bootsmagee

I think he meant spam from Sparx, if I was following correctly. You had some bad sharpenings off a Sparx? What happened?

I was just being a wize a**, but on a more serious note..all of you guys who sharpen skates as or as part of your small business (assuming that you do quality work and provide a good service) , I don't think you're going to see a product like Sparx take away your livelihood. I mean, if I had received the kind of service I expect at my local rinks or a local shop, I wouldn't have brought up the idea of investing in the Sparx to my hockey team and I wouldn't be sharpening our skates with the Sparx. I'm of the belief that if you're good at what you do and you're a personable person, you will have no problem attaining and keeping a customer base. Business isn't ONLY about good service, most people also like to have "their guy" and develop that personal relationship. So unless all you guys are in doubt of the service you provide, or you're just plain grumpy, what's with all the negativity here?? Now like I said a few pages ago, if some of you guys seriously don't believe that the product is effective or you think it's not capable of something, ask questions or tell us why you think so! We've got a knowledgeable guy in here directly from the company willing to answer these questions and comments. So instead of being so off-put by the whole thing, why not just have some constructive conversation on the topic?

The hate is real..

I felt pretty similar about the guy behind the counter before getting the Sparx and doing it myself. Now every time I sharpen my skates they feel exactly the way I like them. Really? The hockey community I'm surrounded by is mostly filled with people trying to get better at hockey, drink beer, blow off steam, or some combination of the three.

What kind of unimpressive results are we talking about? We're reading a fair amount of negativity about the Sparx on this page, but nothing specifically negative.

I am not a skate sharpener, so I can't really argue many technical sharpening specifics one way or the other without having any kind of traditional sharpening experience. That being said, what are some of the specific sharpening trade technical points that you guys might call into question when comparing to the Sparx? Maybe we can get some answers that you aren't yet aware of, or maybe we can learn some limitations that most of us Sparx users aren't aware of. I do know that it can't profile a blade, but it is supposed to maintain the profile that has already been applied.

I don't doubt that a good experienced operator can offer a great sharpening, but some of us just don't have that guy locally available. Having personally experienced the inconsistency of many "average" operators out there, I'd rather get a good-to-great sharpening that's exactly the same every single time versus gambling on the guy at the rink. Only time will tell in the long run, but I think these guys (Sparx) have done an exceptional job here. If you haven't given it a try, find one to test out and see what you think.

I'm not certain..maybe he'll chime in.

Read about Russell here https://www.sparxhockey.com/pages/team

Gotcha..I might just go for it then. I'll skate out with a fresh sharpening for this weekend's game and see if I notice any difference.

After a fresh sharpening, do you notice any effects of a burr that might be left from only using the leather strop? I haven't gotten a chance to test it out for myself because I don't like experimenting on game-days. I should really experiment and go to an open skate to see if I notice anything, but I haven't gotten the chance yet.

Thanks, Steve. I look forward to checking out the new blog post. And maybe a slight burr isn't a big deal or will wear down on it's own after a little skating; I haven't experimented with that, so we'll see.

Can anyone chime in on what we should be looking for when a freshly sharpened skate has been properly deburred? Especially when deburring those new specialty (blackened/polished) blades where the skater might not want the outside finish to be scuffed by the deburring stone. Sparx instructs to use only the leather strop for these blades, but I'm not sure the leather strop alone gives the same result as using the stone, even when following the directions word-for-word. The leather stop alone doesn't seem to remove the microscopic "curled over" edge that can be felt after a sharpening, whereas the stone seems to remove this edge. I'm no sharpening expert though, so what exactly are we looking to see/feel, if anything, after deburring?