MThockeydad

I had NoIcing do my steel with 100/50 and loved it. I bought one set of Step Steel from "jimmy" last winter and he profiled and sharpened it for me. I typically play 1 adult league game, 1 dropin, and coach 3 nights a week. One sharpening on the Step lasts me about a month. Seems like I can go about 3 weeks on Bauer steel. NoIcing has good turnaround, but I'm too cheap to want to pay shipping each way for one set, so I found a local guy to do mine. He plays in a different league, so it's almost impossible to get a quick turnaround from him, so I put my dull steel on a spare set of holders and give them to him for a week or two until I see him again. I also sharpen on the Wissota at my local association's rink. A month ago, he was busy and I shorted myself too little time to send my steel to NoIcing and ground off my 100/50 and did 9/16". I hated it. Great glide, but too little grip. I then went to 1/2" and found it to be decent. The grip I was used to, but glide suffered. To answer your question, OP, if I have no dings, I can probably sharpen my steel in about 4-6 passes. Grinding out the FBV and leaving them sharp took probably 8-10 passes (so just less than the amount ground in two sharpenings). Don't get hooked on FBV unless you have a source to get your steel sharpened as available as the radius you can get at your local shop! I have a super available Wissota at my local rink. I would much rather do it myself than the local sporting goods store. Sometimes they're sharpened very well by the gray old pro who has sharpened skis and skates for 30 years; sometimes poorly by the part-time college kid who sweeps floors to get lift ticket money. If it's the same pro sharpening your skates every time, then no, it probably doesn't save you time or money or get you a better job. If local sharpening availability is poor, or skill is spotty, or you really want a cut that isn't available locally, or your family represents a lot of volume, (or really any one of the four), then do your own. I plan to buy or build a spinner adapter for FBV on my local rink's Wissota. As for learning, I worked my way through a couple of racks of rental skates before I did my own or my kids'. Rental skates step on concrete and aluminum door thresholds and get knocked together so much that even a so-so sharpening is an improvement! :) Once I could get consistently sharp edges and level front, center, and back, I felt OK to sharpen mine and my kids'. Then when I could skate on mine and my kids were happy, I started sharpening the customer skates (see, you never know who you will get!). When I sharpened skates for visiting Canadian teams and people at the local Pond Hockey Classic and those skilled skaters were happy, it was a point that I had figured it out. :)

I like 100/50 and did not like going to 9/16 from it. I'm currently on 1/2" until I get my other steel back with 100/50.

I'm 6'-5", 190# and really like 100/50. MT is a vacuum when it comes to hockey shops, and I ran out of time to send my skates to Noicing, so I put a radius on them. Bob said that 100/50 was roughly equivalent to 9/16, but I HATED 9/16 and am now on 1/2" until I can send my skates back to him. What were you on for radius? At your weight and with hard ice, you might like 95/75 better.

You're just trying to remove the burr. I just do a single pass, dry. A student of mine suggested running down the edge with a piece of copper or aluminum to remove the burr; since both metals are softer than steel, they won't dull the edge.

My youngest daughter had Peewee practice last night. Sent her home for dinner. Bantams were scrimmaging their coaches and they needed a goalie, so my 1st year Peewee ('03) kiddo came back to the rink to play in net against the '00-'01 Bantams. She had some fantastic saves, and they only lost 3-5 I got my rookie adult program off the ground last night and we had 15 adult hockey hopefuls show up--INCLUDING MY WIFEY! She's the cute one in the white helmet/white jersey in the 2nd row. I'm the ugly one in the back with the white helmet and tan jersey. I'm smart. I had a couple of the assistants coach my wife while I coached their spouses.

Shot my first goal in C league tonight!

Buried my dog yesterday. We rescued her 6 years ago. She was raised by hippies who didn't believe in discipline or consistency for dogs. She was a hot mess. We brought her into a home with 2 well-behaved Labs and she beat up our younger dog for a couple of years until the oldest one passed away. Then she became a generally good dog. :) She was diagnosed with cancer in her front shoulder in July. Vet gave prescribed prednisone to keep her appetite up, and it worked really well--she was ravenous. We gave Lotus lots of treats and lots of love all weekend, but she hardly got up. She willingly loaded up for a ride to the lake, but she only waded and didn't swim. When a Lab doesn't swim, something's wrong. It makes things easier, in a way, since we really know it's the right thing to do and there isn't much second-guessing ourselves. Sunday night I dug a hole under our cherry tree where she used to watch squirrels. Final ride to the vet was yesterday at 4:30 and now she's resting under the tree. We still have that little chocolate Lab. She's 15.5 and failing as well. We may not get another dog until the girls graduate high school--they're very busy with school, 4-H, and hockey, and it wouldn't be fair to have a dog waiting at home for us all the time while we're gone. It sucks to think I may not have a dog for 6+ years when I've had one all but 1 of the past 35 years of my life (and similar for my wife). :(

Started league again on Tuesday night. I took power skating classes in the spring and have been on the ice for a month now. I thought I'd have an advantage. But the other newer skaters have also improved and the more seasoned skaters are not that rusty. It was so much fun. GREAT competition and great friends on both teams. We won 5-4 in overtime. A lot of people who were on the team we had a friendly rivalry with this spring were drafted on my team this fall, and several of my former teammates were on the opposing team. One of my former teammates was really pushing me around when I got in her house, and one of my new teammates shoved a good buddy of mine (they were on the same team last spring) right into the boards. I hope the whole season is like this. Life is f-ing awesome!

I played my first B drop-in last night. WAAAAY faster than I'm used to in C. I didn't feel like a complete hack, but I know I need to go back and spend a lot more time hustling in C to get my quickness up.

My absolute favorite is skating with my kids. I don't care if it's on a rink or a pond. Close second is watching them play. Close third is playing myself.

I signed up for a local summer games tournament. They were supposed to draw for teams. They drew two teams early and we hit the ice, but not enough people showed up for full benches for the later teams. So, instead of 3 games, I got in on 5 games for my $40. My daughters started their fall hockey clinics on Wednesday and played again yesterday afternoon. My youngest started there last season, and my oldest started last November. I was so proud seeing how much they have learned in a single year. It gives me a lot of joy to see how much fun, athleticism, focus, toughness, and maturity they've gotten from this sport. I have 43 adults interested in the rookie adult program I'm starting this winter. Even if only half of them actually commit, it's going to be a great group. Life is good.

My tall ugly mug back row, 4th from the left.

Typically there's an exemption for kids under 18 working on a family farm.

Don't ever feel a bit guilty about hitting the ice a lot, especially when you're learning. It's only money, and hockey is good for your health--which is priceless.

I have one of each. Youngest LOVES playing with the boys (and she's huge into Star Wars and LEGOs). Oldest LOVES playing with the girls and couldn't fathom playing on a boys team. As a parent, I like that they each have an option that fits them. Drives my wife nuts that there aren't more playing opportunities for the U14's, but she hasn't exactly embraced ADM. The girls LOVE being on the ice and don't judge their season by how many games they play in (or win). I hate to admit that "one girl at a time" is correct...but I tend to agree. It's hard to recruit a never-ever 10-12 year-old girl and hope she'll feel comfortable stepping onto the ice with girls who have been skating 3-5 years already. It's a bit too late for our girls, but we just have to recruit more girls into the Termite/Mite groups to have a bigger pool in 5-10 years. Our girls only started a year ago, but they REALLY wanted to play and dived in headfirst. They have really loved their hockey experience, and we've seen a lot less drama from hockey parents than from basketball and volleyball. I think those sports are limited by how few players can start, and a lot of good kids end up riding the bench. Hockey is physical enough that line changes are a MUST and 14-16 kids can all have success on a team. It's just a matter of convincing those other parents that their daughters can find fun and success in what they see as a boys' sport. We have similarly great women's programs and teams around here, and they take an active interest in supporting the girls groups. They secured ice time for Sept-Oct and are starting 1-2 months before the coed teams. :)

Awesome!! U14 in MT is girls only. There are only 3 other programs in the state, so travel opportunities are limited. Younger daughter plays Peewees with the boys and one other girl--they travel a lot! That's awesome that they have travel opportunities for the U12 girls where you are.

Starting youth hockey again next week. The girls are absolutely stoked. I am, too. I love watching them play. They never got this amped about basketball or volleyball. I love to play, but I REALLY love to watch my girls play. They're starting the same fall hockey clinic that our youngest started with last fall. Every Wednesday night and Sunday afternoon. I didn't realize how awesome it is to walk out of a 22ºF rink into 80ºF air in shorts and flip flops. Definitely going to enjoy that while it lasts. Younger daughter ('03) is playing PeeWee this year. Should be interesting as the boys are just starting to grow and she hasn't quite started her own growth spurt (she's 4'-10" and 85#). A bunch of the '00's moved up to U19, so we're left with low numbers on the U14 team. My oldest daughter ('01) and the remaining girls may combine with a neighboring town to fill a roster. Younger daughter will probably play goalie for them. There's an invitational U14 tourney in Dickinson, ND in October. One team each from Montana, ND, SD, and Wyoming. Our oldest REALLY wants to play, but it's 12h away. I'd push it, but I'll be in another town for the state association scheduling meeting, so that leaves it to my wifey to figure logistics, and she's not as gung-ho as the other 3 of us.

Didn't realize there was such a massive sale; I'd have searched harder. I was looking for gloves for my wife and daughter and scored Covert DT2 gloves for $20/ea in 13", but they were the last in their colors; I assumed it was a limited item close-out.

Scored Warrior Covert DT2 gloves on Amazon for my wifey and oldest daughter for $20/ea, and Easton EQ50 skates for my wifey and youngest daughter for $40/ea. The checkbook isn't hurting too badly this early in the season! :lol: There isn't much I need for my own gear this season (is that sacrilegious to say on this site?--I'm sure I'll buy something!)

Skated inline all summer to stay in the shape I was in after hockey season. Best shape of my life. Not only did I cut open my chin, I cracked a tooth. Went to the dentist for a cap. Broke it down too far and had to get oral surgey and an extraction yesterday. I feel like I got hit by a baseball bat. Got a bone graft from a dead guy and when that heals, I get an implant this winter. No physical activity for 3 weeks. :( I'm missing a toof; semi hockey-related. Guess this makes me a real hockey player now. smh

2nd set of skating stitches in 8 months. Skated all the way across town (4+ mi) and then my inline wheel grabbed a crack in the street outside my house. ER is costing me more to skate than ice time!!

http://modsquadhockey.com/forums/index.php/topic/66590-diy-gear-repair-restore/

You have absolutely no idea. If I can build it, I will! I tore out the inner plastic mold release liner and scuffed the inside of the shaft with some 60gr sandpaper so the epoxy would have something to bond to. A doubled-up piece of camping pad foam. I really only needed it to press the CF against the inside of the shaft. I also pushed plugs of the same ethafoam into the shaft so the epoxy wouldn't run away from the CF before curing. I cut the foam to the inside dimensions of the shaft. One piece was too thin, so I hot glued two pieces (1/2 x 1.25" x 4" long) together to get it thick enough. Wrapped that with the dry CF and then wrapped the cf with some cheapo sewing thread to compress it smaller than the hole in the shafts. I then saturated the CF and brushed some more inside the shaft and stuffed the plug in. Once it was in both halves, I snipped the thread, which unraveled and let the foam press the CF against the shaft. I clamped it straight and let it cure overnight. The outside was easier--ground into an hourglass shape so the CF was tapered and epoxy/taped it as described above. Sanded smooth and another topcoat of epoxy. I have absolutely no idea. I scrounged some scraps from the composite materials lab at my university 18 years ago. REALLY heavy triaxial (0/45/-45) with the 0 parallel to the shaft. US Composites 635 thin epoxy with medium hardener--leftover from some boatbuilding projects. http://www.uscomposites.com/epoxy.html This probably deserves its own thread!

JB Weld is an epoxy, but not all epoxies are alike. JB weld has thickeners and fillers so it doesn't sag and run. You will need a laminating epoxy with no thickeners or fillers so it wets out the CF. Also, most consumer epoxies have really poor heat resistance. Bake the boot first, then add your epoxy/cf. I pulled a broken Supreme TotalONE LE stick out of the trash at the local rink and made a foam plug, wrapped CF around the plug, stuffed it inside the stick, and clamped it straight until the epoxy cured. I then sanded down the outside of the stick so the original break wasn't a clean line (more of a ramp--reduce the "stress riser") and wrapped the outside with CF, then wrapped it tightly with electrical tape. Flex might not be PERFECT but when flexing it, it's neither a weak spot (too much bend) or a flat spot (too strong). Figured it would be a good backup stick. It turned into my go-to stick. :)

I haven't been on the ice in 7 weeks. Ice is going back in, I should be able to skate in another week or so. Woot!!