marka

Howdy, Are you running too many passes? Unless my steel has gotten really nicked up, I use the presence of a slight burr (can feel it with my fingers, but not that visible to the eye) as an indication that I've run enough passes to fully sharpen the hollow. If I run passes beyond that point, it just increases the burr (and wastes steel). edit: I usually sharpen with the height setting at or near its highest point, as I prefer to sharpen most of the blade profile. I would be surprised if the height setting affects the amount of burr... Checking by hand, the spring pressure on the sharpening 'head' seems pretty consistent regardless of where you are in the stroke. Mark

Howdy, Quick follow up to this... I skated a couple games on the Quad 0 and then gave both sets of steel back to JR at Winterfest for the next set of profiles to try. That meant that for tonight's game I was back on my baseline set with the Zuperior profile, pitched forward "25%". It wasn't back to back, since I last skated on the Quad 0 yesterday, but if I hadn't switched the steel myself, there's no way I'd have know it was different. For me, a Quad 0 and the Zuperior profile with some additional forward pitch are indistinguishable. Mark

Howdy, Did you visit around the time that Total was going through the bankruptcy and got bought by pure? The cranberry pure at that time didn't have much inventory and I think was going through employee changes. Doesn't excuse the poor service though. In the Pittsburgh area, if I wanted goalie gear I'd head to KO Sports, if you're ever back this way. FWIW Mark

Howdy, Thanks to JR and ProSharp for the opportunity to try out various skate blade profiles! About me: I'm a relatively new hockey player, but a relatively old person. 🙂 I started skating and playing hockey in 2015/2016 at age 46. Prior to that, I'd played a tiny bit of hockey with other neighborhood kids a couple winters on a pond in Maine, when I was growing up. When I started a couple years ago, I could sorta hockey stop on one side and kinda do forward crossovers. Today my skating has greatly improved and I can perform any normal "hockey skating maneuver", but nobody will mistake me for Connor McDavid or even just anyone that played hockey seriously as a kid. I currently play in "D" leagues in the Pittsburgh, PA area, which are one step up from full beginner leagues. I use size 7.5D Easton Mako M8 skates, with regular 263mm Step Steel. I use a 5/8" Fire 'radius' and sharpen my own skates with my Sparx. This set was initially sharpened by JR at 1/2" ROH when it was profiled, then I ran 6 passes with a 5/8" Fire ring at home. Quad Zero Please see my other reviews for context! All of my comments and ratings are in relation to other profiles I've tried. A Zuperior profile with a little added forward pitch was my baseline, which I rated at all 3's for each category. After trying out a dual radius 9'/10' +1/2 deg pitch (see that review in the dual section), I switched over to this Quad Zero setup. I did the steel switch myself on the bench, fumbling with Easton's square headed screws and weird angled T-handle wrenches thinking all the while that that Tuuk Edge holder was seeming more and more like a good idea for my next pair of skates... 🙂 At home I'd compared the quad zero to the dual 9'/10' radius setup, just laying the blades on top of one another. There were differences in shape visible to the eye, but they were _minor_. I didn't actually attempt to measure them, but we're talking less than 1mm difference in blade height at any point along the profile, at least according to my eyes. I was really interested to see if I could feel any actual difference, out on the ice. After the switch, leaving the bench my overriding impression was that if I hadn't just switched the steel myself I probably wouldn't have known it had happened. Skating around a bit more before I started running through maneuvers, I knew I was going to have to be on the lookout for really subtle differences. I still had the ice to myself, so I ran through similar maneuvers as I'd done with the 9'/10' profile. I did forward/backward crossovers around the circles, forward/backward stops & starts, tight forward turns, forward/backward strides, forward/backward one foot glides, and what I call "defensive turns" where you skate with forward crossovers in a large arc, then switch to backwards crossovers midway through and finish with backwards strides. I also did some stick handling and shooting, just to break up the time a bit. All in all, I was on the ice for about 15 minutes with this profile. As I've mentioned before, I'll try to repeat these maneuvers with all of my initial profile reviews. If the differences between my baseline Zuperior profile and the dual 9'/10' profile were subtle, these were even more so. The increased toe contact I'd noticed with the dual profile wasn't there with the Quad 0. As such, when I skated backwards in particular I noticed that I had to think more about pushing on that last toe flick to get good ice contact. However, with a bit of concentration, the grip / push was still there, it felt like I was just as fast, etc. The Quad 0 profile just felt "natural" to me and I'm not sure I'd have noticed a difference between my Zuperior baseline and the Quad 0 even in a blind back to back situation. My feeling was that perhaps it still had a touch more toe contact with the ice as compared to the Zuperior, but it was slight if so. I liked this a bit better than the 9'/10' dual profile just because I didn't have a thought that _maybe_ I'd have a slightly increased chance of toe picking myself. My incredibly unscientific ratings reflect this: Acceleration: 3.5Mobility: 3Stability: 3.5Speed: 3 That's all down to the feeling of slightly less toe contact with the ice as compared to the dual 9'/10' profile, but perhaps, maybe, slightly more than the Zuperior setup. This profile, in the 15 minutes I tried it, felt so similar to the Zuperior profile that I'd been using that I'm leaving it on the skates and will skate with it for my next few games without any worry that it affect my gameplay. Perhaps I'll notice a few more differences during that time and if so, I'll update this with a followup review. Having compared three profiles in a short time at this point, my overall impression is that after you get anything reasonable on the profile, the differences are going to be much more about what you happen to like vs. any actual measurable difference in performance or balance. I seem to notice big changes like ground off toes/heels or decently large changes in pitch, but otherwise all of these differences are things where I need to be concentrating on my skating to feel. Other things, like if my skates are sharp, hardness of the ice, etc. have more of an impact, at least with my completely un-blind and "have to bust out the tools" runner switching. I now think of it more as being similar to a favorite t-shirt... Its not that its measurably better, its just that you happen to like it a bit more and so that's the one you grab out of the drawer over another. Right now though, the Quad zero is my favorite t-shirt. Mark

Howdy, Thanks to JR and ProSharp for the opportunity to try out various skate blade profiles! About me: I'm a relatively new hockey player, but a relatively old person. 🙂 I started skating and playing hockey in 2015/2016 at age 46. Prior to that, I'd played a tiny bit of hockey with neighborhood kids a couple winters on a pond in Maine, where I grew up. When I started a couple years ago, I could sorta hockey stop on one side and kinda do forward crossovers. Today my skating has greatly improved and I can perform any normal "hockey skating maneuver", but nobody will mistake me for Connor McDavid or even just anyone that played hockey seriously as a kid. I currently play in "D" leagues in the Pittsburgh, PA area, which are one step up from full beginner leagues. I use size 7.5D Easton Mako M8 skates, with regular 263mm Step Steel. I use a 5/8" Fire 'radius' and sharpen my own skates with my Sparx. This set was initially sharpened by JR at 1/2" ROH when it was profiled, then I ran 6 passes with a 5/8" Fire ring at home. Dual Radius 9'/10' + 1/2 deg pitch Please see my other reviews for context! All of my comments are in relation to other profiles I've tried. A Zuperior profile with a little added forward pitch was my baseline, which I rated at all 3's for each category. I stepped onto the ice having no idea what this would be like. At home I'd compared the steel to my Zuperior setup (also on Step Steel, though with a bit more wear due to sharpening) and the dual radius seemed to be reasonably close, with a perhaps a touch less forward pitch. In the past, I'd noticed a really big difference between steel that had more radical profile differences, and really didn't know what to expect now. The differences ended up being pretty subtle to me. I was immediately comfortable and balanced skating over to the bench area to stretch out and my absolute first impression was "this is fine and I could play with it without thinking about my skates". I had the ice to myself, so I ran through a series of maneuvers to get a better sense of the changes in feel. I did forward/backward crossovers around the circles, forward/backward stops & starts, tight forward turns, forward/backward strides, forward/backward one foot glides, and what I call "defensive turns" where you skate with forward crossovers in a large arc, then switch to backwards crossovers midway through and finish with backwards strides. I also did some stick handling and shooting, just to break up the time a bit. All in all, I was on the ice for about 15 minutes with this profile. I'll try to repeat these maneuvers with all of my initial profile reviews. As mentioned, the differences were pretty subtle to me. In terms of feel, it felt like the blade had more toe contact than my baseline Zuperior profile, which particularly helped with backwards skating and getting that last 'toe flick' on the stride and perhaps a touch more stability. However, the increased toe contact wasn't so much that I had any issues with 'toe picking' the ice like I had previously occasionally had with an unprofiled stock 10' radius Step Steel setup. In every other aspect, I didn't notice any large change. It's important to note that this wasn't a direct back to back or blind comparison to my baseline profile as it'd been a day since I was last on the ice and I was the one switching steel! Anyway, here's my completely unscientific ratings: Acceleration: 4Mobility: 3Stability: 4Speed: 3 My ratings there are pretty close to the Zuperior baseline (see my review in the triple section for specific comments on that) and that reflects my perception of the subtle differences here. There was no drastic change in any category for me. I gave a slight edge for these to acceleration mostly because when skating backwards in particular it felt like I got more productive pushes with that little bit more toe contact. I bumped up Stability slightly because I seemed ever so slightly more balanced when skating backwards. Again though, overall the differences were slight. I have full confidence that I could continue to use this profile if necessary and it wouldn't affect my game. Next up was a Quad Zero! See my review in the quad section for that. Mark

Howdy, Thanks to JR and ProSharp for the opportunity to try out various skate blade profiles! About me: I'm a relatively new hockey player, but a relatively old person. 🙂 I started skating and playing hockey in 2015/2016 at age 46. Prior to that, I'd played a tiny bit of hockey with neighborhood kids a couple winters on a pond in Maine, where I grew up. When I started a couple years ago, I could sorta hockey stop on one side and kinda do forward crossovers. Today my skating has greatly improved and I can perform any normal "hockey skating maneuver", but nobody will mistake me for Connor McDavid or even just anyone that played hockey seriously as a kid. I currently play in "D" leagues in the Pittsburgh, PA area, which are one step up from full beginner leagues. I use size 7.5D Easton Mako M8 skates, with regular 263mm Step Steel. I use a 5/8" Fire 'radius' and sharpen my own skates with my Sparx. Zuperior S, with some additional forward pitch ("25% more forward pitch") This is my 'baseline' profile. I switched to this profile a couple months ago, done for me by @Nicholas G on this forum prior to JR receiving his ProSharp setup. Prior to this I was using stock steel which had been repeatedly sharpened manually, grinding down both the toe and heel. That steel was then profiled by JR to a 10' radius where steel still existed, but the toe and heel were still considerably ground away. I also used unprofiled stock 10' radius Step Steel. Given that I've run the Zuperior profile for months, I'm used to it and find it normal in every sense. This is my baseline and I'll be comparing other profiles to it. As such, I've rated the steel as in the middle in all categories: Acceleration: 3 Mobility: 3 Stability: 3 Speed: 3 Comparing this profile to what I had tried before, it provided a LOT more stability as compared to the OE steel with the heel & toe ground down and felt like it had way more 'blade on the ice'. At first, with a 1/2" Fire sharpening like I'd previously been using, I had trouble with initiating turns. However, when I moved to 5/8" Fire and spent a little more time on the profile, I was back to having the same agility I'd always had while keeping that same feeling of stability. Comparing this profile to the unprofiled stock 10' radius Step Steel, I really noticed the additional pitch forward putting my balance where I expected it to be and no longer had any issues with "toe picking" like I'd had with the unprofiled stock 10' radius steel. Frankly, I was completely happy with this profile and didn't feel there was anything I was lacking. However, I wanted to try other options and see what I might not know, so here we are... Up next are a Dual Radius 9'/10' review and a Quad 0. See those in their respective sections. Mark

Howdy, Are there inexpensive chest strap HR monitors that work well for sports like hockey? I'd be curious about my HR stuff, but only like $50 worth or so. 🙂 Mark

Howdy, Depending on how the cost worked... Yes. Having to host photos somewhere else is a PITA. Mark

Howdy, If that were my blade, I'm pretty sure that little nick would stay right there and I'd never notice it wasn't completely gone after a normal sharpening. Mark

Howdy, I use it. I've also used 9/16 ROH, 1/2" Fire, and 5/8" ROH. I've mostly been working up that list, towards shallower hollows. I would say that in general the idea that the 5/8" Fire has a bit more glide as compared to the regular 5/8" is probably true, but its not a crazy big difference. I've done some profile changes over the same time period and its not like I was doing them back to back so I wouldn't feel right making definitive statements. When I went from 5/8 ROH to 5/8" fire it was on the same profile. My overall impression is that its a relatively minor change as compared to a 5/8" ROH, but did indeed free up the skate a bit more. YMMV. This stuff seems so 'personal preference' to me. Mark

Howdy, I think the "material removed" is a pretty important thing here. Presumably there will also be a tradeoff between the speed of material removal vs. finish. I was just poking around the prosharp site and they offer fine vs. coarse grinding rings as well. That may be relatively new? This video actually taught me a few things about the ProSharp Home, though he glosses over the "life of sharpening rings" thing pretty well. I will say one thing... I'm a pretty basic "home sharpener guy". I do my family's skates and the occasional pair for teammates (where we live, the nearest pro skate sharpener is 40 miles away*). Even just doing those minimal skates, I've ended up with a bunch of different grinding rings... I have 7/16" to 5/8" ROH plus 1/2" and 5/8" Fire. While its certainly true that for higher volume sharpening the "cost per sharpen" / "cost per pass" is what matters, I've had my machine for just about a year now and have yet to wear out a grinding ring. The "cheaper ring that doesn't last as long" has allowed me to support different sharpening radii that I likely wouldn't have done if the rings cost 2x what the Sparx rings do. I'm still pretty happy with my Sparx. I for sure worry that the complexity of the machine / machine specific consumables will bite me in the ass if Sparx as a company goes away. It also isn't going to let you do "weird stuff" like a full manual machine (even a portable manual machine) would. The "cost per sharpen" in terms of consumables is also significantly higher than any other option out there, but as I'm not doing this as a business, that doesn't matter to me. YMMV. Mark * our local rink also has a Sparx (commercial). For whatever reason, guys have bitched about getting their skates done with this and haven't had issues with the sharpen I've done on mine. I have no idea what the local rink is doing differently than me.

Howdy, Has anyone run the math on the ProSharp Home w/the $300 coupon vs. the Sparx? I've been pretty happy with my Sparx, FWIW. But when I look at the rings on my bench and can count up $400 in rings alone, it makes me wonder if the longer lasting (?? I think) ProSharp grinding wheels have a break even point for the whole system. As for Pure, I thought the VIP program still had some type of deal on sharpenings, in terms of earning points way quicker and those points could be applied to sharpenings too? It certainly wasn't the free sharpenings deal, but my impression was that it wasn't really a full $10/ea either. For me, having a home setup is worth it in terms of the consistency and convenience even if you discount the potential savings. Mark

Howdy, Cranberry, PA? I've had good luck getting them to do rivets for me, but its nearly always a weekday. Last time was maybe a couple months ago? They usually don't charge me either, so I end up buying something while I'm there out of guilt. 🙂 I fairly often have a couple rivets loose on my Makos. They did them once for me on a weekend when I only had a couple loose, but the impression I got was that they really don't like doing them on weekends. Whether that's because they seem to only have one or maybe two guys that are comfortable with boot repairs vs. just basic sharpening or due to being busy... I dunno. Mark

Howdy, How much are you getting paid to be there? 🙂 If going to the rink is a chore, tell the team and have them / you find you a sub for the season. Full stop. Gutting out a game when you're sick or something is one thing, but we do this for fun. If you're consistently not having fun... Stop it. Mark

Howdy, Cool, if I see something I'll let you know. FWIW, the LT4 seems like a better way to go motor-wise. If I remember my C4 knowledge right, all the manual transmission '96's got it, not just the Grand Sport. The L98 got replaced by the LT1 in '92 apparently. My dad has an '89 with the L98 and I will confirm that its got a bunch of torque, but pretty uninspiring 'feel' since it doesn't really rev. A '96 Manual Trans car would be what I'd be after if I wanted a C4. I'm interested to know why '90? I didn't think there was much of any difference between the '89 - '91 C4's... Btw, I don't want to be 'that guy', but if you can swing just a little bit more money, the c5 is a better performing car in every measurable way. Mark

Howdy, What're you looking for, specifically? Mark

Howdy, Yeah... Can't agree here. That's how a shitty coach like this keeps being a shitty coach ruining hockey for kids. You don't need to be an ass about it, but you certainly can and should tell the club why you're taking your kid out of the program. If the culture is so toxic there that explaining something like that labels you negatively, then frankly that club wasn't going to ever not suck anyway. Mark

Howdy, Yeah, ditto to others here. If it were me in your position I might try talking to the coach first, but if you've seen him being an asshole on the ice with the kids yourself (vs. hearing just one side of it from your kid), I'd probably not bother. Pull your kid out of the team and let the people that run the program know exactly why. Sorry to hear that's happening. Mark

Howdy, I dunno if there's some crazy special name, but AFAIK the screw heads are just regular square stuff, so any square bit of the right size should work. You want steel for the CXN holder. Its relatively hard to find. If you can't luck out and find some on ebay or whatever, Step seems to still be making and selling it, but I have no idea if they do it in batches / whatever. Mark

Howdy, There's no words really. Sorry man. Mark

Howdy, I thought the whole point of them going to direct sales was to have way lower prices for consumers at "no cost" to themselves... Mark

Howdy, Did you wash with Zanfel or something like that yet? I found that to actually work, FWIW. May not help much if its been a while though. Mark

Howdy, I'll be interested to hear details about what you think are the differences between Makos and the Trues... I'm in Makos now which were the first skates that I felt like they "fit". I'm figuring it'll be Trues next for me as well. Mark

Howdy, This matches my experience. I was using 5/8 ROH and went to a 1/2 Fire. Felt about the same to me as the 5/8, not a huge difference either way. It's been quite a while since I used a FBV, so no useful comparisons to that. Mark

Howdy, Yeah. I'll take a True A4.5 over an ABHS or whatever any day. They may well be very similar sticks, but I trust the True brand & rep a lot more. Mark