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Thanks Steve for bringing the machine, it was nice talking to you about Sparx & the future of the machine. I tried the 9/16 ROH since that is pretty much what I do on my personal Blademaster. The finish off the Sparx was perfect, it does leave much more burs on the edges off the machine than off my Blademaster but that's taken care of with the hone. On ice they felt great, it felt like they dug into the ice a little more than my sharpening but that is likely due to the ice. I would need to compare on both sharpenings on the same ice to get a perfect comparison but I would feel 100% confident skating on a Sparx sharpening. I will say for sure that the Sparx sharpening is better than about 60% of the sharpenings I've had done by shops & at least equal to the other 40%. If I didn't have a Blademaster, I'd seriously consider a Sparx unit, for the price & convenience you really can't beat it. The only advantages that the current portable units have on the Sparx currently is longevity of the machine & cost of switching hollows (redress of wheel vs buying rings). However, if the Sparx continues to be a reliable machine, I think the Sparx will be beat any competition for the personal use market

I too had the pleasure of getting my skates done at SummerJam with this machine and the finish was top notch. Super impressed with ease of use and end result. Thank You Steve for coming out and explaining the ins and out of the whole process.

Howdy, Really appreciate you coming Steve! Super nice to get to meet you and talk a lot about sharpening in general and the Sparx in particular. I'm quite impressed with various features of the machine... You can tell a clever engineer or two were involved in it as there are a few "oh, that's a solution that's obviously awesome" (once its pointed out) design details. Very impressive toaster! :-) I've been skating on a 95/75 FBV for a maybe 6 months or so now. I went to it from a 7/16" ROH, hoping to keep the same turning grip and pick up a little more glide. I originally wanted to run 1/2" Fire, but that ring wasn't working when we tried it so I went with the 7/16" ROH. The Sparx seemed to cut it just fine. And I was impressed that it seemed to do the radius change with just a few passes (I think two out and back cycles on each skate? Something like that). On the ice I was pleasantly surprised to find that my turning and stopping grip was similar to before, not a huge change either way. I suppose that makes some sense, given the chart I used to pick the 95/75 FBV profile in the first place, which put the 'grip' as being similar to 7/16". :-) It did seem like my skate was 'stuck' a tiny bit more to the ice going straight, but it was subtle enough that I'm not sure if that was a "I know its different, so I'm going to feel a difference" kinda thing or real. Anyway, super impressed. I'm a pretty mechanical person by nature (a good bit more so than the average bear I would say) and have plenty of room for a "real" sharpening machine. But the "put skate in machine and tell it to go" stuff with the expectation of no learning time to get a great sharpening is a powerful draw. It would not surprise me if one of these was in our family's future. And if something happens to my current skate sharpening arrangement (basically, there's a Total Hockey that has yet to fuck up my skates 45 minutes away and I'm over there every couple weeks currently), it'll happen sooner. Thanks again for all your time! I wish you guys luck with the commercial machine and look forward to the details when they become available. Mark

Thanks for coming and answering our questions. I normally use a 90/50 FBV. While I'm not the greatest skater I'm very particular about my hollow. If I have too much bite I feel like I'm going to break my ankle. I tried the 5/8 fire ring and really enjoyed it. It's definitely not the same as the 90/50 FBV but my transitions felt smooth and I had good glide. The thing I liked about it is that I felt like I had slightly more bite while turning hard but still the nice loose glide I normally have upright. It's really hard to put into words but I am sold on it. I skated the 2 hours at Summerfest than skated in two games on Sunday. Edges where great through all my games.

Thanks for coming out Steve. I tried the 3/4" fire ring. I was impressed that the machine did it's job so quietly and with no dust. When the skates came out the finish was great and I had even edges. The blades were not hot to the touch (I've had sharpeners overheat the CXN and before that the Mission Pitch steel because it's harder and they don't take their time. This leads to hot steel and usually burnt heels) and I comfortably handled them. I'd brought a second set of steel freshly sharpened to 90/50 FBV, the hollow I've now been using for years, just in case I didn't like the feel of the fire ring sharpening. The last regular hollow I'd used before converting to FBV was 7/8", but I gradually went shallower from 5/8" to 3/4" to 7/8"; so I have experience with all of those hollows. I didn't end up switching out the blades and skated on the 3/4" Fire Ring sharpening for the entire 2 hours on Saturday and then used the same sharpening to ref 4 games on Sunday night. The edges were even and I had good glide, but I'd say it felt like there was a bit less bite than a freshly sharpened 90/50 FBV cut. At the end of the day, the Fire Ring is a bit different than the FBV cut I was used to, but I had no problems skating on it and wouldn't hesitate to get my skates sharpened with a Sparx machine in the future. My steel was not burnt, the finish was good, I had edges and it was shallow enough for me that I didn't catch any edges when transitioning or chatter when stopping (if I ask for a shallow cut and the sharpener puts on something deeper, I know right away as I feel the edges when pivoting and get chatter when I stop - I can't stand skating on a deep hollow). A consistent sharpening without fear of your profile getting ruined or the steel getting burnt/overheated is definitely a great thing.

Thanks for coming out!

Hey ya'll, I just wanted to thank all of you who were up in Toronto this weekend (especially JR for the invite). I had a blast and you guys made me feel like I was part of the gang. We were all over the place in terms of hollows used. I'm pretty sure I did at least one of the following: 3/8", 7/16", 1/2", 5/8", 9/16", 1/2" FIRE, and 3/4" FIRE. If any of you mind sharing your experience, maybe tell me what you skated on before and what we tried over the weekend and what the final verdict was. Wish I could have hung around, but I had a flight to catch. Again, couldn't be more grateful for the opportunity to show you guys the machine. Thanks!

SummerJam!