hockeydad3

Yesterday evening my eight year old goalie was moaning about his dull edges and there was no chance to get them sharpened until todays training. So i decided yesterday to do my first sharpening for an official training before i had the chance for a test on the ice during a public skating. Wow i`m a lucky guy. He wants them sharpened again the same way for the next time. He said that his skates are very sharp but he likes them that way. I sharpened them 1/2" ROH with my new X-02. He usually gets them sharpened 1/2" or what is named a players-cut. The result was different depending from shop to shop or from sharpening-guy to sharpening-guy and uneven edges have been usual. I´m looking forward to get more experiance and to test FBV.

I think it would be quite useful for you to read some articles in the web about skate sharpening. A good tip is the wissota skate sharpener homepage. The black marker test and the whittness marking test are only working when the edges are even before you beginn to sharpen. Otherwhise you should check for even edges with a measuring tool or a credit card after some passes. If the higher edge is on the top you should go down (the black line is left on the top and the whittness-mark is on the bottom) and vice versa.

Well it seems that it`s just a question of the definition of "ROH for skate-sharpeníng". The Skatemate-hand-sharpener uses a cylinder with a diameter of 1/2" and blackstone a grindingwheel dressed with the diameter of 1". Both postulate that they produce a 1/2" hollow-grind on the skate. Some posts ago someone compared a blackstone-spinner-1/2"ROH with a wissota-diamond-dresser-1/2"ROH by messuring the produced hollow with a high-tech-tool. Both ROH semed to be quite the same. If we want to end the discussion about ROH, we should ask the big skate-sharpening-machine-producing-companys for the official definition of ROH ;).

They did. I own a similar product and the honing cylinder is quite similar to an AA-battery. I never got the sharpener working properly. I used a C-battery (26 mm diameter ~ 1" diameter) to compare with the 1/2"ROH-spinner and it had a quite perfect fit. So my conlusion is that i sometimes got a more hollow sharpening for my kids skates than i ordered. And the "shallow" sharpenings i got had the hollow i ordered. It`s good to have my own machine.

Hi, the diameter of an AA battery is 11mm, which compares to 6.9/16". But there is some confusion about the definition of ROH. I found this Information: Q. How can I tell whether I have a 1/2 inch or 3/8 inch ROH? A. There is a simple test to find out which ROH your shop is using to grind your blades. Simple that is, if you have an AA-sized battery and/or an AAA-sized battery lying around somewhere.[TEST: If an AA-sized battery fits almost perfectly into the hollow of your blade, with little or no light coming through underneath, then you have a 1/2-inch ROH. If, on the other hand, the hollow is so small that only an AAA-sized battery will rest perfectly in it, then you most likely have a 3/8-inch ROH.][NOTE: there is a universal misunderstanding [actually total confusion] as to what the word radius in ROH really means. The word radius here actually refers to the segment of a circle formed by a diameter corresponding to the fraction stated. In other words, an ROH of 1/2 inch means that the blade is ground with a radius that corresponds to a segment of a circle having a diameter of 1/2 inch, the radius, as such, is MATHEMATICALLY NOT 1/2 inch.]on http://www.skatemate.com/questions.html

Hello, finally my X-02 arrived. It is working without any problems out of the box. I did my first experiments with two pairs of skates which are not in use. An old youth 12 size Bauer with carbon steel runner and one quite new junior CCM 03 with stainless runner. I noticed quite a huge difference between the two steels. Stainless feels more forgiving in case of pressure and speed during grinding. It was a litlle tricky to get the feeling for the calibration of the holder. But i managed to get pretty even edges. I was using an orange wheel and a 1/2" ROH spinner. I noticed two problems: 1. The hollow seems quite shallow compared to the 1/2" i used to get around here. I used an AA battery to compare with the hollow of the spinner and the spinner was shallower than the battery. Does anyone know exactly about the diameter of an 1/2 ROH circle ? is it 1/2" or 1" (13 or 26 mm) ? I found some information that the diameter should be 1/2" like an AA battery. 2. I can feel some nicks in the edges after grinding and deburring. Where can they come from ? Are there still some burrs left ? 3. The the black line one the grinding wheel after using the fineshine is not in the middle of the wheel. Is this ok ? Martin

Thank you for the informations. I´ll buy a X-02. My boys (six and eight years old, two goalies and one player) are all on 1/2ROH. After reading this thread I think that 95/75 compares to 1/2ROH which I will complete with 90/75 and 100/75. I hope the choice is ok for them. Will tell you in some weeks about my experience. Martin

Hi, i´m living in germany and i want to buy a X-01 for my three boys because the next good sharpening service is 40km away. But the german company which has the rights for the import of Blackstone-Sharpening-Machines is not really willing to sell me one. Since weeks they tell me on the phone they would be able for the order the next week. Blackstone does not answer to my questions left on their homepage. Has anyone of you importet a X-01/02 to europe in a 220V version or does anyone of you use a voltage-converter with those machines ? Thanks for your answers, Martin.