Leif

I use the rubber grips on both my sticks, dead easy. Sadly someone ripped one presumably with a skate blade, but it should hold. I suppose they are expensive compared to tape but it’s still a minor expense.

Try comparing the profile of the old blades with the new ones. Draw round them with a pen on paper. Just a suggestion. Repeated sharpens can destroy the profile.

Tell me about it. However even at the extortionate price we pay, in my case this box will pay for itself in three years with one skater (me). Imagine if you have a family, it’s a real boon. And I get perfect edges and the profile is not ruined.

Thanks, the German shop is much cheaper than t’other. Sadly they don’t have 1/2” rings which is what I use.

I’ve gotten away with two passes when changing the hollow. Obviously this is for going between very similar hollows. Just in case you’ve not read earlier posts, mark the hollow with a sharpie before sharpening, that way you’ll know if you haven’t done enough passes.

That’s where I got mine. There was another but they must have stopped selling them.

I can only reiterate what has been said before, one pass is enough to sharpen blades with no damage. New blades may need 10 passes and when I bought some blades, I had the shop, do them for me as the sharpen was free and it saved me wearing out my ring. Yes rings cost a small fortune for Europeans, but hey ho, such is life. I bought my machine from Sweden almost one year ago, and it is fricken amazing. We do pay a lot compared to Americans but the European alternative is the ProSharp Home and that costs even more. If you sharpen a lot of skates, a standard sharpening machine maybe the way to go as the cost per pass on a Sparx is about 50 pence UK.

My Custom 2s Pro skates are really superb but they do have a potentially serious flaw which caused me pain for a while. The area where the hard toe cap joins the quarter package bulges inwards and rubs against my big toe in my right skate. I’ve solved this with a silicon sleeve for my toe, but someone told me this is a not uncommon issue. You’d think they would pick this up in testing. Then again Bauer don’t seem to like flipper shaped feet.

I compared gauges from ProSharp, a Canadian ebay seller, Sparx and blademaster. The latter three all agreed with each other very closely when used on the same blades. The first was out by a few thou. What is the source of your information? The Sparx optical aligner can get you close enough, but not bang on.

Have you tried another machine to rule out any issues with your machine?

According to the instructions with my 2s (not 2x) Pro skates, they can be heated/baked up to three times. We can assume yours have been done at least once. I did mine three times!

I’ve skated on Glice which is said to be one of the better products. It’s great for shooting practice, but I can’t skate on it, I don’t know why. I know many people who say good things about it and have no trouble skating on it. Can’t you install cooler pipes in your pool? 🙂

That reads like sarcasm. Not sure why it was needed.

I don’t see how that would ruin the profile, you just get a bit of metal ground away from an area you don’t skate on. But if someone really is so stupid that they can’t set the height, it probably is best for all concerned that their blades are trashed and they are kept off the ice and out of harms way. Incidentally, young children probably shouldn’t use the Sparx, but I’m sure a 13 year old would be fine as long as mum and/or dad showed them how to use it first.

As said earlier, I have 2s Pro. They are amazing, near perfect. Apart from the price. 🙂

I prefer the injected facing. I feel they maintain the tension better, and make tying easier as the holes grip the laces. As for durability, my skates have more damage on other parts in the form of cuts from other blades than on the facing.

It depends on how different the hollows are. I swapped between 1/2” and 5/8” using the Sharpie method and I’m sure one pass was enough going either way, you could do two to be completely sure. It might depend a bit on the wheel pressure, which might depend on the height setting, but that’s a guess.

I use mine on Bauer LS5, no problems at all. Yes it misses a bit of the heel and toe, but they are not the areas I skate on. Having perfect sharpens every session is amazing.

A few people I know with Trues haven’t complained about rubbing at the ankles. My Bauers have comfort edges but as said the hard boot shell is close to the edge, maybe 3-4 mm away from the top of the comfort edge. Yes it is squishy, but it’s needed.

I will preface this by warning that I am ignorant when it comes to medical issues, with no medical training. I write as someone who has suffered from runners knee for 15 years, and had a sedentary job all his life, the one thing I have learnt over the last year from using a personal trainer is that the body is far from simple, and that lack of exercise of muscle groups causes a lot of problems. I suffered from mild leg cramps at night, so called restless leg syndrome, and taking hydration tablets in water during hockey sessions has largely cured it. I assume sweating caused a loss of salts, which affected the nerves in my legs. I also had some painful calf cramps which I suspect had the same cause. Secondly, I used to run cross country, which meant some muscles were being worked, and others not, causing an imbalance. Basically some muscles were very tight. I now do daily stretching exercises to ensure that all muscles get some workout. An imbalance in muscles can cause issues, and I think runners knee might be one example, where muscular misalignment can damage the patella. Lots of knee exercises has resulted in a massive improvement although I suspect I have some cartilage damage. I also no longer get neck cramps, which I assume is due to exercises with a roller. So my suggestion is to spend ten to fifteen minutes a day doing stretching exercises, working on muscles in your legs and core, as well as neck, back and arms. I doubt it can do any harm, and it will help you in general, and perhaps it will help your shin problems.

I’ve seen Bauer customs for someone with weird ankles, and you could see the weird shape in the scans and the boots. My Bauer customs have a close fit. I was (incorrectly) scanned with Bauer compression socks on, and the toes are indeed a bit tighter than I would like. So I believe they use custom lasts.

I’ve just read Marka’s post, and I agree completely. My last blades were sharpened manually by good operators at my LHS, and at the end of their life they were flat! 😨 The Sparx preserves the exact same profile.

I had the funds to buy either, and the cost was similar here in the UK. I chose the Sparx, and ten months on I have no regrets. I decided against the Wissota firstly as I didn’t have a suitable heated room to keep it in: I didn’t want it in my spare bedroom due to the mess. Secondly I didn’t want to have to go through the process of learning to use it, especially as I’d only be sharpening one pair of skates twice a week. Thirdly and lastly the Sparx is far more convenient. I can stick a skate on and leave it alone while cooking dinner, or watching cat videos on You Tube. There are some good reasons to opt for the Wissota, or alternative manual sharpener. If you need to cut a range of hollows, it works out cheaper as the Sparx needs a wheel for each hollow, and they ain’t cheap. Also, if you are earning money from sharpening, the Wissota is much cheaper as the cost per grind is far less. I know someone with a Sparx who bought a Blackstone when he had to sharpen boxes full of skates, for cost reasons. And apparently manual sharpeners cope better with bent blades, not that I have experience of my Sparx with bent blades. Lastly the Wissota is a simpler device, with much less to go wrong. The motor should last a very long time. The Sparx on the other hand has electronic circuits inside, and they are more liable to failure. Thus far the Sparx is very reliable going by reports in this forum. However, electronic devices such as cameras and computers do fail, and I doubt the Sparx will have on average the same longevity as the Wissota. As an aside, I wonder if the Sparx contains an internal surge protector? Mine is connected directly to the mains. Another good reason to choose the Sparx is portability, although personally I think it is rather large and heavy and I will not travel with mine.

Interesting post. I think that in general better skaters can control shallower hollows as they have better edge control. That certainly reflects my experience, with my ability improving thanks to lessons. How did you find the 5/8” Fire compared to the normal 5/8”?

The bare aluminium one with the dots on a sticker, made in Canada. It looks pants but it works! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Over500-Sold-NHL-Edge-Checker-check-level-hockey-skate-sharpening-tool-Bauer-CCM/333302165389?hash=item4d9a5b6f8d:g:P2AAAMXQEgpTD9AK It was quite a bit cheaper when I bought one. I suspect your ProSharp one will be fine.