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So, I've had my Sparx sharpener for just over a year now and I figured that, since we are at the start of a new season, I'd go ahead and post my observations, praise for, and, yes, gripes about my Sparx... (TL/DR - It's an awesome machine. I'd almost definitely buy it again. That said, removing the cross-grinding capabilities from the consumer model was a horrendously stupid decision and I still struggle with getting the sharpener to go consistently high enough on the toes of skates.) The Good: Consistent edges. Every. Single. Time: I simply cannot overstate how much this means to someone that (a) doesn't have access to consistent, predictable manual sharpening; and (b) relies on his skates to make a living. Convenience: As a coach, I am on the ice between 8 and 12 hours a week - sometimes much more, depending on private lessons, sticktime groups, etc. I also have a son that is on the ice upwards of 6 hours a week. Since I won't allow the guys that work at the rink shops to touch our skates AND I live over 30 minutes from the box stores (which don't do a good job, either); having access to sharpening on an 'as needed' basis is invaluable. Ease of use: I'm over 40 years old and I work full time as a hockey coach. I do NOT have the time to become an expert on a manual Wissota or Blackstone machine. I. Just. Don't. I'm willing to stipulate that someone that IS an expert on those machines MAY be able to give me a sharpen that is as good as, if not better than I get on my Sparx...but I don't have access to any of those guys and, since I have neither the time nor the inclination to become one of those guys, I love that I can give my skates a great sharpen without needing to invest an additional 30 years of my life towards mastering a manual machine. Profile Maintenance: I understand that guys that know what they're doing with a manual sharpener can properly maintain a profile, but guys that know what they're doing aren't available in Southern California...and the ones that DON'T know what they're doing can wreck a profile in 2-3 sharpens; so I love that having a Sparx means that the money I've invested in profiling my kid's steel wasn't wasted. Portability: This year alone, my Sparx has sharpened skates in California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. THAT'S awesome! Micro-Adjustability: I love that, using the edge checker, I can really dial in perfectly even edges. It takes manual sharpeners hours of dicking around with their equipment to make sure stuff is lined up. I can do it in a couple of minutes with my Sparx. No "Wheel Dressing" or Other Nonsense: With a Sparx, you never have to ask yourself if 'it's time to dress the wheel'. You just sharpen your skates and get on with your day. Freaking awesome. Additional Income Stream: While I don't make a TON of money, the fact that I can save the hockey families that I work with from lousy (and expensive!!!) rink sharpenings while also making a few bucks isn't a bad thing.... The Not so Good: No Cross Grinding Capability: Dumping the cross-grinding ring was a monumental mistake by Sparx (are you reading this, Russ??? MON!YOU!MENTAL!). Look, I get that the filter was getting clogged. I get that people were chewing through their steel. But when you have an even marginally damaged blade that you need to contend with, running 10+ passes with a $60.00 grinding ring is FUCKING IRRITATING!!! Apologies for the cursing, but damnit, both the reasons that have been given for, and the practical effect of, the elimination of a cross-grinding ring are giant piles of solid waste from a male of the bovine species. Hockey is a rough game and edges routinely get damaged. The fact that I have to suck down 1/10th of a grinding ring's life when my kid goes feet-first into the boards ONE TIME just pisses me off. No Provision to Attach a Shop-Vac (or other dust removal system): I love the portability of my Sparx (see above...); but when it's in my garage at home, I'd ALSO love to attach my shop-vac to the system so that I can suck out all of the mess as it occurs. "But the aiiiiiiir filter!" you say. Mmmmhmmm. My shop-vac has a HEPA filter. It works great. Plus, it has a huge amount of suction. This seems like a total no-brainer and one that should have been thought of when designing the machine. (A note on the two above "Not so Goods". Yes, I could have purchased the PS100, but that runs at a $350.00 premium to the the ES100. Which is patently ridiculous...) Getting the Wheel Consistently High Enough on the Toe: I've dicked around with this to no end - toe right, toe left, goalie risers, no risers, small tip forward in the clamp, etc, etc, etc - I just can't seem to get the wheel to consistently hit where I want it to on the toe without a huge amount of chattering/jumping/skipping. I understand hockey players don't skate on the toes of their blades...but we DO start on the toes of our blades and we have to trust that we have SOME edge on our toes so that we can start explosively and efficiently. Doesn't Like Fancy 3rd Party Steel: Part of the benefit of the Tuuk LightSpeed and CCM SB systems is that you can easily replace your crap stock steel with good steel (Tyden's etc...). However, good steel seems to burr horribly in the Sparx and I have found myself taking these fancy-steeled skates out of my Sparx every two passes to de-burr. Is this difficult? No. Is it a pain in the ass? Absolutely. Observations: Traveling with a Sparx attracts lots of attention and questions - almost everyone's HEARD of the Sparx, but not many have seen one 'in the wild'. Once you sharpen their skates, they're (usually) believers. I've spent a bunch less at our local big-box stores - not just on skate sharpening, but also on random useless hockey stuff I don't need. It used to be impossible to get out of HockeyMonkey or PureHockey without at least $25.00 of crap IN ADDITION to the skate sharpening - now, since I'm never there unless I need something specific, I'm not spending unnecessary money there! I sharpen my skates WAY more often than I used to - not just due to the convenience factor; but also due to the fact that I'm not afraid of dropping my skates off and returning to a crappy sharpening job. A $90.00 800W power inverter means you can sharpen skates in your car.... As the sharpener only draws 200W, you could probably get by with a 400W inverter, but they're not much cheaper and you want to make sure that you have enough 'start up' wattage capacity that you're not tripping fuses in your inverter. Plus, who knows when I'll want to run a 70" TV off my truck battery? Also, local rink pro shops hate me now. I've become 'that coach that has the sharpener in his truck' and I love it. I thought the grinding wheels would be a pain - but I actually like them. They're easy to store, portable, and easy to swap out for a different wheel - no dressing or tedious alignment necessary. That system is pure genius. The option for the Fire/FBV hollow is awesome. I wasn't sure anyone would like it, but it's really caught on and nearly everyone that's tried it has loved it. Anyway. That's about all I can think of as far as my thoughts after 'a year with a Sparx'. Hopefully this will answer some questions people who are still on the fence may have about the pros/cons...or, at least generate some discussion, here. In the end, I'd definitely buy a Sparx again - but I'd probably give strong consideration to saving my pennies for a 1/2 year or so and getting the PS100 instead of the ES100....

Yeah, if I were a goalie (or had a goalie in the house...), I'd be literally LIVID that the cross-grinding capabilities were removed from the system. The Step Steel on my True/VH skates isn't bad as far as burrs go; but the chrome SB 4.0 steel on my kid's friend's JetSpeeds burrs EXTREMELY badly, and my kid's Tydan's steel isn't much better. Again, I CAN take care of the burrs, but it's a pain.... Inverter: I got this one from PepBoys and it seems to be fine. You could probably get most any 800W inverter on the market and have success, but beware any of them that claim to plug into your cigarette lighter for anything over 175 watts - you really need to connect anything that draws 175 watts or more to your battery, or you risk damaging your car's electrical system. Also, don't waste your money on a pure sine wave inverter. It's a skate sharpener, not an EKG monitor. Travel case: Nope. I have a crew-cab truck (4 doors), so I just put the sharpener on the floor of the cab of the truck behind the driver's seat. I, of course, use all of the travel guards when I'm transporting the sharpener, but I've had no problems doing this. For road trips, I just put the sharpener back in the box it came in. That way, I can stack stuff on top of it and not worry about anything happening to it. I may buy the travel case at some point, but it's not pressing at this moment. Bastards! It's how they get you!!!! 😁

Being able to buy nice things with my own money that I earned.

Garbage in from the sharpener, garbage out to the customer. That sucks, and I am sorry to hear that! So- my question is how do they treat skates in regular machines? I do know of a place where they have both machines and the experienced hand sharpeners have so much disdain for the Sparx machines that they would do the same sort of deal. I will be investing in an edge checker just for the fact that it could be greatly useful for when I do skates I have not touched previously. The one time I did not do the marker test on skates that were horrendously rounded over (and the user used some self-sharpening devise) that I did not get a wonderful edge on there. Never again- I will always do marker on the blade and run ten passes MINIMUM on skates like that.

This more than anything else should tell you to run as fast as you can from the place. It doesn't matter how good the machine is, bad operators will produce bad results.

JWHL schedule change to put us in Boston in early October vs late November.....I’ll take that all day long.

Well I got a phone call today from one of those so called guys "Trying them out." Gemel Smith from the Dallas Stars. His comment was "man these skates changed my game. Im the only 2 way guy left up. And I have been told Im staying as of right now." No he is not a big league guy but for a guy thats a fringe player to say they dramatically improved my movement on the ice? I could actually go on and on with many of the guys I have worked with. As for them with Flare blades if Flare made the adjustments I would want to see as a sharpener I would give them a serious try. You always have to give things like this a try and now that I am closing in on 500 pairs of VH skates sold I would say my success rate is pretty darn good. Even more so that most of my clients 85 % are 10 to 18! And most of those are some of the top players on their teams. And only 9 Hall of Famers but Im working on that. Also pretty sure Mitch Marner and Tyler Bozack are pretty decent players and they seem to like them! I will leave the Goalies don't skate comment to the goalies to respond to! LOL

So is that why 70% of the NHL goalies are in VH/True? And the number of players increases daily? Might want to think again on that one. As for the Flare blades here is my issue along with another company. You sell your product online so it makes it a little harder for us Brick Types to Stock all that extra steel. If I was to say make an order for the shop is the profit there if I don't sell it? No I am stuck with it unless you have a return policy for unsold items? Just so many blades out there these days you cant stock everything.

MLX became Mako, and Now Easton doesn’t exist. Had nothing to do with the skate. True/VH isn’t going anywhere anytime soon unless something major changes.

To be fair, the speed skating industry gave us the MLX/Mako and the VH/True so it’s certainly far from a sure thing that speed skating tech will fail in the hockey world.