psulion22

I don't think 1/2" is all that deep. Yes, exactly this. The edges are sharp, but they bite like they've been dulled a little. It's an easy fix by just adjusting the hollow for it. The convenience of running a pass or two on each skate while I'm packing my bag is just too much to trade for a manual sharpener.

Maybe it's because the Sparx doesn't apply as much pressure as a human on a regular machine would, but I find the bite of my Sparx lacking compared to a manual sharpening at the same hollow. When I have to buy a new ring, I'm going to step up to 7/16 or 3/8 from 1/2 to get a little more bite.

I'll third (fourth?, tenth?) the P30. It's a P88 with a kink at the bottom of the toe. That's the big key. It's only open at the bottom, the top of the toe is still closed.

My experience with Flare blades is that they are like a FBV on steroids. Much better glide, and better bite for the angle. After a few sessions, I can confidently say I'm faster on these runners. It's to the point that I was actually out of control until I learned to adapt to the speed. I was running into other players and the boards/net because I was going faster and cutting faster than I thought and misjudged things. It's resulted in a few pretty hard hits, in non-checking hockey. These blades are definitely as advertised, more than I expected them to be. There's more of a learning curve than I anticipated, and I'm still finding how deep I can get and still have an edge. There is also a spot where you do lose an edge if you were to very lightly turn your ankle (I guess it's in that 0-6* range before you engage the flare). Even with that, I still very highly recommend them.

I don't have one of those either. I'll go with a combination of something across the blade and using a marker on the bottom of the blade to see if the wear is in the middle on the first pass. Also adjusting the wheel to give even edges on regular steel, and assuming it will be the same on the Flare. Hopefully Flare will eventually get more Squares in, and they'll still be reasonably priced.

Anyone have a method of checking for level edges without a flare square? They're out of stock, and I'll need to sharpen them soon. I used to use a speed square on my regular steel,, but that won't work on these.

This is probably a good point. I'd likely stay somewhere in the neutral zone until one team establishes possession in their offensive zone.

As a single ref, I'd stay in the lane and go from end zone faceoff circle to end zone faceoff circle on one side of the rink. Exit the zone in stages from low to blue line to other blue line to low, staying ahead of the play as it transitions.

Crappy sellers, and Sideline Swap in general. I bought a used Bauer 1X tower bag on SLS for a pretty good price. After a few days, I got a message saying that the shipping label provided by SLS didn't cover the cost when he went to drop it off. We worked with SLS to have the label reissued to based on the dimensions of the box. A few more days, and the seller says the box came back because it still wasn't enough. Since it didn't ship within 14 days or something, the sale was cancelled and I was refunded my money. That's a good thing, so at least I'm not out the money and having to file a dispute to be resolved. The seller contacted me and apologized profusely for the delay and thanked me for my patience. He offered to ship the bag on his own dime, via UPS which gave him a better price, if I just covered the shipping via Paypal when the bag arrived. I told him that was fine, and I'd even send him the agreed upon amount from SLS. That was 2 weeks ago. The bag hasn't shipped. He hasn't replied to my messages. I guess I'm not getting it. It's not a huge deal since I'm not out any money. But it's disappointing because that bag is frickin' expensive and I can't justify spending that. This was a way for me to get the bag at the price of a regular one. It sucks because the guy didn't honor the deal that he offered himself. And Sideline Swap sucks in general because they require package dimensions prior to listing. So if a seller doesn't list them accurately, the estimated shipping cost won't cover the postage. In this case, the seller nor SLS was accounting for the dimensional weight of the item.

Will the Flare square work on regular steel also?

No, this was years ago. Maybe back in 2014 or 2015.

Yes, many people wear them so loose as to seemingly be useless. But I think they still provide an end point to how far the pad can travel in certain directions, even if that end point is probably further out than it should be. I hate using personal anecdotal evidence as a basis for an argument because of the small sample size. However two weeks ago, I was having all sorts of issues with my left pad. It wasn’t rotating correctly, over- or under- rotating without much reason, not returning to neutral, pulling away from the leg. It was the strangest thing. Until I got undressed and realized I hadn’t strapped the boot strap. It’s elastic, so it was just stuck up between the pad and skate. Even though I use the Lundy strap and the strap itself is elastic (so no real tension on it), not having it attached blatantly cause issues with the way the pad moved and performed.

I don’t know about that. The bootstrap used to be there to keep the pad locked onto the ankle. But now it’s being used behind the ankle to keep the pad from rotating or sliding out too far. I’d suspect that the lack of a boot strap is exactly the reason the pads aren’t coming back to neutral. Elastic ties are definitely the way to go. But the boot strap is still important to providing control to the pad.

Thanks, JR. I saw he had mentioned trying a jig. I wasn’t sure if he had actually gotten it to work. I’ll hit him up.

Has anyone found a way to put a ProSharp profile on these yet? Thinking of pulling the trigger, but I really like my Quad 1.

First things first, just to get it out of the way. Have you been hit in the head recently. Unexplained depression and lack of motivation is a symptom of a concussion. You don't always have to have headaches to be concussed. Moving on, to me it sounds like you need to find a new team and/or place/way to play. The hockey isn't fun, and though you like the guys, that's not worth the time and effort you're investing. You want to say it's not the losing, but it is. You're trying to rationalize it to be nice. The reality is your team isn't good enough to be competing in this league. And the prospect of continuing to play uncompetitive hockey is bringing you down. I get it. I've been there. In fact, I'm there now. It's not your team's fault. They're playing where they should be and the other teams have ringers. Too many mistakes are being made, and too many games are being lost. Getting motivated to show up and probably lose is hard. Given the reactions of some of your teammates in your latest video, I'd say they might feel the same way. Just go, man. Play somewhere that doesn't have the pressure of having to win and maybe will help you start improving again. Don't stay and be miserable because it's the nice thing to do.

You can typically buy pro stock return visors in good condition on sites like SidelineSwap for the same price as the crappy Tron ones.

Does this tech make the edge feel sharper for longer after a sharpening? Obviously the steel isn’t coated, so it won’t actually retain the edge any longer than other uncoated steel. But will the increased bite in typical turns and skating keep that sharp feeling longer like coated steel does?

Part of the reason I’m interested is because of the reduced level of drag and also force/resistance needed to generate the same level of bite. That definitely will be easier on knees. I’m concerned about situations where a skate blade is at an extreme angle to the ice where a normal blade would slip out but this blade will grab. Picture a goalie doing a butterfly slide but then accidentally having an edge engage in the middle. He’s going to stop, and all his weight and momentum is going to go over that foot, likely causing a knee or ankle injury. This is how I hurt my first knee. I got hit from behind while engaged along the boards. My foot was against the other guy’s skate so it couldn’t slide out. I ended up going over that foot and tore the MCL (and only MCL unlike an injury where the player goes back as well as over the foot, typically causing much more damage). In fact, have you tried any goalie testing with this? It seems like increasing bite at that angle could lead to these kinds of injuries plus difficulty shuffling.

Bringing this one back from the dead since I noticed mention of Flare in the Sparx thread. Are there any more reviews or input on these? I'm going to need a new ring for my Sparx in the next month or two and this concept seems interesting. SO if it really is something worth trying, I'd like to do so to get the appropriate ring when needed. Also, I see that pros are liking them and not having "blow outs". Here's the thing. I have compromised MCLs in both knees from injuries. I've blown the right once and left twice. I am at risk of continuing to injure them. The biggest issue would be if I got hit at an awkward angle and go down with my knee under me and blade engaged in the ice. Having the edge slip somewhat easily likely would reduce the injury risk and could possibly save my knee. How much increased "lateral" grip are we talking here for someone that doesn't have the balance and edge strength of a NHL'er? Is every play going to anchor my blade to the ice and not allow it to slip out for safety, even if I wanted it to? Or are we really talking more about increased grip when skating because of centrifugal force?

That may make a lot of sense. It was early October 2016. The inventory of player gear was also pathetic. All they seemed to have was mid/low level gear and leftover models. They were even low on things like tape and laces. I was there visiting friends who live in Cranberry, as a surprise for their daughter’s birthday. So I couldn’t be driving around looking for stuff. We needed to go to Walmart to pick something up for school the next day. The TH is in the same parking lot as the Walmart, so we decided to stop in to drop the skates off, run over to Walmart, and then I’d just look at what I needed real quick before we left. So that extra time meant we were gone for well over an hour for something that should have been 30 minutes. Bad employees are definitely everywhere. That’s why I had to buy a Sparx machine. It’s not perfect, but it’s far better than what I have available to me down here.

The Monkey Sports store in NJ has a ton of inventory. The Total Hockey in Sterling, VA had a pretty good selection. Great Skate in Buffalo had a decent amount. Even the Peranis in Pittsburgh had some. I get that most of the small shops, like the ones near me, have little goalie stuff because of the cost and space limitations and the specificity of goalie gear. A big store like a Total Hockey should have more than they did. There are wayyyyyyy more goalies who buy off the shelf than buy custom. I don’t think expecting a major large retailer to have at least one set of the most current and popular gear from a major manufacturer like Bauer or Warrior, so I can at least get my hands on it, is anywhere near unreasonable.

That store is a pile of garbage. They had next to no inventory when I was there, particularly on the goalie side. I went in hoping to get my hands on some gear because my LHS in Florida is, well, in Florida so that's all you need to know. Pure (Total at the time) barely had much more. I dropped off my skates to be sharpened, and my friend who I was visiting had the sharpening plan so it should have been free. We went to pick up the skates and they told me one skate was done, but the steel on other was cracked. I am 90% sure it wasn't broken when I brought it in. I had no issues in the game I played the night before that would have indicated a broken runner. I didn't notice anything after the game when I cleaned the runners and put on the skate guards. The bag went from the locker room to the car and stayed there until I brought them into the store. But since I didn't know for absolutely sure they broke the runner while sharpening the skates, I couldn't do much about it. So my "free" sharpening cost me $100 in new steel. Then it took them nearly 30 minutes to sharpen the steel after I approved the replacement despite there being no one else in the store (and they didn't call to let me know it was broken, they waited until I came back, which is also ridiculous)

What about a Jets vs Jets uni game between Winnipeg and Phoenix?

What is everyone’s thoughts on teams honoring a heritage franchise? Like the Dallas Stars would have a North stars throwback, or at least nods to it. Colorado would have Quebec, Carolina would have Hartford, etc. I think it would be a cool way of bringing those teams and logos back for just a little.