. I'm currently thinking a 9'/10' combo and somehow ask the shop to make the toe and heel look like a LS2 or CCM runner shape.

I went to public skate just now, and was surprised that a hour and half of pure skating got me surprisingly adjusted to this weird runner. I still don't like it, but I'm starting to understand what the runner wants me to do to get those deeper, "crunchy" edges.

[mojo122 530]

2 minutes ago, BlueNux said:

I ask because I don't want something too fancy and become too reliant on that profile in the future. I'm currently thinking a 9'/10' combo and somehow ask the shop to make the toe and heel look like a LS2 or CCM runner shape.

A competent sharpener can blend the toe and heel to have similar geometry to LS2 and LS4 steel.  If you're not sure about whether you trust someone in your area to do it right then the MSH Pro Shop is an option.

[BlueNux 17]

16 minutes ago, mojo122 said:

A competent sharpener can blend the toe and heel to have similar geometry to LS2 and LS4 steel.  If you're not sure about whether you trust someone in your area to do it right then the MSH Pro Shop is an option.

Hmm I don't see profiling being available on the MSH Pro Shop, just sharpening. Is there somewhere else on the website I'm missing and do you know how much it would they be if it's an unlisted service?

[mojo122 530]

Contact them and see what they can do:

proshop@modsquadhockey.com

[JR Boucicaut 3759]

Not ready to profile yet. Stay tuned. 

[BlueNux 17]

On 8/8/2018 at 11:34 PM, JR Boucicaut said:

Not ready to profile yet. Stay tuned. 

Not sure if this is feasible or not, but it would be really great if there's something in the pro shop where we can pay to rent a set of popular pre-profiled runners to try out. Not sure how the payment would work to ensure people return the set, but maybe some sum of deposit would be required.

For most people like me, profiling is something you go into blind and hope for the best. I would love to try out a few runners to see how they feel in person prior to mailing my runners to get them profiled.

[VegasHockey 1260]

1 hour ago, BlueNux said:

Not sure if this is feasible or not, but it would be really great if there's something in the pro shop where we can pay to rent a set of popular pre-profiled runners to try out. Not sure how the payment would work to ensure people return the set, but maybe some sum of deposit would be required.

For most people like me, profiling is something you go into blind and hope for the best. I would love to try out a few runners to see how they feel in person prior to mailing my runners to get them profiled.

We offer a service like this for teams. We have 4 sets of each blade size in various profiles and we let the players seap through them until they find a profile that works best for them. 

Most people I do profiles for just send us a couple sets of steel and we put profile X and Y on them and send them back to test. When. We find the profile or setup that works for them we then profile all of there steel to match. 

Not sure if it makes sense to do what you are suggesting via online. It's quite cost prohibitive. 

[JR Boucicaut 3759]

Buying 48 sets of steel is extremely cost-prohibitive.

We have been working with Prosharp for the past 7 months on this. It will be similar to what Nicholas G is doing, but at a great value/minimal cost for the end-user.

[Monty22 821]

11 hours ago, JR Boucicaut said:

Buying 48 sets of steel is extremely cost-prohibitive.

We have been working with Prosharp for the past 7 months on this. It will be similar to what Nicholas G is doing, but at a great value/minimal cost for the end-user.

That sounds great.  One of the biggest hindrances for players looking into profiling is the amount of steel lost if you are experimenting trying to find what's right. Being able to test drive multiple profiles would alleviate that as well as the he cost.