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It certainly seems to be less common. I thought CCM had a good thing going with the P30 to differentiate from Bauer, but instead after just a short time floating the P30 in the market they seem to have gone the opposite direction and are now copying Bauer entirely with the P88 and the other max height trend. I think the P40, P46, P19 and P30 all had their following and now they're all missing or disappearing at retail. They just kept changing things so quick the last 2-3 years - how can you build up a base of users that way? It's sad that between Bauer and CCM now it seems it's a 3 pattern market at retail. If you're not a P29/P92, P88 or P28 guy, you're looking for custom or prostock. Which sucks because for custom it's $$$ and for prostock it can be hard to know exactly what you're getting with respect to the build and curve depending on where it came from.

You can get rubberized stones, which really help de-burring coated steel. Leather just gets the fine grit off, but has a tougher time with larger burrs. I use Step Blacksteel, (which does burr a little on the Sparx, but not with the Blackstone X01). I used the rubber stone, then finish with a rough piece of leather, then a smooth piece of leather.

I don't have an answer to your question. When ever I sharpen any type of black/ carbon steel I always use a piece of leather we have hanging around the shop. I personally don't ever think it really gets all the burrs off and I do think they need to be de-burred with a stone but I won't do that to someones skates (unless they ask me). To be honest though I don't know or remember if I have ever sharpened Step Blacksteel. I know I have done CCM and Bauer. The fact that I feel like I can never get all the burrs off is one of the reasons I will never skate on black steel. I have also had a friend who has skated on Step Blacksteel and regular Step steel and he said he really didn't notice much of a difference. Paul Boyer the EQM for Detroit seems to think the same as I do.

My doctors are keeping both drains open for now. My labs haven’t come down as far as they would like. So for now I have to drag around 2 bags. Getting labs on Thursday. Hopefully they are a lot better and can get at least one drain capped. Still pretty sore. I was really hoping to get the first drain out by November. Now I’m not sure. It’s such a nuisance carrying around these 2 drain bags. Hoping for better lab results Thursday.

This was my team last year. Finally took getting bold in the locker room and declaring strategy or shift times or something as simple as where to position everyone on face offs before games to bring the team around. By the end of the season last year we were starting to come together. This year our first game is in the books (lost 2-1 in OT to a team that embarrassed us last year). Basically the captain had to become a decisive leader.

It looks worse in person, the lighting in my garage is horrible, but here it is. Both sides of each runner basically look like this. Only had these runners for... 5 skates now? So they were mint prior to this.

FYI...heard from them today...apparently they are still doing repairs. No idea what that web page is all about. I'll let you know how they do. Thanks again!