jimmy

Titanium nitride is a great coating, been used on drill bits for years. Only problem, once sharpened, the advantage is lost. I like the idea of a tough outer coating on the side of blades as this will toughen the edges and help reduce nicking. I look forward to them being released as well.

No, it's more related to the fact that not many shops have purchased the new equipment to do it. Think also, just how many shops still to this day still do not offer the FBV. And speaking of FBV, when it first came out, there were many who didn't like it. At first when they only offered 100/75 and 90/75, many found the 100/75 too sharp and the 90/75 not sharp enough, so they went back to hollow sharpenings. Wasn't till the 100/50 was released did it really have mass appeal.

I don't think you'll find many on it to begin with, finding someone who has been on it a long time will be pretty difficult.

Sorry Chadd, I have to say you are wrong on this one. Instead of a video of someone skating on a ZC, you prefer what, someone talking about it in a post? What is your answer to the orig question of long term use of ZC? I know of no skater who has used the ZC longer than the skater in the video. There is simply no one else in North America who has used it longer. That's why I offered it. I can recall a while back where everyone was so adamant that they wanted to see videos of people skating, but now it's somehow "irrelevant".

Not necessarily. Generally if a new method of sharpening on the street is bad, it would be evident quick. What beter way to see that it performs than to see someone actually skating well on it? There is no "marketing" involved in the video, the young man is simply skating well for his Bauer contest, which has nothing to do with his skate sharpening. I can remember back when FBV first came out, all the naysayers had to say about that. The ZC is no different, it works well for some, others not so well, just like FBV's.

I'm not a video chopping expert so didn't know how to edit out the non-skating scenes, but if you can fast forward to them you will see some awesome skating. The kid certainly has great skills. BTW, he won the Bauer Contest and a nice shiny pair of APX skates.

Based on your statement, then we should never ask questions on forums. After all, isn't everything all personal preference, equipment, sharpening, durability, whatever? The question was if anyone had used it a length of time. The kid in the video has been using it for years. That's why I posted it. He was on FBV, but liked the ZC better. In the vid one can see maneuvers possible with the edges, so I think it could give someone a perspective of what it's like.

This skater has been on the ZC since it came out. Perhaps watching him skate will satisfy your curiousity.

15 Guns

Sold a pair of goal skates yesterday, customer had just come from the local chain store where the kid working there measured and recommended a size 1. The customer's kid was currently wearing a 1.5 and his toes were crushed. The skater actually needed a size 3. Stores who don't hire experienced people will always make these kind of errors. As said above, you just got to find a good store.

Exactly what we do as well. if a mom comes in and wants skates for little Johnny's learn to skate program, the fitting fee is never mentioned. However, others you just have a sense, they are in for sizing and have no intent to buy. Mention the fee and they usually leave, then go prey on a chain store with kids working who don't care if their time is wasted.

What would that same customer lose if he didn't have a local store to look at and try packs on and had to buy online? Return shipping, restocking fees, it's all relative.

My question is, why do you guys in the UK even sharpen your skates, the ice there I wouldn't even clssify as ice! OMG is it terrible. :-)

We often stay open late during season. We try to accomodate when we can, but when we have something planned for immediatly after work, we got to close on time. That person who comes in 1 minute prior to closing and wants something that's not quick, well, they are just rude. One guy came in minutes before closing and wanted us to size his kid for skates. We told him we were closing in 5 minutes and we can't stay late because of previous plans, and asked if he could come back tomorrow. He got all upset, "What do you mean, you won't sell me skates, blah, blah.." I explained, that what he wanted could take 45 minutes and that we had somewhere to be. At this point he bacame an a$$h0le, so I not so kindly showed him the door and told him never to set foot in our store again. Do you go to your bank and demand they stay open past closing?

Man, I wish everyone was like you. Can't tell you how many people show up 1 minute before closing. IMO this is the most rude thing a customer can do, unless it's a quick sale and they know what they want and can be out quickly. Then there are the ones who show up 15min after closing, see the lights on and start banging on the door because they know you are in there. Don't get me wrong, we love the business, but we have a life too and have to cash out, clean, do paperwork, calibrate machines, etc before we can go home. Store hrs are store hrs for a reason, it always boggles me why people think they don't apply to them. I'd love to go to their work and right before they are to go home and have there boss make them stay an extra hour. So what if they miss taking their kid to their dance lesson, or to baseball game, or....

And people complain that retail prices are higher than online. The store owner has to pay someone like you just to reorganize the showroom almost constantly. These extra costs have to be reflected in the product pricing. Online stores who don't have a showroom, don't have these extra costs which really do add up. If you spent 75% of your day fixing shleves, at say $10 per hour/8hr day that'd be a cost to the owner of about $22,000 just to rearrange shelves!

If you think we have it tough, Imagine how it would be working in a Walmart?

It's actually free for skates purchased at our store. The fist sharpening is not like a regular sharpening, if done correctly, it takes about 4 times the amounts of time, machine dressing and stone usage as a regular sharpening so we charge 4 times regular price if someone comes in off the street with skates with unsharpened steel. We always tell them that the place they bought their skates should have done it for free and that they should go back to them and have them do it, but they usually don't. We use to charge $25 for molding, but when the local chain raised their price to $50 and they don't even have a FIT machine, we had to raise ours to meet the demand because no one was going there anymore. We are in businees to make money, not to provide cheap service for their online purchase. It actually has proved to be a nice money maker, especially since the customers who think they are saving buying online, in the end paying more than if they just purchased them locally. We also tell them they can do it themselves at home if they don't want to pay. They usually pay. As a side, our molding include any punching or stretching and multiple repeats if necessary, it's a full fitting service.

We get that helmet trick all the time. Our policy is no swaps for stuff not bought at our store. Would you go to Sears and ask them to swap out a lawnmower you bought at Home Depot??? And a broken one at that? It boggles me how people try to scam LHS's. Customer comes in, "My son won a pair of skates in a raffle" (umm, where haven't I heard this before), can you size him so I know what size to get him. Me: "Nope". Not even two days later, guy I play hockey with comes in, " I won this skate in a raffle...." Had the balls to want me to mold them for free. Sorry, can't do that, that'll be $50 please, and $20 for first sharpening. The gall of some people, why lie, why not just say they bought the skates online, how much to size, mold and sharpen?

I do. It's called a Sweet Stick! That'll be $5 please. Here's your sign.

All stainless steel can break from the low quality steel to the best quality. Stainless is just not strong like carbon. Some things can accellerate breakage, like blocking shots, loose runners, to tight runners, jumping over boards, and overheating to name a few. It's the price we pay to avoid rusting. If steel has a defect from poor Chinese manufacturing or raw materials, it would break rather quickly after first usage.

Not really, the Fusions are $130 and they are just half aluminum, so a little bit more for titanium is not bad. Titanium is expensive, I recently paid $95 for a titanium firing pin for one of my pistols, and the amount of titanium on it is way less than what would be on a pair of runners.

That makes sense, I didn't see any reference to nanoglide, I thought he was refering to nitinol not being avail.

Umm, nitinol is avail to everyone. The height does offer improvements, the length does not.

Except that it's really not $300, by the time yo get the spinners, vacuum, edge checker, etc, that bumps up the actual cost quite a bit. yes, i agree stupid for a high volume shop not to support goalies. As a goalie myself, I use to always get pissed when we were dissed because we were not in the majority. There is a shop near me that actually charges goalie $2 more for a regular sharpening because the guy doesn't want to vary from his 1/2" house cut player setting.