218hockey

Sure, lots of variables. And what people consider worn out is completely subjective. Kind of like tires on a car.

Wow, how can you only get 6 months from a pair of Step? They should keep their edge and need minimal sharpening, right?

Sure. When you're setting up with the optical tool 6 clicks moves the ring quite a bit. I moved it 2 clicks ran 1 pass, checked the edges. Would 1 pass be enough? Possibly that is the issue. This is with the same skate and sharpening ring. 238mm LS4, 1/2" Fire ring.

So I finally have one of these at home and have a couple of questions. Alignment is good, just off a hair. But I'm a button pusher and want it exact. I've turned the adjustment knob 6 clicks in the same direction now with absolutely no change on my Blademaster edge checker. To the point that the alignment ring is off quite a few millimeters. What's up with that? If the edge checker is spot on and the alignment ring is not is that normal due to tolerances? The SPARX setup process and wheel is just a guide?

I see $289 with Pelican foam, $244 without. Thought I'd stumbled across quite the deal when I saw the 1510 for $150!

Ya, that Pelican 1510 is only 22.0 x 13.8 x 9.0" / 55.9 x 35.1 x 22.9 cm So not even close.

So this works good? Doesn't seem like it would be big enough. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1365553-REG/pelican_1510_case_with_foam.html

That's quite a different scenario. One pass? That isn't going to do much for someone that plays hockey and really bangs up their skates. My skater is usually playing three games a week plus on the ice another five hours of practice or outside time. The machine is at my buddy's place so I go over there about once a week and do four passes minimum. Sometimes our edge is still good after the week but there are bad spots from other skates or goalposts, etc.

I think we only have three rings. I use the 1/2" Fire. I'll try the other two (1/2" and 5/8" roh) soon.

Great for you. Maybe that's the only steel in the world that doesn't burr. Everything I've taken out of the Sparx machine has needed a lot more than a towel or piece of leather.

Everything I've sharpened on the Sparx has really burred. Bauer LS3, Massive DLC, and Step-V. Not sure why but it all does.

Bump. Any more updates on these? It looks like Hockey Monkey has them in stock which surprised me. Lists them as 11' radius and 20mm high. A brand new Step V-Steel measures 21mm so almost the same. Also, is the TIN and DLC the same as far as honing? You have to be careful with a stone or use leather if you want to keep the finish?

???

So I see in the videos the height adjustment is simply setting up to hit the correct spot on the toe/heel. Also I saw the skate in the Sparx with the toe on the left? Does it really matter to the sharpening process or is it just easier to set the height this way on skates with worn out toes?

My buddy only has 1/2, 5/8 roh, and 5/8 Fire. Do I have them in order as far as bite to glide? Is 5/8" a fake measurement on the Fire ring? Are they just keeping it simple for us and saying that bite will be similar to 5/8 roh? We may try the 5/8 Fire but we're talking about 90lb players on hard ice. We don't have soft/bad ice anywhere we'll go this winter. Usually it's just above 0 outside and 40 inside the rink. The glycol is pumping in at 14 degrees and the ice surface is lower 20's.

Yep. And I've got an edge checker too. Might play with it tonight, our kids have games this weekend. We have an excellent sharpener in town that's reasonably priced but I do like that fact of sharpening over and over with the Sparx or Prosharp and maintaining the profile. Those machines do keep the original profile from what I understand.

When the wheel hits the blade it's pretty loud and the pitch changes like it's jumping a bit. Is that normal? Or is that a height adjustment issue as well?

Thanks for the tips guys. We really haven't tried anything to alleviate the issue. He just got the machine. If we can dial it in and reduce that burring I may keep the two new sets of V-Steel I just bought. Otherwise I was thinking these polished runners are going to be way too much work to debur assuming you're trying to keep the polished surface intact.

A buddy of mine just got a Sparx. It works okay, but the steel seems to burr a lot when we use it. LS3 and Step V-Steel. Any way to lessen this on an automated machine?

SPARX doing a $100 off Black Friday code this year?

What are the construction/feature differences between the Senior and Junior RX3 sticks? How about the Junior lies? Are they different than what's listed on the chart?

I finally ran into a SPARX machine last week at Lettermen's in Blaine MN. That's right by the famous Super Rink. They had two machines going as well as the hand sharpeners. I told them I wanted the SPARX machine to do our skates. The worker put one skate in each machine and they were done in a couple of minutes. I did not count the passes. When they were done they took them out and threw them on the counter, no edge checker or hdi. The finish looked great but there were a few burrs left and one of the edges was way off. Not good. My point here is that this shop can't be making a very good name for the SPARX machine.

Thanks. A guy wouldn't know that just going to their website.

How do you get the sharpener for $799? I have it in my cart on the website and it's $899 with one wheel.

I don't care if you "push hard" on the wheel or not. The edges are even and the blade width does not change so of course the depth will change with the radius.