colins

That's not a fair comment. The skills required to operate a Sparx are certainly less than a traditional machine, which is a good thing. But you still have to know what you are doing. It doesn't matter how fool proof something is - there's got to be folks with Sparx machines that are not paying attention to alignment, ring height, skate positioning in the clamp, the required number of passes and honing technique and yes - they'd end up with imperfect edges. That's not a knock against the machine, it's a knock against human nature and folks who pay attention to detail vs. those who don't. I know of an 'expert' sharpener (guy's been at it for years, also does equipment repairs) who uses multiple Cag One machines in his shop. Easy to use, right? Just lay the skate on it. Well he doesn't bother to use an edge checker (slows down output, he's very busy), and when one of his machines goes out of alignment, a whole crew of folks go through there with uneven edges on one skate until someone calls it out. Again, the Sparx is just another machine. It makes the process simpler and lowers the cost to entry, but it's not 100% fool proof. But because it exists, a thousand new sharpeners are now active across North America, and I imagine a similar (or higher since the machine is easier to use) percentage of those new sharpeners are good at what they do vs. the ones that existed before Sparx. colins

Sparx has a cross cut ring (called the X-Grind) for taking down deep nicks. At the end of the day, the Sparx is just another machine - one that lowers the $$ entry point for quality sharpenings. A buddy of mine has a Blademaster 850 (great machine) in his garage, and I used to bring my skates to him. I consider him an expert level sharpener, simply because he knows his machine well and his attention to detail is very high. I don't consider him scum just because he sharpens skates for a fairly large group of his friends and charges a nominal fee for his time & materials. As I was debating between buying my own Blademaster 850 or a Blackstone I came across the Sparx Kickstarter, and the single biggest advantage to me was the ease of use and lack of mess. My buddy's garage door and ceiling is full of steel dust - you simply can't use a traditional machine like the Blademaster indoors without some type of dust collection setup. You should also wear a mask to avoid breathing the stuff in. My Sparx sits in my rec room and I can literally sharpen a pair of my sons' skates as they are packing up their gear to head to the rink for a game/practice with no fuss and no mess. I still pay attention to the condition of the blades, the number of passes, and my honing requirements. And I'm still learning - the Sparx doesn't have a whole lot of variables to mess with, but the ring height, position/direction of the skate in the clamp, and the number of passes are all in play to get that 'perfect mirror finish'. I've joked with the Sparx guys that I'm developing an ability to 'hear' a good final pass based on the pitch of the ring across the whole length of the blade, and based on the sound deciding whether or not I need 1 more pass to achieve perfection. This machine is a game changer. I don't intend to use my Sparx to steal business from any local shops. It's a funny thing though - once people find out you have the ability to sharpen skates and the quality is as good as it is, it's hard to prevent the skates from coming to you. My son keeps bringing his teammate's skates home in his bag after practice and the $5 he collects goes into a Sparx jar to pay for the next set of rings I have to order. colins

He's a goalie. They're all crazy, that explains it. :-) From google: http://goaliestore.com/board/forum/equipment/equipment-reviews/3261051-sparx-skate-sharpener-initial-impressions

Lol... thanks for non-judging, I feel like this is a very trusting environment to share in! Ok - so now I'm starting a spreadsheet for every question I ask that the answer to is: RTFM. To atone, I went back to the manual and read it cover to cover. Turns out it explains pretty much everything you'd need to know. Kudos on covering all the bases Sparx :) Colin

I'm tracking which skates I sharpen, how many passes and which ring I used in a spreadsheet (that's normal, right??) because I'm curious about the grinding ring use as well. From Russ' explanation, it seems pretty straight forward - the machine knows how many passes a grinding ring has made and by the 320th pass, the light is going to indicate the ring is worn out and you should get a new one. Now from a technical POV, that has me curious... is it the machine storing how many passes it's seen the ring for (that would be somewhat flawed but maybe cheaper to implement), or is the info about the number of passes stored on each ring itself and then transmitted to the machine when it starts up? This would be a better technical solution but I don't know enough about RFID to know if it's practical to put that capability in the RFID chip in the ring itself. The problem with the first approach is obviously when multiple machines are in play and rings get used between different machines, the tracking wouldn't be accurate. I had my first skate last night on my touched up edges (just 2 passes as I'd recently had them sharpened and there were no nicks), and my two boys (13 and 15) skated on full 4 pass sharpenings two nights ago. All I can say is we all agreed it's as good as any commercial sharpening we've had. For comparison, I normally will only bring my skates to a buddy (who's a bit of a perfectionist) that owns a Blademaster 850, or to a local shop which uses a CagOne. If Steve or Russ are checking in on the thread - one question I've got is regarding brand new steel. I know from experience that new steel can be a problem for the first sharpening as peaks and valleys in new blades can create dead spots, and if a shop doesn't take the extra passes necessary to level the blade off the first skate can be a real unpleasant experience (don't learn this for the first time during a big tournament when you break a blade folks!). How many passes of a regular grinding ring (on average) would you suggest for new steel (assume CCM speed blade hyperglide runners, if it matters?). I'm thinking the cross grinding ring is next on my wishlist, both for new steel prep and cases where a deep nick has to come out. Colin

Received my Sparx sharpener today. Here's an unboxing and first use video. Literally 15 minutes to unbox and begin sharpening, including time to read the instructions. So far - impressed. I havent skated on Sparx sharpened blades yet (not until next Thursday), but I will report back with my experience once I do. Colin