Chris Gent

I just ordered a pair of SVH custom skates yesterday with the holders unmounted. I plan to put CCM XS holders on them when they arrive for 3 reasons. I have 3 sets of great DLC steel in 304 mm (the size I need) from my son's skates that he just came out of that had less than 3 months of use. 2 are Bladetech and 1 is Step Blacksteel. He and I use the same profile / sharpening radius and the Bladetech are profiled and sharpened perfectly for me now and should last at least 2-3 years in a rotation, and that's if I don't get the Step Blacksteel profiled to match them as a backup set. Durability. I've had issues as a large guy (6'4" / 220 now...but a lot heavier in the past) with the Edge holders on Bauer skates. My current Edge holders are the 2nd set on a pair of pro stock MX3s that were brand new skates a few years ago. I got the skates about 2 years after intro to the market after they'd been sitting in a team equipment room unused, so they're not really quite as old as the MX3s really are, and I only really got about 2-3 years out of the 1st set of Edge holders before I had to replace them because I kept having steel pop loose. Steel availability - Should my skates outlast the 3 sets of steel I have, I want to have more options for replacement at decent prices, and the XS holders offer that. With the Edge holder going away soon, higher end steel may start to become limited in options. Now just to decide who I want to have mount the skates, because I'm not sure I want the place I ordered from to do the mounting for me...but the one guy I really trust is 700 miles away...I guess I have to see if I can get them baked / molded without holders, let them set for a couple of days, and then ship them off to him to mount the holders and profile that set of Step Steel to match my Bladetech. Of course, then there's the whole idea of mounting holders without me there to ensure they are 100% centered where my balance points are. So many variables!!!!!

@marka This has been a great read. I officiated a bit in college, which was a LOOOONG time ago. My sons (17 and 22 years old) are both level 4 USA Hockey officials. Both have attended the local district's advanced officiating camp multiple times, and my younger son is seriously considering a pathway through to higher levels via the local district's ODP (Official Development Program). It doesn't hurt that he's a reasonably good (though no one will call him fast) skater at 6'3" and has probably one of highest hockey IQ ratings of any defenseman in our area, much like his older brother was (though with better hands). He's already officiated all levels of adult hockey this summer except for the "former pro / NCAA" level at one of our local rinks. This summer, I asked him if I should start officiating too, since we're always super short in this area (Dallas rinks are booked solid most days from 7AM to midnight), but also knowing he is one of those kids who won't want me embarrassing him. Shockingly enough, he said to go for it, and I went and got certified in early August. I would have started reffing right away, but I had to buy all new gear other than a helmet (had 1 for coaching) and skates, since my player shin guards / elbow pads / girdle don't fit under ref pants. I finally got my first games about 2 1/2 weeks ago and have already worked 18 games between house tournament, travel tournament, and adult games (mostly C to B- level, which is what I play at). I've even worked about 5 games at various levels with my younger son, who of course chirped my positioning (which I know is rough still) but was otherwise not as hard on my as I would have expected. I've worked some pretty high-level travel games at the 12U level, and have had decent feedback so far. I definitely need to work on staying out of the way of play as the low official in the offensive zone, but so far, all the years of playing and coaching have given me a decent base of how to handle the calls during the game itself. Overall, your experiences match mine in a lot of ways, so I'll say again that this was a great thread. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

My son is 5'6"-ish and 150ish (not really sure because, well, he's 13 and growing so fast those are probably wrong!) and as I said above, prefers the 1/2 Fire on the harder ice. He likes the glide of the 5/8 Fire on softer ice. What I can say from my own experimentation is that the ROH wheels at each point (i.e. 5/8 ROH vs. 5/8 Fire) have a little (but noticeable) increase in bite over the equivalent Fire ring, along with a little (but also noticeable) decrease in glide. The main accomodation to the lack of bite was something I got from one of the videos the Sparx people did, and that was to make sure I'm getting lower in my stance when skating. It makes a ton of difference to the bite and still gives you really good glide if your edges are really flat. Having my own machine and the Sparx edge checker allows me to be OCD and make sure we're all 100% level. However, I do wish there was a way to check alignment AFTER changing a grinding wheel, but other than busting out a caliber and a fine point Sharpie to label the exact center of each wheel before installing it, I don't know how that might work. However, a few times a month I find uneven edges and doing something like that might more readily allow me check the alignment with the wheel already installed.

Definitely sounds like what mine first did when I went from a pair of SB4.0 steel that was old right to a relatively new set of step steel right after the other and did not adjust the height. I thought I'd A) broken the Sparx, and B) was about to catch the garage on fire.

I have used 5/8 Fire ring on my skates for most of the last 18 months or so. I am 6'4" and while I'm now 245 or so, I did weigh close to 285-290 in the early summer which made me even slower than I should have been for 45. I'm back to skating a lot better and have stuck with the 5/8 Fire as it gives solid bite with ridiculous glide even on fairly soft ice. On occasion, on some of the ice here in Texas in the summer, the 5/8 Fire is like a 1/2 ROH, but it is still my choice. The notable exception is our newest StarCenter which has, bar none, the best ice anyone in my family has ever skated on, to include rinks in Chicago, Toronto, Minnesota, Colorado, Arizona, New York, Missouri, and Iowa...it's that good. On that rink, the 5/8 Fire feels a tiny bit too "loose", bit I find that if I get really low in my stance and actually bend my knees properly on each stride, that significantly changes the bite I get. Almost all of the time (i.e. unless I'm skating at the new rink and it's also very cold and dry), I prefer the 5/8" to the 1/2". I have done the 3/4 Fire a couple of times in the summer when the humidity was high and the temps were also over 105. Mostly though, the 3/4 Fire gets used as the "cross grinder" since Sparx won't sell me an X-Ring for the home sharpener. My wife is about 5'8" and 130 pounds, and hates not having massive bit, so she demands the 3/8 Fire when hers need sharpening...not that she'd know when that was because I usually just sharpen them every week before we play (best way to not get chewed out for playing hockey on the weekend is to have your wife as your D partner). My 13 1/2 year old is about 5'6" and 150, and wavers back and forth between the 1/2 Fire and 5/8 Fire. On the home rink with the concrete hard ice, he wants the 1/2 Fire (he says it is just like a 100/50 FBV), but at some of the older StarCenters with softer ice, he'll have me do his 2nd set of steel at 5/8 Fire so he can switch after warmups if needed. I've not had as many good skates when I try the various ROH rings as I have the Fire Rings, but I suppose that's because since I started getting the 90/75 FBV, I've been able to tell whether someone gave me a FBV cut or a a similar ROH because at my size, the bite is about the same but the glide from ROH is inferior. As for my Sparx as a whole, I love it. We have VERY few decent sharpeners here, and even the supposedly good ones tend to murder skates on occasion. I haven't used my Sparx as much for others as I would have liked since my older son graduated and his teammates are using the Sparx at the rink to sharpen their skates when they work there, and most of my younger son's team is simply not good enough to be able to tell the difference between new steel and well sharpened steel and wouldn't be interested in compensating me fairly for my efforts. Other than learning to get better at doing custom Kydex shot blockers for my family and a couple of friends, I'm not doing any stuff for anyone other than my 13 year old, my wife, and myself. I'll tell you that while in actual cash spent on sharpenings, I'll probably never break even. However, as soon as you throw in gas, tolls, and my valuable time (estimated at my 1/2 my hourly rate at work is still $40+ round trip per sharpening visit), I'd bet I've already broken even. Accounting for the fact that I never send anyone in the family out without exactly even steel (the Sparx edge checker is really handy for sure), I'm ahead as far as I'm concerned. My next project, since my Sparks is significantly out of warranty, is to figure out how to find a good (but relatively quiet) wall-mounted shop vac and build a vacuum filtration system that mimics some of the features of the Sparx commercial unit, but better because it isn't underpowered. I need one in the garage anyway, so a dual use for it would really make it worth my while. I know this was more than what six501 was asking for, but since I've had about 18 months of lots of use on my Sparx, I figured I'd throw the rest of this in too.

That's a darn good idea. Might have to see about that. I'm pretty sure a couple of them are brand new even, because when they offered them, I bought 1 of each trial pack with all the rings.

The one thing I notice about Step Steel (had it in the 6.5 Supreme MX3s my son just outgrew) is that it is MUCH more resilient and needs fewer sharpenings...once you get it sharp anyway. It does seem to take a few more passes to achieve good clean edges if they're torn up because the steel seems to be harder. In the end, that all balances out. If I didn't have 2 sets of LS3 steel with this current pair, I'd have switched him out. Overall, I'm sure I'm well in the hole with the purchase of the sharpener and quite a few different rings until we found what all 4 of us like (my wife and I both play hockey too), but I wouldn't go back to a LHS here in Dallas unless my son ended up playing at a the one rink where we have a trustworthy sharpener. The fact that I can throw the skates on the sharpener and trust the machine implicitly to get them right while I tape a stick or pack a bag is the ultimate in hockey parent convenience. I guess if I included gas and time spent, I might get close to break even in another year or 2 in a pure dollars sense, but this is a luxury well worth the capital costs in my opinion.

I see the same thing on my sons' skates with our Sparx. One has Vapor 1Xs (10.5D) with LS3 steel and the other has Supreme MX3s with LS3 steel (7.0D). Both sets of steel are about the same height (within 1/16") and both are skating on the 1/2" Fire grind. I always take the blades out and use the steel holder and the included orange clips to ensure the steel is locked in tightly. Both sets of steel went through a 10 pass "clean" cut when coming from 7/16" radius because I found when I did my own skates that anything less was a sort of uncomfortable radius / fire compromise. The alignment is regularly checked and I have not had to adjust it in 2-3 months. Even still, the LS3 steel on the Vapors occasionally shows to be 1 line off level. Other times it's about a half line. The Supreme's steel is always dead even. The tl:dr version of this is that the longer steel seems prone to being bent or twisted, but at a level that is finer than I can see when laying it flat on my workbench to check it. Either way, depending on blocked shots, stepped on sticks, posts slammed into trying to keep a goal out (both are defensemen), etc., the longer steel doesn't seem to stay as straight. I think this is probably what you're seeing, especially with regard to the step steel (very hard) versus mid-range (softer / more prone to bending) steel.