Kgbeast

Yes, wheel plays quite a bit into sparks. Pink is a figure skating stone which is probably designed for high carbon steels.

The surface speed of full-size machine is about 25% faster, so it removes more material faster... probably doubles the spark output.

Sorry then. Thanks for pointing out as I did not even know. Oops...

T-blades are allowed in NHL, otherwise Dennis Seidenberg of Islanders would not be wearing them.

Happy New Year!

FBV was a thing in NHL back about 8 years ago. Half of the league was trying this on. It looks like it was a club decision not individual players. I think at the end, they forego on it and went back to ROH. NHLers have their blades sharpened every time before they step on ice. At that rate it is probably prety tideous to keep track of spinners and stones. EQMs have their hands full as os. Perhaps also the benefits of FBV vs ROH was not enough to continue. Other things like getting used to skating on that could have been obstacle as well.

the Angels thing is probably the most ridiculous name botch in pro sports. Granted the Angels started in LA then moved to Anaheim after 5 years or so back in 1966, but it is like Renaming "Dallas Stars" to "Minnesota North Stars of Dallas" or "Brooklyn Nets" to "New Jersey Nets of Brooklyn"... It was funny to watch reaction on Angels fans faces in OC. It was like state eminent-domain their front lawn.

If that did not work, next time try heating the skates up the same way and use large c-lamp or a large squeeze-clamp. You'd do that with your foot in the skate so you can feel how much to clamp and where. You probably would want over-clamp a little as the boot most likely will come back a little.

One more team to NHL. One completely new market area. Possible birth of tens of thousands or even more new hockey fans, possibly new ice arena for public. This is great not only for hockey, but for other winter sports exposure as well. They could have dress the team in silver and called them "Sin City Bumpkins"... this is awesome and I wish the club management a success in building this new franchise.

Note, when I suggested the file, I was talking about an example when one would change from rivets to t-nuts only, and open the round rivet holes into the larger round holes for tnuts in the desored direction. I do not believe that you can pull the t-nuts out, then oval the holes in the sole of the boot and then reassemble. IMO, this will not work unless you fill the unused by the nut volume of the oval hole with something like epoxy. Ovaling holes in the sole of the boot can ruin the boot and should be avoided. Carbon fiber is especially inappropriate material to do this to.

It is more of because the front flange is almost twice wider than the rear one. So then you roll the holder, the front flange side would come-up more than the rear. In actuality, if you are super anal about this, you would shim both rear sides and one front side because when you roll the holder trying to maintain the original back-to-front profile of the blade exactly, both sides of the rear will come up. If you shim only one side of both posts, your heel will end up a little lower than it was prior to shimming, but that is pretty small amount and would not worth the extra work. MLX style of adjustment is more proper. When you go from rivets to Graf style nut, you will need to open up the holes in the sole, if instead of drilling them wider, you use round needle file and open them up in the direction of offset, you might be able to get enough offset (probably 1.5mm) for some amount of pronation (or supination if moved the other way). Note that ovaling the holes in the soles should be avoided.

Alan, I think Mimizk's suggested fix is pretty awesome. On VH thread the same method but using bont spacer is suggested by SMU. I think the best way to do this is to get Graf nuts/screws set from something line hockeymonkey.com. The screws are correct sizes for the holders and are rated for this application. Plus because instead of lugs, they have shallow wings, you can press them into the sole of the boot without compromising the fragile carbon-fiber. You might have to file or grind them shorter in case if the sole too thin, but I do not think it will be a problem. Note that if you buy Graf nuts and screws, they come in two sizes as the rear post hardware is longer on Graf (not sure about what you have), but I am sure you can measure all this and figure out what you need. While it is possible to calculate the angle that you need to offset the holder by, but it is probably much easier to use trial and error method and figure out what works using some washers. Do not tight the crap out of those while trying/error, just snag them up. Obviously, you do not need to skate in that, just stand carefully and see if blades are getting perpendicular. Once you figure the thickness of the spacer, you can get a proper material and fabricate the final spacers.

Can you use Graf screws and nuts. I have seeing them for sale somewhere on hockey gear websites. They do not have lugs like that, but just 2 wings to grab the outsole. Obviously, I am not sure what you are doing, 3/8 nuts and bolts are pretty huge...

If it is a metal ring coated with a thin diamond dust layer, it can do a couple of hundred passes before the diamond layer looses its cutting ability. You can buy convex diamond coated grinding wheels that can fit in an ordinary grinder. They are typically intended for cnc grinders that make things like chain sprockets.

You can email to support@grafskates.ch. They answer emails pretty fast. Also, since Graf has a distribution/manufacturing/rnd agreement with Vaughn Hockey, try mvaughn@vaughnhockey.com. He is responding to his emails pretty good as well. Vaughn, probably can make the skates already as they have all Graf machines and were working on putting them on-line for a couple of month now.

It is easy to mess things up with a heatgun. If you go that way, you can get an adjustable temperature heatgun from HomeDepot or Lowes for about $40. Look for Wagner HT3000 or HT3500. You also might need to get a digital thermometer such as "slow cooker probe thermometer" so you can confirm the temperature. All this can help you to get safer heating of the skates area. You can heat the arch area with a heatgun (set to correct temp) until the area of the skate feels soft. The bigger problem however is to find out why your arch hurts. This is not necessarily caused by high arch, it could be caused by you trying to curl your toes down. Not sure what is your skating level is, but this could be something that will improve once you get used to skates. Perhaps all you need to do is just take a brake once it hurts, then after it gets manageable, get back on it. 2 month is not telling how many ice hours it is. Try to estimate that.

Europe and Sweden was matched up pretty well. I think Sweden had a go at the win until, the way I see, Lundquist made a boo-boo by going behind the net and trying to fight for the puck. I do not think he made it back to be in position, before the game deciding puck was pocked in the net. I think if he had another half a second for the initial shot, he would have deflected the puck away from the goal.... But this is how the games are won and lost. Team Europe has definitely deserved the win here. Well played !

Lowes sells Smith 4in Arkansas Honing stone for $6. You can get the same from Amazon as well.

... one thing I will miss for sure is to see Bobrovsky in front of the net. After this tournament, to me, he is the #1 goalie today. In a way, I am glad that team Russia had zero defense, it let Bobrovsky shine. Sorry see you go Bob, will see you in October!

They came out today a different team. A day and night defensive effort and a much better offensive coordination. They had to win this game and they have their 3:0 road to the final spot in semifinals. Unfortunatelly, this means that young Team NA going to have to step down and hang it up this time around. For team Russia, their next game will be a face off with the toughest opponent in this tournament Team Canada. If Russia continue to play in the same way as today they will have a good shot at this Cup. We shall see, if anything, it should be pretty interesting.

I agree on Team NA. They are pretty awesome talented. Their speed and stick skills are some of the best and they definitely can do very well in the finals, but before that, in my opinion, they need to figure out how to control their emotions and pace the game. They get crushed by mishaps too fast. I saw it happened in game against Russia and again against Sweden. Once they grow to be more accepting that it will not always go their way, and that they need work hard the entire game not just 10 minutes in the first and 10 minutes in the last, they will be taking this Cup for sure (if Russia remains disorganized tonight as they were in all of the previous games).

I got no real impression from the USA vs Canada game last night. To me it was the game that was entertaining and borring all at the same time. After the initial exhibition game, I was expecting more and this was pretty underwhelming. It looked like USA team basically played a weak game and Canada stayed a couple of points better, but certainly did not go out of their way either. I would have much preferred if Canada wiped the ice with US team. As I believe NFL coach Wooden said once "You must play to the best of your abilities, not to the best abilities of your a opponent".

I guess, I have used this wording in a way that made you to believe that the dent was permanent or a QC problem.. This is not what I was trying to say, I was just trying to illustrate that once skates are heated to 160F, they are pliable enough to squeeze the heel with fingers. That said however, I am not saying that there are no unhappy customers. Quite obviously, there are. All I am saying is that you experience shows that majority of customers have coal face about these skates and in my experience shows majority are happy. This is all a personal experience and personal bias and opinion thing. I doubt you have conducted a world wide poll to determine the accurate statistics. In my opinion, poor marketing is why their skates are not at the top. And this is my opinion and yours is probably different. As far as customer support and QC goes, the Graf Canada is the sole perpetrator in lack of that and it is gone now and we all can move on. It is literally is a dead horse beating at this point.

... and how about that Bob? If you are goalie, you should go to the town he lives in and try some of that water he drinks :). Team Russia still in the game just because of him. It almost seems they gave up on defending their zone and just assuming that he will take care of it. Best goalie of the tournament this far. This also was the first game when Datsyuk brought back some good memories as well. Team NA had their first real stressful situation. I could see the frustration and the scatter. But they got back together towards the end. I do not think Matt Murray did bad job. 3 out of 4 goals were pretty tough, I doubt Gibson would have done better against those, but Murray got a bit unglued after the second pucks and, emotionally, was a hot mess after the 4th goal. it was a good call to get him replaced and give him a break. If it was an exhibition game, I would have left him in there to cook some more, but NA had a good chance to retake the game, so It was a good call. I was a bit surprised that NA could not capitalize in 6 on 4 shooting gallery at the end. I think the emotions and frustration got back to them after Bobrovsky shut down few good looking shots and the fact that they could see time slipping away. I strongly believe that after this experience, team NA will be better for it and we will see the next level of their game next time around.

...and how about Bob? He is the #1 reason, Russia is still in the race.