jimmy

I'm the same way. sounds like the skate size is too big. When sized correctly these skates fit like a glove and you barely need to tighten the laces.

A good quality stainless runner loses about 25% of its edge for every hour of skating and that is effected by the quality of the ice and off ice conditions at the rinks you play at, and type of hockey you are playing (junior practices vs Old mens league for example). If you were getting 4-6 hrs of skating that's about average. Of course you can skate longer than that, but the edges will be dull and offer no performance. The Blacksteel edges of course will last much, much longer. Another factor effecting how long edges last is the quality of your sharpener, those who overheat the blades when sharpening can change the hardness tempering qualities of the metal, weaken the metal to a point where they dull after 1 game, chip or break.

I don't think you'll notice anything fit or stiffness wise with the M8. As with sticks, all fiberglass ones are heavier and break easier. With the M8 I suspose a hard shot could crack the fiberglass, but this same hard shot would also damage other brands and model skaets as well. I wouldnt dwell on it, the M8 is a great skate. I havent seen any damage on the ones we have sold, so, so far so good is all I can say.

Mako Steel is great quality steel, Step is not better quality than Makos. Chattering is a symptom of too aggressive a hollow be it skater ability, weight or from ice condition. (Although a blade like Blacksteel and blackedge has a crisper finer point so it can grab better but no so much it would cause chatter) Simply shallowing the hollow should correct your problem. Try a 9/16 and see if that does the trick. I don't recommend shaving as it reduces performance. Let your body mechanics adjust to the new shape. Be sure to profile the radius and pitch to the same as the Makos, Step is neutral, mako is not.

STEP steel has never been the same shape as stock steel, regardless of the manufacturer and model. As for rotating 2 different "shapes", it can be done very easily and many do it without any problems. The key is not to stay on one set or the other too long as to allow your body mechanics to adjust only to that set. We have many customers who even rotate between different brands of skates with no issues, for example Grafs while reffing, and Bauers for their games.

The A trap works very well. If you are a goalie who likes inside edges with a lot of bite and outside edges with lees bite, then the A-trap is for you. In the past us sharpeners who know how to do it, sharpened the skates purposly out of level so they had higher inside edges. This gave the goalies great inside edges but no outside edge. Great in the crease, lowsy for skating. The A-trap edges however are level so you can also skate well on it, plus added benefit of the flat for more speed if you are a roaming goalie.

Take everything Blackstone says with a grain of salt. Too many spinners with very little difference between them. I did blind tests and most couldn't tell any difference. When I first got my machine years ago, they had two spinners, one they said covered 3/8-1/2", and the other 1/2 to 5/8. Marketing to sell more spinners is amazing.

No, the template is not 2 of them, one template with a seamless blend of the 2 radius.

No edge checker is going to be perfect, we are talking about a cheap mechanical measure made out of aluminum. I have 4 different brands, they are all about the same in regards to accuracy. I agree with Blackstone, within 1 line is fine. You'll have an aneurism trying to get those things to be perfectly level. So, just lay a quarter on the blade. If it looks square, the skate will perform fine, if the quarter is tilted, the skater will likely have issues. The quarter is as accurate as any of the edge checkers out there. Cheaper too.

We have 238 and 246mm in stock in Blacksteel.

Not sure about BE's coating service or prices but why not just get a pair of STEP Mako Blacksteel which is already available?

First, the ROH comparisons are not accurate, nor can be used as a direct crossovered to a specific FBV. The 100/50 is somewhere in the range of a 1/2 -9/16. We also did blind tests with the 90/1 and no one could tell any significant difference between that and the 100/50 or the 95/75. The 95/1 and 90/75 were however distinguishable in testing. I think Blackstone has put out too many spinners for the sake of just making spinners.

The steel on the Makos is same as the MakoIIs, no difference.

Yes, we've had them in stock for quite some time. Their website needs updating for sure.

Yes, STEP makes regular, velocity and Blacksteel for those.

I think it's related to the machinery. They've gone so far left in this country, kids under 18 can't even operate a tomato slicer if they work at a restaurant.

It is against child labor laws to have employees under 18 operate dangerous equipment, which includes sharpening machines.

Don't blame the skate for a bad sharpening. What you experienced has nothing to do with the skate.

Orange sucks for high volume, lots of wheel residue when dressing. You can blow thru a wheel in no time. But does a nice job on stainless.

The edge system is pretty cool, a great improvement for sure, but once you change runners a couple of time using the screw system, it really only takes a liilte longer, perhaps 1 minute.

Shops that offer FBV are few and far between, heck most don't even offer hollow choices, I doubt they'd invest in a FBV machine with all the different options. They are content to offer a "regular" that everyone gets. We see teams from all over the country when they are in town for tournys. Most give us the deer in the headlight look when we ask them what setting they would like. CB1, having a spare set of steel is always a good choice, especially when in the first period you or your son loses an edge or breaks a runner and the pro shop is closed. Being able to pull a runner out of your bag is priceless.

Exactly, when someone tries a FBV first time, if it's not done right they are not going to like it and go back to a hollow thinking the FBV is bad, when in fact it's not. I had a customer the other day come in, he got what he said was a FBV at a big online store that has some retail locations somewhere. It was done poorly, he didn't like it. I had to really convince him that if he got a real FBV done right he would like it. It helped that the 5 or 6 customers who came in while he was at our shop all asked for FBVs when they got up to the counter. A bad sharpener can fake putting a hollow in but a FBV has to be perfect.

We do 80% FBVs, 20% hollows. Would be more but we don't try to talk stragglers and out of towners into the FBV unless they ask. Once a skater tries the FBV, very few go back to a hollow, it's that much better. Problem is not all shops offer FBVs, and many of those that do, they don't do them correctly so skaters confuse it as being bad when in reality it was just how it was done that was bad.

We always will bake before purchase to allow the customer to ge the best fit before decision. Just today, I spent 1 hr baking, then molding a pair of Makos and a pair of Tacks for a customer. (They chose the Makos) Nevertheless, why would a shop spend the labor/time baking someone's skates they purchased elsewhere for free? We bake for free all skates purchased in our store, but if somone comes in off the street with skates they bought elsewhere,they have to pay for that service. Otherwise, what do I get out of it, a $2.00 roll of tape? The location you bought them should be doing the baking, if they don't, they shouldn't be able to sell the skates. Most stores in my area charge $50 to bake skates not purchased at their store, this seems to be the norm.

10 mins at 200 degrees, any less is probably not enough. Salisbury, pretty much weight is it, fiberglass vs carbon in the Mako. MakoII has more density in the tounge and footbed than the M8.