Jeff Azzolin Bladetech

exactly.... whatever works, always 10 ways to get it working... and everybody will have a slightly different way

I can be a valuable tool, we just find ceramic is superior and helps 100% of the time. Just have to be careful with rubber that it actually does its job. And yea... wont remove nicks... no stone will... just have to do more grinding passes on the sharpener, or dont worry abuot the knicks, as long as the steel is sharp and deburred before and after the knick, and the knick is small, then you wont have issues skating. its more the long rolled edges that are like 1" long that cause a problem. A little 1/16" knick in 1 area wont impact ya too much as long as sharp before and after. sometimes its just too much grinding to remove the knick 100%

If you are using one of those "rubber stones"... remember.. its RUBBER... it will NOT cut steel, and remove burrs, let alone DLC diamond coated surfaces. Use a CERAMIC stone and run it on a 10 degree angle so you do not ruin and scratch your nice and expensive DLC coating. Check out our website. See the FAQ video #7. Its the best 3 minutes of education that every sharpener in the world should see and understand. Throw the rubber in the trash. haha. Happy skating!

just critiques and competitors trying to make issues out of thin air to scare people 😉 The ones who try us, end up using for years, and then laugh that there is never any issue.

Quite odd to hear actually - send us pictures and we can help you out. sales@bladetechhockey.ca

Do Stanley Cup Winners Adin Hill and Logan Thompson count? haha We have plenty of goalies who use and love. Note, our goalie steel is quite a bit taller than OEM, so you can get a better angle of attack 🙂

The DLC is about a micron thick, it will not change the way the blade works, except for that it will hold the edges longer and you wont need to sharpen as much. We havent experienced a single issue of the DLC cracking on the steel, hope it stays that way 😄

yes 😄

The blades are laser or water cut from production, and that profile is already built into the CAD file. So the steel, when you grab it, look not sharpened. Just like how an OEM steel, looks not sharpening, but it is at their standard 10' foot or whatever Same deal for us, the profile is already built into the first production step 🙂

Hello - some of our retailers may or may not have that profile literature posted on their website. Always easiest and best to just check my website, I have copy and pasted below the typical profiles that we offer as STOCK when we produce any blade Bladetech Radius LIGHTSPEED EDGE (TRIGGER): 9'-10'-11' Triple Blend (size 254 and lower) LIGHTSPEED EDGE (TRIGGER): 9'-11'-13' Triple Blend (size 263 and higher) VERTEXX EDGE: 30' LIGHTSPEED 2: 9' SPEEDBLADE XS (QUICK RELEASE): 9'-10'-11' Triple Blend SPEEDBLADE +4.0: 9' GOALIE XS-G: 30' EPRO: 9' GRAF ULTRA/COBRA: 10' SHIFT: 9'-11'-13' Triple Blend Goalie Shift-Attack (Blue Quick Release): 30' VH / TRUE (NUT & BOLT): 9'-10'-11' Triple Blend Height: Player blades = 23mm; Goalie blades = 25mm

You might or might not hear an audible click noise when the blade flexes / bottoms out at the max amount of flex. If you are walking to and from the locker room, you might hear it then When on the ice, less likely that you will hear it The pitch / balance point, if you got them STOCK, then they are NEUTRAL pitch If you had them profiled, they could be pitched differently, depending on the profile you selected. Hope that helps! Cheers 🙂

Over time, steel can wear out the holder channel and become loose and create the boot sag when held at the sharpener clamp as you have noted. (In fact, this is why they also say not to stand on your skates when they are heat-formed/baked as you as easily stretch out the hot plastic too). With Bladetech steel, the flex is in the front 1/3 or so of the steel. Most of the time, the wear that you see is in the middle 1/2 section, where a lot of strong stopping forces are applied, and hence the tape trick adds the meat, as you suggested to do the trick. This same trick will work with our steel as well. yes there is motion on the front, but there is meant to be that motion and flex. Its that middle section and back that need to be tight and stiff. So I would say, use the same mechanics/fixes you currently do, and apply them to us as well. We do have plenty of players (rec to pro) who have been on our steel for years (on the same holders and boots) and havent had any issues. I think the root issue, or more common problem, is more when steel is slightly loose to begin with, and that travel room and gap is then made bigger and bigger over time, as the slop allows for play and stretching to develop more easily. Hope that helps. Cheers 🙂

On the XS-player yes, its the same blend, and the only other one with that blend is the True / VH (old nut and bolt version) as well. On the rest of the steel I am about to name, its the same as the OEM with minor toe and heel blend differences: Graf, Epro, LS2, SB4, Vertexx, XSGoalie.

Haha - I wish there was an easy way as well. It would be a logistical nightmare. Dont worry, put them on, give it an honest couple hours, youll love it and get used to it. If you give is a pessimistic 15 minutes sure, it might not go great, but thats the same if you tried changing from a P88 to a P92 stick curve and only fired 2 pucks as an evaluation, persay. Yes, we have a goalie option, which is at the same price as player steel (most other companies for some reason like to charge goalies more, not sure what they have against them... lol) and our goalie steel is quite taller than OEM to improve the attack angle. Flex ratings, I think somebody else asked this and I answered already, but yes, it is possible, its just means we have to go from carrying 100 SKUs in 2 finishes, to persay 200 or 300 SKUs as well as the different finishes and then capital inventory costs go up, order planning gets tougher, and hence product cost goes up, and not sure the extra cost would be worth the value, as regardless the spring stiffness, all customers are getting deflection/flex and benefits anyways. It would kinda of be like asking a stick OEM to offer 80,81,82,83,84,85,86,87,88,89,90... flex sticks, whereas they would likely say no, we will offer 80, 85, 90 only... kinda deal. Cheers!

Vet88, to provide further education on metallurgy let me first start by outlining this. Hardness is a great factor to consider, but it is not the only factor. There are other mechanical properties such as toughness for a quick example which are critical in the making of a good steel. Hence if I simply told you my steel has a Rockwell of 55 and then you asked "OEM-B" who said that their product called "LS4" had the same Rockwell, you might be compelled to think both companies blades will hold the same for edge retention and durability. Which is far from the truth. It would be like saying plexiglass and wood have the same hardness value and hence are the same material and will behave the same way. Which, is far from the truth; if you try to bend both, snap both, or bang both against each other, very different things will be found. A prime example is the breakage rates on LS4s which were snapping like candy sticks and had high volume warranty issues. Our steel holds its edge much longer not only due to our hardness, but also the other mechanical properties and our processing techniques. By using a high carbon stainless, and having a good ratio of Fe, C, Mn, Si, P, S, Cr, Mo, Ni...etc...etc. alloying elements we make a great steel. We used to publish extensively what we used and our processing techniques, but really now, not even 1% of people would comprehend or appreciate the subject matter, so it doesnt make sense to communicate it in depth and in fact it only harms us by allowing new entrants (who are all copy-cats anyways) a quicker advantage to follow our recipe. Sorry to not be of more help, but hope that gets your head into the brief underworld of metallurgy. Onto some facts now, I can say our warranty is 1 year (go beat that) and even with that time, Im very proud to say we've had an extremely low number of issues and most issues were more in our early days when we were still tweaking and refining our process. On the edge side, one fun example is an NHL EM we work extensively with ran a player for 3 games (+ the practices in between) on a single sharpening (yes he checked thoroughly after every session, he is a pro, but the steel didnt need a tune). And yes, we find many beer leaguers / all players are able to cut sharpening down in frequency, or in keeping the same frequency, the edges only need a slight tune-up, it might be a 3-pass sharpen, instead of a cross grind and 8 pass re-hollow for example. We formed our company to serve the strict needs and demand of the NHL and other high calibre pro leagues. We want to not only be effective for its players (speed, performance, health benefits), but to make the life of the EM's more efficient and hopefully save them valuable time too. Again, tried to shed the light I can, hope it helps. Cheers 🙂