Vet88

😲😲😲 the price of a sparx unit from ms europe, wtf.....

Have you considered using a reshipper like myus? For example it's around $15 for 2kgs to Europe and with a US drop box you can now shop at US local prices.

Clamp the steel in the vice then push firmlyish on the side of the skate. You are looking for the holder to move from an upright position and deviate to the side. If it is loose enough you will clearly see the holder go on a lean.

Theory is not my strong point, I'd start with weighing your boot then multiplying the kgs by 9.8, that will give you the newton force of the boot in a sideways jig (yes, I included the steel in the jig). If gravity is moving it then this force in a vertical jig should move it. And my apologies to the flare thread, this is my last post on this particular matter.

Why not? What forces are going thru the inside edge when you accelerate from a standing start? Foot pronating into the push, your whole body weight on one foot driving thru the toe. 100kgs then or you pushing on it in a jig?

I don't have access to prosharp, sparx or elite sharpeners (they are the ones I know of that use a vertical mount). But do I really have to explain how, if you can't move it by hand, it's not going to show up in a vertical mount that has very little sideways deflection occurring on the boot? You stick the boot in the machine and you press the button, it's not going to move sideways unless you are actually testing it and then it's up to the quality of the clamping unit. If you really want to test it in a vertical mount I'd suggest a bench mounted vice clamp would be a better proposition.

I have, if you search earlier threads about this issue I posted pics of my sons skates, neither I, the sharpener I was going to at the time or my son could move the blade by hand yet put his MX3's in the jig and the flop was very noticeable. Fixed it with Teflon tape but eventually they should have been replaced, I didn't as he moved on to other skates shortly after this.

Bit of both and if they don't really notice it they aren't willing to pay for it. Remember that it doesn't suddenly let go, it happens over time and you are adapting to it every time you skate. I'm not saying every edge holder has this issue but it is more significant in edge than any other brand.

And so I have heard the same from just about every other skater I point it out to, I can't make it move as they try to shift it by hand. Leverage, as Archimedes said. Put it in a holder....

No, you don't notice. In general, at least in my experience without a great deal of force and effort, you wont actually notice the blade moving if you are trying to do so by hand. It's not until the boot gets put in the jig to get sharpened that it becomes noticeable, and this requires a sideways mounted jig, a sparx or any other vertical mounted boot holder will tell you sweet fa. As to sample bias? I sharpen skates. I don't have any bias other than the fact it's an edge holder that predominately flops. Everyone needs skates sharpened, regardless of skate brand. I see every type of brand and edge holders are the worst. Admittedly I don't do hundreds of skate a week, I live in a small town where ice sports are a niche market but I'm only echoing what other high volume, quality professional sharpeners have seen every day, @oldtrainerguy28.

Then it sounds like you haven't worked in a shop sharpening skates. It's an issue I see daily, put the steel in the clamp and watch the boot flop. Most players don't care because they don't want to pay for the repairs and for a beer league competition it just doesn't make things that much better. Talk to anyone who cares about their equipment and it's impact on performance (at least in my experience) and then it's a different matter.

It really depends on what has caused the lace bite, sometimes a thinner tongue will work - no degradation in the tongue because of lace pressure and the thinner tongue means more volume in the boot, this may be just enough to relieve / shift the pressure on the tendon.

It's possibly an ongoing sign that your foot is rolling in the boot ie pronation. A perfect fitting boot doesn't fix pronation, it only hides it until the boot starts to give way against the relentless pressure from the foot. I know of pros playing in Europe who go thru 3 - 4 pairs a year of customs (all brands) because the skate opens up. Rebaking will close it up again but each time they open up faster. If you pronate it can be addressed but it takes time and effort.

I don't have access to that anymore and our Bauer in country ordering is done out of Europe. Hopefully someone local to you will read this and be able to guide you to a US or Canada online source.

There are 2 widths you can get in a skate, the forefoot width and the heel width. Retail skates have a set heel width which is why the sizing is only D or E, customs can be ordered with a separate forefoot width and heel width (or should be able to eg Bauer custom ordering process where you specify the heel width you want).

It was for FT2 customs.

Making material move inwards is never a good idea, it has memory and any outward pressure on it always makes it want to move back out. But material that is small in the first place resists outward movement a lot more. If I want a narrow heel that is where I want to start, not something that is oversized and then squeezed downward to fit.

Something I have just seen that came from CCM. If you want a narrow heel then CCM customs may not be your best bet, CCM no longer make heel sizes under a D width. So if you want a B or a C etc heel width then you are sol. I'm willing to stand corrected but this came direct from CCM.

These: https://www.icewarehouse.com/Drymax_Hockey_Skate_Socks/catpage-DRYMAXSOCK.html They tick every box I think you are after, they are one of their best sellers and my favourite after I tried nearly everything IW sell.

Does his 70k skates have 10 or 11 eyelets? Retail version have 10 so if he is skipping the 10th eyelet it means he either has custom facings or it's something like the 50k facing on a 70k frame?

Regardless of how the skate fits, the fit does not correct your bio mechanics.Lets say you pronate, a perfect fitting skate will straighten your ankle and help to reduce the amount it pronates but your foot STILL wants to pronate in the skate. Over time the pressure the foot places against the inner wall will eventually cause the inner rear quarter of the skate to open up, which allows the foot to rotate a little more, which places more pressure on the inner rear wall etc etc. A self fullfilling prophecy. Also a skate with extra stiffness causes other issues, even with a perfect fit. Your foot still wants to pronate but it is now leaning up against an unforgiving wall and keeps banging against this with every step you take. I have seen many examples where this has lead to blisters and irritated tendons. You either adjust the skate to suit your bio mechanics or you retrain as I have done and many others are successfully doing, the skate itself doesn't fix anything.

It's not the strength, it's the alignment. This muscle memory transfers over to playing games laced up. Red Dog hockey is also doing the same thing, it just takes a different approach.

The following is from the other side of the fence, something I doubt very few of you have ever seen. Pardon the length but it's relevant. Around a month ago I was at the rink training during a public skate (I adjust my work day so I can skate during the day). A family turned up, the 2 boys hopped on the ice. One of them came up to me and asked for some tips on how to skate. I took one look at how he was standing and thought hmm, this could be interesting. He was from New Caledonia and on holiday visiting our country, ice skating was on the bucket list. He had never skated / skateboard / ski in anything before yet there he stood in crappy plastic / no edge / blunt rink rentals and he was balanced perfectly over the skates. 1 hour later and he could: cross over both sides, 2 foot stop both sides, had an outside edge on corners (the first time I showed him his outside edge he got so deep he fell into it and to the ice) and we were working on his backward crossovers when he had to go. This kid was skating dna on steroids. It didn't matter what I showed him, he got it immediately. To him it was as natural as walking. If I could have signed him up I would have on the spot. He was skating better in one hour than other skaters I know who have been skating for years. Why? Because he was perfectly aligned over the skates blades. It wasn't his skates, it wasn't his strength, it wasn't his skating skill set, it was all down to how naturally he was aligned and balanced over the skate blades. Very rarely do you see someone like this and I have coached thousands of skaters over the years. So the next time you go for a skate in your 2S Pros or you are having a debate as to which stiffness of skate you should buy, have a think about about where your skating ability really sits. As I said in my first post, it's not about the skate.....

No, you wouldn't skate unlaced in a game. If you read my comments, I have always said that skating laced up provides more support and allows you to skate better. Boot stiffness is part of this. To reiterate - why train laces undone? Primarily balance, to develop your balance over the skate blade at ALL times, for every move you make - ergo deeper edges, tighter turns. Get this right and then you get maximum power into the blade - ergo more speed. You also build a broader muscle memory set, this allows you to control the skate better thru any type of position or play you may get involved in.

Prior to this research I am in I'd have agreed with you. Recently we added an observation test because of a request from a podiatrist. It's an observation only with very limited parameters but I think what it alludes to is important enough to be explored in it's own. What he wanted to see was what impact the muscle training had on skates that had holders in a different position to the control skate. 5 of us skated in a blind test with no laces (straight line one and two foot glides only that were measured with video analysis) using a range of skates from CCM and Bauer that had been randomly selected. The instant we stood on the ice we could immediately tell if the holder deviated left or right from our control skate, regardless of brand of skate we were in. Laser measurement of the skate then confirmed the observations. However the most pertinent observation was that the longer we spent in the skate the less the holder deviation mattered, until after around 20 minutes of skating you basically forgot about it. Note that holder deviation was less than 2mm to either side. In a nutshell - the podiatrist proposed that because there is no boot support, the holder alignment - to a point - isn't as critical for body alignment. With the ability for the foot and ankle to adapt to the holder position, this reduces the knee and hip deviation from the center line. The video analysis supported this. This is an observation only, it requires a proper project to evaluate it correctly but based on our experience so far I do not disagree with his theory. If you train with laces undone the holder position becomes less important, the critical component is the activation of your muscle groups to control the skate blade without any boot support. I'd like to take this further. For skaters that have medium to severe pronation, I'd like to test the impact on moving the holder outward, not inward. What happens to the muscle groups when an unlaced skater is forced to over compensate, how the range of holder deviation impacts on alignment, how does it change the foot structure and muscle strength, changes to knee and hip alignment etc etc. But this is for another day and another project. Ideally the holder position would always be centered for a skater (sorry CCM and Bauer but I think there is something really amiss in your manufacturing process when it seems every skate you make has the holder in a different position relative to the center line of the skate) but for most people and LHS's / online stores this is just a dream with how skates are currently made. However skating with laces undone does appear to allow the body to compensate for holder alignment to a degree.