colins

Couple of commercial options around Richmond listed here - maybe contact them see if you can drop in and use your own grinding ring and share Sparx info: https://www.sparxhockey.com/pages/skate-sharpening-near-me

I put the toe towards the right on mine. Sparx documentation showed toe left, so I imagine most new users follow that advice. colins

They did. It's called the PS100. It'll run you $1100 more than the home version: https://www.sparxhockey.com/pages/sparx-ps100-commercial-skate-sharpener colins

I believe the issue was with the amount of steel dust it produced in a short period of time. Sparx was sending out replacement filters for people who ordered the cross grind ring before they discontinued them. colins

I'd like to hear Russ's view on 3rd party grinding rings. Would Sparx ever consider licensing the info/tools necessary to allow a 3rd party to produce rings? My guess is no, for obvious reasons like the rings being a key part of the profit/income for Sparx as a going business, and quality control (your machine gets a bad rap because of poor quality 3rd party grinding rings). That said, w.r.t technology nearly everything these days that hits critical mass has some factory in China pumping out 3rd party accessories. Apple certainly hasn't been able to stop this. At some level of volume, it would be odd to think there wouldn't be an attempt to reverse engineer the rings and offer 3rd party options. I would imagine Sparx has thought about this and has planned for it. colins

If you're using the same blades that have already been freshly sharpened (but ever so slightly off center), I would say 2 or 3 passes after adjusting the alignment would be sufficient to do another edge check to see if you prefer the new results. As others have said, this is a great scenario for the marker test - just put a new strip of marker down the blade between adjustments and make sure it's all removed before you use the edge checker to measure your results. Since dialing mine in this way, using the Sparx edge checker, I haven't had to readjust it. I've probably sharpened 80+ pairs since then. colins

Foam was with it. It was the Pick n Pluck stuff, so I just pulled a few rows of cubes off to fit the Sparx in. colins

I happened upon a Pelican 1650 deal I couldn’t pass up. Here’s my Sparx in it for a test fitting. colins

Great find. The same Husky box is also available from Home Depot in Canada for $117 (not on sale at the moment). colins

As far as I can tell, the Sparx option is a Pelican 1650 with a custom cut foam insert. Pelican offers 'Pick N Pluck' foam with their cases - you can remove small pre-cut squares to make your own insert shapes/dimensions. I can find the Pelican 1650 for as low as $285 CDN or $243 USD on Amazon. Used cases are also pretty common on ebay, and replacement foams are available too. Just FYI - please confirm sizing before ordering a case. If you compare the Exterior Dimensions of the Sparx Pelican cases to those on Pelican's site, it looks like the 1650 with the exterior dimensions rounded up a half inch or so, that's what I'm basing the above info on. I think Sparx is offering a great value for their pre-configured case, but if you wanted to roll your own maybe this info is helpful to you. colins

I tried moving myself and my two boys from 1/2 to 5/8th as well. Depending on the ice conditions, it was either fine or not enough bite if the ice was particularly hard. I tried 9/16's and it seems ideal for us for any ice condition. We've been skating on 9/16th all season (since September). colins

I think it's getting hard now to find a big tournament where you won't see a Sparx in the hallway. I saw the same thing last year at Bantam and Midget tournaments like the Monctonian (Moncton, New Brunswick) and Icejam (Halifax, Nova Scotia). The portability, ease of use and lack of mess make it a no-brainer for travel teams that have budget for such things.

The Kickstarter and pledge levels are still all online here https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1223281555/sparx-skate-sharpener-pro-skate-sharpening-at-home colins

That's a good point - and correct. Once Sparx hit their funding goal, there was no getting money back. Either they shipped product or flamed out. If they hadn't hit their funding goal, then nobody would have been charged the pledge amounts. I had forgotten that aspect of the Kickstarter model -so far Sparx is the only Kickstarter I've been part of. Thx, colins

Sparx first shipped units to Kickstart backers around April 2016. The Sparx guys are no dummies. They have done extensive testing of the product - to the point they even took the sharpener, put it in their Pelican carrying case, and dropped it like 200 times to see how durable the case was (https://youtu.be/j4eARLGSu3A). They tested freezing the unit to see if it still operated fine (https://youtu.be/DJ6qq86mALA). I invested in the Kickstarter early because I wanted my own sharpener and I had some extra cash on hand. They stumbled on execution - they shipped months later than they had planned. There were constant excuses as to why the product was going to be later than they thought. For a while I was wondering if I was going to need to get my money back from Kickstarter escrow. But they did ship. And they obviously worked really hard to build a product they were very satisfied and proud of before they shipped. And for me, its been everything I hoped it would be. Four hockey players in my house (my wife recently started playing too!) and our two kids and myself haven't skated on a non-perfect set of edges since I got it. We're totally spoiled. The worse it gets now is when the boys have a 4 or 5 game road tournament out of province, and for that I sharpen their skates and their spare blades and they can swap them out if necessary. Anyone that wants to criticize the Sparx should consider whether they are talking from facts and hands on experience with the unit, or whether they are just using conjecture to throw out reasons why they think some other solution is better for certain scenarios. For anyone who sharpens 1600 pairs or less a year, so far I've seen zero evidence that the Sparx is anything but a really solid solution. colins

I run my Sparx in my rec room. I don't so much as need to put my coat on to sharpen my boys skates as they are packing up their bags to go to practice. No manual machine I'm aware of can match that convenience. I don't have an unfinished area in my basement to deal with the mess that a manual machine creates. If I bought one it would have to be out in my garage. That's a major part of the appeal for me - I did consider an SPB850 like my buddy has, and I'd have no concerns about learning to operate it. colins

I think OP was referring to this one: I recorded the unboxing/setup and first use of my Sparx here: colins

Sparx has a commercial offering now with a beefed up motor for additional volume (>1600 sharpenings a year). Less than that and the consumer model is deemed sufficient. They also offer an extended warranty for repairs if you need that type of assurance. https://www.sparxhockey.com/pages/commercial-homepage Although the Sparx is skinned in plastic to make it visually look like a consumer product, it's shipping weight is just about 50 pounds. There's nothing flimsy or cheap feeling about it. A grinding ring lasts 320 cycles, which if you average 4 cycles per skate, equates to 40 pairs. colins

Ok, I sized up the alignment ring and a 1/2 sharpening ring. One flaw in this idea is that the offset of where the alignment ring hits the mating surface on the threaded holder is different than the offset of the grinding ring. They are not molded from the same form - the alignment ring is all metal. It appears to be the same height as a grinding ring, but the inner hub on it is shallower than on a grinding ring. So - I don't have any tools to accurately measure the difference. But by closely eyeballing it, I can say that the alignment groove on the alignment ring is going to correspond very very closely with the very end of the stone material on the grinding ring. So if you eyeball it in the magnifying tool, you need to be aligned to the boundary of the edge of the stone material and the black plastic on the grinding ring. If that's what you are seeing now, you are probably good. If not, I'd wait for the alignment ring to show up before sharpening your skates. colins

You can buy a replacement alignment ring here: https://www.sparxhockey.com/collections/sharpener-accessories/products/alignment-ring Do you have the tool - the magnifier piece? If so, maybe you could make a small mark on your grinding ring with a sharpie at the same offset of the alignment ring mark. That would get you close in a pinch. Still, there's no substitute for an edge checker, to really dial it in. You should really get one. I can measure my alignment ring when I get home tonight to tell you where to make the mark if you want. colins

Unfortunately, you have created a credibility problem for yourself which is why there's this back and forth on your review. Readers know (or can find out) who Russ Layton is and what his credentials are. They are public here: https://www.sparxhockey.com/pages/team. But your identity is not clear. It seems you hadn't ever posted here before but showed up a few days ago to share an opinion for the first time. You say you're an engineer and a professional skate sharpener. But you also in the same breath you said the sparx edge checker is crap because the lines are too far apart. I needed to confirm you were speaking about the same edge checker I own because the one I have has lines close enough together to get a very accurate reading. So I couldn't make any sense of your comment. I have to question your credentials once you put out a nonsense statement like that. I hope you understand, its not personal. But when you make comments about a product and you don't have an existing reputation in the forum to be judged upon, you should expect to be challenged on the points that people can't make any sense of. Sparx's business model is an obvious threat to some guys with >$10K investments in traditional Blademaster and Blackstone stations. That's fine, there's a time and place for both setups. But play fair - if you want to point out any shortcomings in the Sparx product, base it on facts instead of opinions that don't hold up under scrutiny. colins (Hockey dad to two boys, rec hockey player and Sparx owner. I'm not an engineer. I do have a B.Sc in Computer Science. I'm not a professional skate sharpener. My edges are perfect, and I would put them up against anyone's).

What do the non-magnetic ones look like? colins

I think 2 to 3 clicks on the Alignment Adjustment is .001", as per Sparx documentation here: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0932/7770/files/Sparx_EdgeChecker_Instruction.pdf?8101190776335265406. That means 1 click is in the range of .0004"-.0005". How fine then is very fine? I've got the home unit, not the commercial one, but I used my edge checker to dial in my alignment so it's dead center consistently on the Step and Bauer steel I'm sharpening. I did find that polished CCM steel throws the edge checker off - my alignment was still fine, but the sidewall inconsistency of the polished CCM steel throws the checker off. As far as I know, Sparx has only one edge checker, and it's one of the nicer edge checkers on the market that I've seen. If there's a knock on it, maybe it's that it's over-built and more expensive than it needs to be. You described it as "The edge checker is crap. The lines are very far apart, and the general construction is not good." - are we talking about the same checker? colins

If you don't need the adjustability of the Super Tacks girdle, the 7092 girdle is every bit as good, at $40 less. There are two features I like better on the 7092, and 2 from the Super Tacks: Better on the Super Tacks: Padding on the back of the thigh is segmented, and thicker than on the 7092. Not a huge deal, but a chop or a puck to the back of the leg would be better on the Super Tacks. Adjustable thigh and hip pads, and spine protector. If you like to play around with the positioning of these pads, or if you're growing and want the girdle to grow with you - nice feature. Better on the 7092: The velcro across the front doesn't extend up over your belly like it does on the Super Tacks. Personal preference here, but I had to modify the Super Tacks to be like the 7092 because my son didn't like that extra padding in the front. No crotch/leg section. It's a pure wrap, the way the Super Tacks probably should be too. Find that a lot more comfortable. I had to cut the crotch/leg section out of the Super Tacks girdle as my son found it too restrictive. Both girdle's sizing runs small - if you are a medium in a pair of Nexus pants, I'd try on the Large CCM girdle. colins

My son's had some time in the Super Tacks girdle. And I've been comparing it to the NXG and Dynasty girdles which we also have. My summary after a month or so is... mixed. Good: Kidney protection, fit around the kidneys, Lower back/spine protection, hip protection, light weight. Bad: The groin piece that makes it more of a 'pull on' instead of a wrap girdle, the thigh protection which seems to want to twist towards the outside leaving the inner thigh exposed, the high belly pad which sits a bit uncomfortable above the waist. Tailbone protection is also somewhat questionable. I've already taken the scissors to the girdle, trimming the belly pad above the velcro so that it's level with the velcro (and re-stitching the trim), and cutting out the groin leg/butt piece. So now it's a wrap girdle, and other than maybe some concern the tailbone pad could shifting upwards, it feels a lot less constricting and more mobile with that cut out. Overall it's at least as good as the Dynasty, but they are very different and have their own appealing features and drawbacks. The NXG is comfortable but I would still rate it less protective than either of the other two. One thing I would say about the Super Tacks girdle is that the sizing runs towards the small side. If you comfortably wear medium mens in a typical pant like the Nexus, the medium Super Tacks girdle might be too small for you. Part of my problem with the groin area of the girdle and the thigh pads shifting might be related to the sizing. My son is 5'10 175lbs, 32 waist, which depending on the height or the waist is at the top or bottom of the sizing guide (he's at max height, but minimum waist size). Really recommend trying these on in-store before purchase to confirm you get the best fit. colins