wrangler

Look two messages before yours.

I'm pretty sure from reading this thread that those are Blademaster numbers, while FBV numbers are Blackstone. As I mentioned, I haven't seen a cross-reference. I think the shops must be taking a less information = less confusion approach. It wouldn't hurt for them to have a comparison chart to show those who ask.

Sorry, link fixed. I'm just getting into this myself. I started skating 40-45 years ago, and the first time I even asked about the sharpening was just recently. When we were kids, the only thing we knew was to ask to have skates "hollow ground". We figured we should go to a skate place, not a hardware or dime store that had a skate sharpening sign (magic marker on cardboard) in the window. Outside of that, we knew nothing. BTW, we were just neighborhood kids playing outside for the most part, never played organized hockey. I didn't know anyone whose school had a team, and we didn't have money to check out a rink league. So we had no one who knew anything to teach us.

I've been through this entire thread, and if there's a Blademaster/Blackstone conversion chart, I missed it. The only chart I've seen here is the one Chadd posted a few days back: http://www.blackstonesport.com/FBV_Comparison_Chart.pdf EDIT: link fixed

I knew someone wouldn't be able to let that pass.

I'm interested in getting to the point where I have freshly sharpened skates that aren't too sharp for me. It'll be a first, and I'm looking forward to it. Getting educated on stuff like this is one of the reasons I'm glad I stumbled in the door at MSH.

See if you continue to feel that way. I'll try it next Wednesday or Friday; not sure when my next time out will be yet.

Thanks, from the chart I could see it's a ratio, now I know what it is. This helps a lot, trying to decipher posts I found a bit cryptic until now. I think I'll try 100/50. I got 100/75 the first time with FBV, and that's the first time I even asked details about sharpening. Before, I'd just taken my skates in, and said "sharpen 'em". And I always liked the feel of them better after several skates; freshly sharpened had more grip than I liked.

Great, thanks. Until now, I didn't even know if the two FBV numbers were independent parameters. From some of the quick responses you've got, I see I wasn't alone in my desire for this info. It's important to have a clue when I go into a LHS for a sharpening, so that I can tell if the sharpener has a clue.

Basics is what I need, for FBV and regular numbers. I've looked around, but haven't found a real explanation; it's possible I missed it. Talk about deeper/shallower hollows is nice, if you know the relationship between the hollows referred to by numbers -- I don't.

The thing is, I don't know that, that's why I asked.

What do you recommend for the next couple steps away from 100/75?

Tough decision, hard to call it totally wrong and a problem either way he decided. If he'd wanted to reverse it, a request from the umpire might make it a unique situation from the standpoint of precedent.