marka

Howdy, Reading the descriptions and a few reviews, the Starks sound like exactly what we're after... Price wasn't bad either. Ordered a pair. We'll see! Thanks for the pointer! Mark

Howdy, Forum, forum on the wall, who makes the tightest gloves of them all? Wife needs hockey gloves. She has narrow girl hands. Anything out there tighter / narrower than the Warrior Covert stuff? She's been in 13" Warrior Covert Pros, but even they are a little big width-wise, though finger length is about right. Are Junior 12" gloves typically narrower? Wondering if we could find a pair of those that have long enough fingers. Mark

Howdy, So I did get the Howies one. Unlike what the Howies guy told me, its not actually rigid. Sigh. Shift steel does indeed fit though, so that's good. I ended up deciding to 'stack' the runners in one slot to maximize the stiffness and minimize clinking. We'll see how it works. Mark

Howdy, I'm not sure I can say. I think so, but ?? I've had my TF7's profiled with a Zuperior S like the Makos were though, so I'm hardly comparing stock to stock at this point. Mark

Howdy, Thanks for the baking advice. Hope to have time to try it out in the next few days. Last night for a slower game I was reffing I used my old Mako M8's... Two immediate impressions: 1) putting those on was like putting on a pair of slippers. No pressure points anywhere and my feet were seriously locked in. I definitely need to work on the TF7's to get them fitting like that. Wow. 2) The TF7's are SO MUCH stiffer than my old Makos! I was amazed at how much more I had to concentrate on getting over onto my edges with the Makos to get anything like the bite into the ice I'm now used to with the TF7s, for instance. The Makos felt almost floppy on my feet. I was pretty much used to it after 30 minutes or so on the ice, but it was really crazy just how different that felt. Mark

Howdy, That certainly can/will affect things! I agree that you should check and make sure that your edges are level, but past that I tend to agree that this sounds more like a profile or pitch issue to me. Unfortunately, I think (particularly remotely) you're in for some trial/error getting it figured out but perhaps post some pictures here of your runners from the old skates overlaid with the new runners to highlight the differences? As for baking... I would think that would impact comfort in the skates much more than actual performance on the ice. That said... Yes you should be baking skates, IMHO. Mark

Howdy, So... struggling to get a good heel lock on the TF7s. Its not horrible, but I can feel my foot lifting up/down a bit. If I tighten laces enough that my foot is locked in, my arches start to hurt. Thinking I should rebake. I can get the plastic wrap. My understanding is that the procedure is to lace up through the forefoot/arc and leave the top 3/4 eyelets undone, with packing wrap around the ankle area. Can I expect that to tighten up the heel, or should I be looking for a way to apply more pressure from the sides? I could probably rig up a clamp against some boards with foam between the boards and the boot... Anyone have the heating instructions for home baking for TF-7's? Mark

Howdy, True TF7 here, coming from Mako's. Because of the size change, going from 263 to 254 runners. Felt a little clumsy at first, but after profiling the 254 runners with the same profile I'd been using on the 263's, that went away. I haven't switched back and forth between them though to know how much of that is me getting used to things and how much is "they feel like the old skates". YMMV. Mark

Howdy, I have the MSH one. Its well made but I can't imagine it will fit Shift steel (struggled with CXN Mako stuff) and its not rigid. With how easy it is to bend a loose runner, I definitely don't want them banging around in my bag without a rigid holder. Mark

Howdy, After I posted here, I realized I could message Howies... They say it has a rigid shell in the middle between the layers and that Shift steel fits if you overlap the towers. I ordered one. We'll see when it gets here. Hopefully it replaces the 2x4 I cut a big slot into for steel that's currently in my bag... 🙂 Mark

Howdy, I see Howies has a skate blade case now: https://howieshockeytape.com/products/skate-blade-case Does anyone know if the case has a hard shell / is rigid? Also, can it fit Shift steel, with the taller mounting 'towers' as compared to Tuuk stuff? Mark

Howdy, This one. Well, assuming they were both rated on a tester that uses two points on the stick the same distance apart (and probably same general location on the stick). I think the issue here is that people use flex ratings for two different purposes... One is as a way to know which stick to buy. "Today I used a 70 flex stick. I want to buy a new stick and I want to know how it will flex as compared to my current stick, with both of them cut to a similar length". That one is pretty easy, assuming both sticks are measured the same way... A 70 flex 60" stick will feel the same as a 70 flex 65" stick AFTER THEY ARE BOTH CUT TO THE SAME LENGTH. The other way, is "I'm changing the length of my stick. What flex do I want to buy so that at my new length, the stick will flex the same amount / more / less?" That's when all the stuff about "cutting the stick reduces leverage" comes in. The confusion comes in when folks talk about that "changing the flex"... Kinda, not really. If you define the flex like manufacturers seem to as "how much the stick deflects when put in the test machine with fixed points" then clearly you're not "changing the flex". You're changing how much leverage you have. I don't think Bauer or whoever it was helped this when the marketing dept. put lines with new flex ratings at the end of their stick to help folks know how much less leverage they'd have when they cut their stick down. _My_ question would be if anyone has ever compared the machines/procedures used by the different manufacturers to see if CCM uses reference points 48" apart while Bauer uses points 50" apart, etc. That would actually be really nice to know so that flex ratings between different stick models/manufacturers could be reasonably compared. Mark

Howdy, I assume you mean "consistently even over the length of the runner"... Obviously you can adjust the machine so that at any given point along the runner, the edges will be even to the resolution of the in/out adjustment mechanism for the grinding wheel. I haven't noticed a difference between the two. I can't see any reason there would be, assuming the runners are straight. If the runners aren't straight, then a holder is likely going to hold them "straighter" I think... A holder has more bearing length on the runner. The blade holder just has the center section that clamps on the runner. Of course, if the holder itself is bent, then the holder could contribute to a problem. The machine's clamp itself will also try and straighten the blade a bit as well, I would imagine. Anyway, all this comes back to "are your runners straight?" Fix that if that's not the case and you'll get even edges over the length of the runner. Mark

Howdy, Are you accounting for the (apparently) different definitions of "sharpening" each company uses? I'm not in a position to validate any of these claims. I will say that as a home user, these break-even analysis things have a much lesser importance to me as compared to machine reliability, ease of use, support, etc. etc. I don't know exactly how many sharpens I have total over the 3.5 years I've owned it, but I would be pretty surprised if its remotely close to 500. Btw, another benefit of (relatively) less expensive grinding rings is that its not the end of the world to me to have a bunch, so that I can sharpen friend's skates to whatever they prefer. edit: This page also seems to indicate that ProSharp grinding wheels are $130 and you'll get between 100 to 167 complete sharpens for the ProSharp. https://prosharp.us/collections/consumeables/products/ep-wheel-fine-100mm edit again: That link apparently isn't for the right wheels. This one is, and it matches the #'s you talk about. Sorry about that! https://prosharp.us/collections/consumeables/products/sharpening-wheel-home Surprised that the home wheel would last longer than the 100mm wheel but ?? Anyway, I've been really happy with my Sparx, but there are plenty of ways to skin this cat. Mark

Howdy, I would try them out first. You can always re-bake if you don't like how they feel. I'm tempted to do that with mine as well, to try and help get a little better heel lock without needing to crank on the laces 3 or so eyelets down. I always took my insoles out too, but I gave it up with the Trues. Initially that was because I was using the arch inserts and they're kinda a bear to keep in position when putting in the insole. I stopped using those however and didn't go back to pulling insoles after every skate. We'll see if I end up regretting it, but so far that's a hassle I don't miss. Mark

Howdy, One other tip... I actually ran a pair of older cheapo skates the other day that apparently had the sides of the runner not perpendicular to the edge / parallel to each other. I didn't think to use machinist tools to actually measure the difference, but the edge checker read way out with the skate facing one way and pretty good with the skate facing the other (and no, this doesn't happen with other skates). So my general tip is that when you see something wonky, question your assumptions a bit and do things like (in my case above) measure with the skate in the other direction / using the other side of the blade as the reference point. Stuff like that often SHOULDN'T matter, but QC is a thing that can vary. Similarly, it took me way too long to figure out that the center of one grinding wheel I had was slightly off the others and that's why I was having to adjust the machine to get level edges... I initially thought the skates I was using that wheel on were different in some way, which didn't make any sense. Mark

Howdy, Original machine here vs. the current one, but I would assume this all still applies... Absolutely make sure to get an edge checker. I do skates for friends, some of which have been sharpened by a Sparx prior to me and its very common to have them have uneven edges. The alignment tool gets to somewhere near, but without an edge checker you can't actually know for sure if your edges are level. So my main tip is to actually check the level after you run a pair of skates and adjust based on what you see. For me, the adjustment will stay true for the same grinding wheel and most others. I've definitely had a wheel where I needed to make 3 to 4 clicks of adjustment when I used it however. I assume the center of that wheel was slightly off the center of the other wheels. As to the Sparx edge checker vs. others... I have both a cheapo ebay one as well as the Sparx. I would say that both do a reasonable job, but the Sparx one "feels nicer" and is easier to use. The spring loaded clamp is easier than a thumbscrew and the crossbar is a little longer, which highlights height differences slightly better. But it also costs $100 or whatever more than the ebay one so... I have the cover and like it. Its nothing magical but it fits well and I didn't have to break out the sewing machine. Again, on a budget a pillow case laying on the machine will do the same job, just a little more finicky to put on and won't look as good. One non-Sparx accessory I really like is the Speed Skate that Wissota sells. https://wissota.com/product/speed-skate/ This helps get a more mirror finish and while I've not scientifically tested, does indeed seem to help glide. You can't do a "finish pass" on a Sparx like a good sharpener can with a manual machine and I feel like this gets you closer to that type of finish. Mark

Howdy, I'll be interested to hear how you like them! What was the sizing like on the goalie skates? I've seen a couple places that the "they run a size large" thing didn't translate over to the goalie skates? Mark

Howdy, Yes, what was tripping me up was not realizing that you could cancel the two penalties for one player across two different players on the other team. Its straight forward after that. I assume that also applies to a double minor, right? In USA Hockey that looks to only be possible for Roughing, vs. the whole "bloody high stick" thing in the NHL. Mark

Howdy, I think the first line in the scenario is the problem I'm having... So the way I read that was that Player X on team A takes two minors... Like a first minor and then an unsportsmanlike for disputing it. Then each of Team B's players also get a minor. I assumed Player X would be consecutive and team A would be on a power play at that point. So that's not right? What you say makes total sense if both of Player X's penalties offset Team B's at 3:00. I just didn't realize it worked that way. Mark

Howdy, Just took the USA Hockey level 1 test for 21/22. Got one question wrong but I don't see why... -------------------------- For the following question, the following simplified procedure determines which penalty if any terminates with the scoring of a goal: · Is the team that was scored upon below the on-ice numerical strength of the scoring team because of a penalty? · Is at least one penalty, which is then being served by the scored upon team a non-coincident minor or bench minor penalty (being displayed on the penalty clocks?) If the answer to both questions is YES, then the minor penalty with the latest amount of time remaining on the penalty clock terminates. In the following situation, determine which player, if any, returns to the ice once the goal is scored. CLOCK TIME TEAM A TEAM B 3:00 X - 2 + 2 B - 2 & C - 2 4:00 Z - 2 4:45 Goal Scored ---------------------- My understanding... At 3:00, X, B, and C get penalized. X and B or X & C are coincedental, so Team A is on a 5v4 power play. A minute later, Team A is penalized. Now its 4v4. Since its 4v4 when the goal is scored, I said that no player returns to the ice. They say that's wrong and either X or Z returns (they don't say which answer is correct). Can anyone explain that? Mark

Howdy, So, how does this work? Is it literally just all money in across the league (including rink naming, ads, gate, helmet ads, jersey ads, etc.) gets counted up? Someone mentioned that there's no revenue sharing for jersey ads. Does that matter here? Mark

Howdy, Maybe its because I'm a motorsports guy, but the idea of jersey ads (and such small ones like these particularly) doesn't bother me even a tiny bit. If its a way for the cap to increase again in the next five years... Sweet. Mark

Howdy, I'd love to (and used to), but I have some wrist / hand things and have to use a big knob or I get a decent bit of pain. None of the various grips out there have something that will work. Mark

Howdy, Anyone got a good way to remove tape adhesive residue from glove palms? My palms have sorta these hard spots that are sticky where I assume tape adhesive residue has combined with worn off palm material and other schmutz. I can sorta pick them off with my fingernail, but its doesn't really get everything and I wonder if that accelerates palm wear. Just wondering if there's a better way. Mark