t'blade question

[yzerman_17 0]

what do t'blades do exaclty do they increes your speed or whay?

thanx

[Eazy_b97 1]

I find they increase glide. They may cut down on sharpening fees, depending on how you treat them. They have cut down on my sharpenings. They have consistancy from pair to pair, where a LHS may differ if you travel around alot and visit lots of different places. You can buy multiple pairs so you can change them in places where you may not be able to get to a LHS or even on the bench if you've lost an edge.

[Dave 1]

The glide on t'blades is better for the following reason:

The glide on any blade is created by a thin layer of water under your blade. The friction of the blade warms the ice, it melts slighty and thus builds the thin layer of water needed to glide.

t'blades increase the glide because it only has a thin layer of a steel alloy (maybe 2 mm) applied to a composite runner. Due to this reduced mass of metal the steel "strip" heats more easily (friction between blade and ice) than a full standard blade does.

In other words: Because it has less metal, the blade heats more easily compared to a standard blade. The "warmer" a blade, the faster the glide.

For example in competitive bobsled they are not allowed to heat their blades. If they did, they would increase their speed significantly.

[yzerman_17 0]

thanx 4 the info i have been wanting to try t'blades for some time now mabye i will ask for some for my b-day

[ambro 0]

The glide on t'blades is better for the following reason:

The glide on any blade is created by a thin layer of water under your blade. The friction of the blade warms the ice, it melts slighty and thus builds the thin layer of water needed to glide.

There is already a thin layer of water on the ice. The deeper the layer of water is, the slower the skate will go, so that logic is false.

We just learned this in science cass btw... :lol:

[Chadd 916]

No, that's the theory behind them. At some point you get too much water and it slows down the skate but we aren't talking about that much melted ice.

[ambro 0]

The theory is wrong then. It is for sure though that the less amount of water on the ice will make it faster. It doesn't matter if it's even .1 mm more water, it will make the ice slower.

[mojo122 541]

How long does it take to change blades? The thought of consistency is nice, but only if the change isn't a hassle.

[Pats 0]

How long does it take to change blades? The thought of consistency is nice, but only if the change isn't a hassle.

The change itself is not a hassle, I haven't used t-blades in aboyt 6 months but if I recall correctly (on my account) that it takes about 1-2 minutes per skate to change the blades. Obviously sometimes it's an inconvience, but even though I don't use them now, I'd still highly recommend them.

[crosskore 0]

changing from blades to t'blades took me about two circles around the ice to get used to, but what about changing from t'blades to normal blades again? Do you feel like you lose any extra "oomf" or maybe even confidence?

[Pats 0]

Well for the first maybe two ice sessions I definitely felt slower, but after that I didn't notice much of a difference at all. I think it's just a matter of getting used to them and visa versa for going into t-blades.

[Gongshow11 1]

The theory is wrong then.  It is for sure though that the less amount of water on the ice will make it faster.  It doesn't matter if it's even .1 mm more water, it will make the ice slower.

you are wrong, ljack is right. I learned the hockeyshark/ljack version in my school, it is right.

are you saying there is no friction between the blade and the ice ambro?

[blackhawks4ever 0]

The water under the blade is caused the increased pressure the ice is under. Water's freezing point lowers as you increase the atmospheric pressure. For a brief second the entire weight of your body is on the 1/4 inch wide blade, this causes the ice to "melt", not the heat of the blade. Physics 101

[ambro 0]

The theory is wrong then.  It is for sure though that the less amount of water on the ice will make it faster.  It doesn't matter if it's even .1 mm more water, it will make the ice slower.

you are wrong, ljack is right. I learned the hockeyshark/ljack version in my school, it is right.

are you saying there is no friction between the blade and the ice ambro?

No. The more water on the ice, the slower you will go. It's simple as that.

[crosskore 0]

Then why do people go faster with t'blades?

[ambro 0]

I have no idea, but I know it's not because of more water on the ice.

[Eazy_b97 1]

The theory is wrong then.  It is for sure though that the less amount of water on the ice will make it faster.  It doesn't matter if it's even .1 mm more water, it will make the ice slower.

you are wrong, ljack is right. I learned the hockeyshark/ljack version in my school, it is right.

are you saying there is no friction between the blade and the ice ambro?

No. The more water on the ice, the slower you will go. It's simple as that.

Your simplifying too much. At a certain point, like was said earlier, the water will effect your speed negatively. For now it will increase the glide in a posotive manner.

[ambro 0]

I am not simplifying anything too much.

Warmer temp. = more water = slower

Colder temp. = less water = faster

EDIT - I found the article I learned this in...

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m0BFU/1...1/article.jhtml

[Eazy_b97 1]

I am not simplifying anything too much.

Warmer temp. = more water = slower

Colder temp. = less water = faster

EDIT - I found the article I learned this in...

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m0BFU/1...1/article.jhtml

Consider this, EXREMELY hard ice, absoloutely no water at all. You step onto the ice, you have both feet planted. Now your edges will shatter the ice because it does not turn to water. Therefore you are running on what will basically feel like cement. You need to have the water to, for lack of a better term, lubricate the top surface of ice so there is a "Glide" effect. What grade science was this Ambro? It's correct at a basic level, but once you get into physics and you get a little older you'll get more indepth.

[ambro 0]

8th grade. And the only way you can have no water on the ice would be to have the tempurature at absolute zero, which, as of now, is impossible. It would always have that "quasi-fluid" on it. And the colder it is, the less water is on it, the faster you will go, like I have said all along.

Here's a quote from the article that explains my reasoning...

The German scientists' findings also explain why warmer ice is "slower" than colder ice. At warmer temperatures the quasi-fluid layer is thicker and slows skate blades, which have to slosh through the greater depth.

The "slow" ice at the rink where Tim Goebel practices is kept at about -4 degrees Celsius (25 degrees Fahrenheit)--a few degrees warmer than the ice at a nearby hockey rink. The hockey players prefer "fast" ice. A rise in temperature of just a few degrees is enough to turn harder fast ice into slower soft ice.

[ambro 0]

are you saying there is no friction between the blade and the ice ambro?

This is another thing that helps my case. The more water there is on the ice, the more friction there will be. So you want less water, so there is less friction, and you can go faster. That is what I am saying.

[Gongshow11 1]

are you saying there is no friction between the blade and the ice ambro?

This is another thing that helps my case. The more water there is on the ice, the more friction there will be. So you want less water, so there is less friction, and you can go faster. That is what I am saying.

LOL

ambro there has to be friction otherwise you wouldn't be able to push off and if you did start to move then you would never stop.

Friction causes heat, melts the ice, and allows you to move.

[Eazy_b97 1]

8th grade. And the only way you can have no water on the ice would be to have the tempurature at absolute zero, which, as of now, is impossible. It would always have that "quasi-fluid" on it. And the colder it is, the less water is on it, the faster you will go, like I have said all along.

It was a theoretical example, not practical.

[ambro 0]

are you saying there is no friction between the blade and the ice ambro?

This is another thing that helps my case. The more water there is on the ice, the more friction there will be. So you want less water, so there is less friction, and you can go faster. That is what I am saying.

LOL

ambro there has to be friction otherwise you wouldn't be able to push off and if you did start to move then you would never stop.

Friction causes heat, melts the ice, and allows you to move.

You need the "quasi-fluid" to be able to lubricate the ice, like Eazy_b97 said, but you want as little as possible while still allowing you to skate. The less heat there is, the less friction. I didn't say I wanted a no-friction surface.

[scribble 0]

I have always assumed that t'blades glide better due to reduced friction from the slight imperfections and grooves created when blades are sharpened. The T'blades, being molded, are noticibley smoother if you look at them. Kind of like the difference between frosted glass and a regular window pane. You can feel the difference just by touching them.

That said, I really don't think I skate faster with my t'blades, I think they just reduce the fatigue from skating because of the better glide. In other words, I think I can skate fast for a longer period of time with t'blades, but not faster. I do feel quicker with them, but that's a completely different thing than speed.