Paluce

Ok great, an engineer in product development… That’s me as well. Let me explain and it will all make sense. When you look at the images on CompetitiveEdgeHockey.ca you can clearly see the edge from the sparks machine is not “sharp”, it’s rolled over. That is from the aggressive diamond wheel they use. That’s how the get the speed out of that machine… The yellow grinding wheel on the Blackstone (or blademaster) has the least amount of heat generation, and combined with fine shine lubricant heat is at a minimum allowing that keen edge. (In the tool and Mold industry when you finish steel, heat must be kept under control). So what is the effect…. for the same hollow, the Blackstone sharpening will “feel” sharper. This has been verified by hundreds of people I do skates for. What does that mean… you can go with a shallower hollow on a Blackstone sharpening to get the same bite on the ice, except it will be much faster! Anything can feel sharp, but can it feel sharp, and fast, and smooth. That’s the advantage you get with a perfectly keen edge. That applies to a Skatescribe sharpening, or Blackstone or Blademaster, or Wissota sharpening. Hope that makes sense.

Exactly! Their Instagram posts have that data and they have perfect edge’s! To think this Sparx job is an A- is not correct. It’s more like a D- let me find it and post that here for people to look at.

Ya I read that… II think the point is how good of an edge can you get in a Blackstone. You can’t use fine shine on a sparks… Blackstone you can. So ya, totally valid comparison.

Anyone see this yet… https://www.competitiveedgehockey.ca/blank-page sparks sharpening vs Blackstone. Super zoomed in! Real Data, not subjective feelings. This is good stuff.

10’heal - small 10.75’ blend - 12.5’ Center - 10.75 blend, 10’ toe. It’s on their Instagram. Put a little pitch on it and it’s a good balanced profile. I’ve cut a few and people have liked it and stuck with it. Easy to skate on.

Exactly. This is why I’m not a fan of Quad 3X, XXS, XS… profiles for small youth/junior skates. All players House, AA, AAA to Brick team players all have performed better with profiles similar to what the pro’s are on, just scaled down to fit their blade. 6’ toe, small glide surface, 13’ heal. Very stable, very fast, very agile. non of this 4-5-7-10 garbage.

No they don’t (Byonic) It’s a 9/10 with a nice aggressive forward lean. Very good starting point for any profile you might want for yourself.

Very good quality blade. Right there with Step Steel. Harness and toughness is about the same as Step Stainless and Bladetech. 55Rc

I can say that Byonic’s surface finish on the mirror DLC is the smoothest out there. I measure the surface finish with a confocal laser to get my measurements, so it’s not subjective feel… true data. And you can feel the glide on their mirror polished DLC. Bladetech’s DLC seams really really good as well. For Bauer skates, these are really good options. I’ve sold a bunch of sets recently and everyone has loved them.

Yes, absolutely I take blade length into account when choosing a profile. On your shorter runner, you would loose some that 8.5’ at the tow and 11.5 at the heel. Lots of times I will cut a custom profile for the shorter blades, If those are the radii the skater specifically wants on that size blade. For you, since you went down and blade size and you want it to feel longer I would profile just slightly more than 70% of your blade length. Skaters are typically going with more blade on the ice these days and you see that in the new steel. The rear Portion of the blade is very square now days. Not like the old ls2…. that would be my suggestion… let me know.

Yes, this would pitch you forward… now the Zuperior is very different profile than a standard 10’ single radius. You can pitch the blade forward with a profile by a certain amount of degree’s. I have a custom 8.5-9-9.5-10-10.5-11-11.5 profile that I use for a lot of people that like the standard 10’ or 9.5/10.5. It skates very similar, just a bit smoother than the old 9.5/10.5 and with a bit more glide and agility.

What Vapor skate did you have?

The overall change in rocker between a Quad 1 and a Quad 0 is less than 0.4mm. That is all you have to take off. On my Blackstone, I can do this with ease. So this is another example of my issue with the Elipse series. You don’t know what you are skating on… you don’t know the radio at any specific points. And I know it is constantly changing, and it is an A radius and B radius equation.. but they should tell you what the local radius is at given points along the profile. RiseandGrind - what I do for cases like yours is I bring in a side view image into CAD, extract the bottom edge and analyze the profile to see exactly what you have. Then we can work together and make recommendations.

Because of the glide surface on this profile, I don’t move the pivot point back,,, that would put the glide surface behind the Center of the blade. You want it in the middle. I will pitch the blade a certain amount of degree’s. 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 degrees. If a customer wants the Center glide surface a few mm forwards, sure no problem, but I’m talking 5mm or less.

Hey, the Elipse 0 or Elipse 1 will not give you the speed or glide that the Max Edge 981 had. That profile has a nice flat spot in the middle of the blade. Hence why that style profile is popular in the NHL. Speed! If you want a profile like an elipse 0 or 1 that is agile and has less steel at the toe, I have an Elipse-Maximum Edge 981 hybrid that is becoming super popular with some high level players.

Love the analogy! This is brilliant stuff. You are a real expert. As an Engineer first, I can completely relate to this. Anyone near you or in the US should trust his work. Just to add to this, when I get steel in the mail or in person up here in Canada I always ask for an old blade to analyze/measure. I have the luxury of Laser measuring the current profile on the old blades so I can match the newly profiled steel to the old. All my Profiles are in CAD and CNC cut so I can profile and set pitch precise to the 0.001deg while removing only a few thou of steel. New technology is nice 🙂 Now usually the old profile has changed after being sharpened a bunch of times, but It’s a very good starting point. Taking the persons feedback is critical too. Point is, bring your steel to someone knowledgeable and you will have a better experience once you step on the ice again. That’s the most important thing.

Hey - been meaning to write you back on this because I feel your pain. I think it was a good call to move back to a standard stock single Radius as puckstopproshopjl said. I wish you were in Canada, I’d profile your steel for free for you until you found some thing you like… as a small shop I just enjoy making players happy when they get on their wheels. There is no better feeling than hearing “why didn’t I do this 10years ago!” 🙂

Absolutely. ^^^ When I’m getting serious about blade profiles with a player, I might have 3-5 different sets of steel ready to go to get the players feedback on each. Same ice surface, same day… nice and controlled environment.

$45 to profile… OMG. You need to know what you were on before and adjust from there. There are dozens of profiles that can remove a bit of steel from the toe…. Nobody should blindly recommend a profile to another skate without a knowledgeable conversation about what that player is trying to get out of his skates. Do you know what you were on before?

Yes. 2 different methods to get to the same end result.

Measuring blade height at two points gives you the following…. A Horizontal distance (between the points), and a vertical distance (the difference in steel height). Simple math gets you the Angle in Degree’s. Usually the steel height at the toe is less (forward lean/pitch). Neutral would have the same steel height. And pitched backwards would have less steel at the heal. This is a good way to ensure you have the same steel height at the toe and heal from the old profile to the new one and that feeling of being pitchched forwards or backwards will be the same. Also knowing what profile you are moving to can help you adjust. This a smidge…. Like that Zuperior… it so flat in the heal, there isn’t much rock back there… people feel like that are falling forward, not just because the toe is rounder, but because the heal isn’t, and so, you can lean back to gain that glide benefit which that profile offers.. makes sense. All depends on what you like, what you were used to, and what you can adapt to if you think it will help you. And finally what you feel comfortable skating on, because that gives you confidence on your skates.

You are absolutely right! When I profile, I usually go by angle in tenths of a degree to match the pitch for the skaters “new” profile. You can measure steel height at 2 points to determine this. If the difference in steel height is the same between the two, then the angle or pitch will match from the old profile to the new one. Using this method I have a near perfect success rate where someone has a seamless transition to their new blades. They can spend more time feeling the new profile out vs feeling a change in pitch.

I just stumbled on this thread… those Center glide profiles are really fast. But the Quads skate better IMO. More agile. I actually morphed a Quad 1 and a maximum edge 981 Center glide profile together and came up with a killer hybrid profile. Fast and agile. I Just cut a profile bar on a CNC and profiled a bunch of players skates in my area. They all tried it and love it. 👍👍👍

These blades are balances neutral. If you measure the steel height front and back they are the same. With a constant 13’ profile that makes it neutral. The 13’ profile itself is horrible. Not for an advanced skater at all. It like you have a set of ski’s on. As soon as I profile them these blades with something with a bit of pitch and with less toe, they are just fine. I always measure the skates the player came out of, and work from there so it’s an easy transition.

OMNI profiles are from Blackstone. Their profiles are continuously variable (like an elipse) except Blackstone tells you the exact radius at specific points. Unlike the elipse where it is a mystery. I profile using OMNI’s 90% of the time. Their Quads are the same as Prosharp’s, just better and smoother. The closest Prosharp profile is the 9’/10’