sharpening

[JR Boucicaut 3799]

Uh huh. Should've video'd the ice on the first skate where the final was even slower. It barely moved.

[Platypus 0]

Haha yeah...sz 11...

:)

And I was just goofing over here...

http://www.modsquadhockey.com/pics/JR/finish.jpg

AHAHAHAHAHHA I just laughed my ass off watching the second youtube link. i hit the speaker button (on my macbook) for the vid as a reflex and this also played the already playing (but muted) itunes. I saw u grinding skates to From Yesterday by 30 seconds to mars and I thought you put the song as background music intentionally. It wasnt until I closed youtube that i realized it was itunes.

maybe its just me but thinking you set up a vid of skate sharpening with From Yesterday going killed me

[LkptTiger 1]

Show-off.

[JR Boucicaut 3799]

Did it just for you, baby.

[TBLfan 25]

Next time I want to see you on one leg, hoping WHILE rubbing your belly AND patting your head.

[LkptTiger 1]

What's sad is the fact that most people here probably can't appreciate that. I remember when I first started practicing - the skate damn near shot out of the clamp. People that don't actually sharpen skates don't really know how long it takes to become competent, nevermind good or great.

[D-MaN88 0]

JR I'm not even going to lie, I don't play ice anymore but if I did, I would definitely have to send a pair of steel up to ya and have you sharpen it up. I bet your sharpenings are scary good. That is just amazing because I can't imagine how difficult it is to learn how to do like Lkpt said.

[LkptTiger 1]

I told him to expect regular shipments of PITCH steel that I want profiled to 9' and cut to 5/8". I'm still not sure if I was joking or not.

[Wolfpack_1986 154]

my guy, he does a great job of getting the blade centered and my edges square and all that, and makes sure they're de burred, but he does these quick passes. like really quick. what kind of bad impact does that have?

i've never felt anything wrong with em... even after having the Canes equip manager do mine. so i guess no harm no foul, but definitely has little striations down the blade.

[D aka speck 0]

Back to the topic at hand. Sorry 'bout that. :lol:

I'm not a skate sharpener by ANY stretch of the imagination!

I am however, a bit of a machinist.

When you guys talk about sharpening skates, you reference machine shop work.

there's Speed - the RPMs which the grinding wheel spins

Feed - the time it takes to run a pass across

Lubrucant - the wax

and Pressure - that's just bad!!!!!

Basically, the higher the speed and slower the feed, the smoother the cut.

Lubricant (wax) prevents overheating (and in this case polishes as well).

I hope the (very little) info helps, it certainly can't hurt.

Your best bet, I believe it was mentioned, is stay relaxed, apply minimal pressure and let the wheel do ALL of the work.

It'll come to you, have confidence and faith.

You just have to lay the foundation before you build the palace, so to speak.

[DarkStar50 679]

One hand pass, oldest trick in the book. Next time take the finished skate and let it stand balanced on the table top. That is also a fun show off move!

[Ngo_35 1]

one hand finish yeah we've all tried that however if you can one hand pass with your LEFT hand i'll be impressed. It's fun to dick around with the garbage skates we have lying around. (training skates)

[JR Boucicaut 3799]

one hand finish yeah we've all tried that however if you can one hand pass with your LEFT hand i'll be impressed. It's fun to dick around with the garbage skates we have lying around. (training skates)

Yeah, but can you give it to a customer like that is the question? ;)

Left-hand final coming next Monday.

Regardless, yes, all for fun.

[Jordan 13]

It appears that skate sharpening is like so many things in life - it looks easy, but it is very hard to do well.

Probably takes years to develop the "touch" to get really good, and I would be willing to bet that most sharpeners don't have the eye to be able to differentiate between a good job and a poor job.

[biff44 0]

There are a number of points to sharpening--many covered already. As an amateur, I have learned the following by trial and error.

Get some way to measure the blade edge height. Some people balance a penny and can see by sight if the blade edges are even or not. I can not--my eyesight is not good enough. I use a measuring caliper from 1-800-EDGE. There are other types out there. I keep adjusting until the blade edges are less than 0.001" different in height. 0.002" off is a lot, and a good skater will say "I can't stop on the _____ side, I need the skates sharpened". You look at the blade and it is sharpe as a razor, but not even.

You need flat blades to sharpen. If the blade is bent, because of the grinder geometry, you will be guaranteed two edges that are not even in height when you are done. Is it comon to see bent blades? Sure, pretty much ALL OF THEM are bent. It is only a thin piece of steel in a plastic holder that these 200+ guys are puttin tons of force on with turns and stops. If it is bent enough to see when sighting down the blade, you have to un-bend it before sharpening. Just place it on the steel bed edge and apply force in the correcting direction until it is pretty flat.

Final pass going too fast? Well, it may be fine and it may be a disaster. When the grinding wheels come out of the factory, they balance them so they spin true. BUT, as you wear away an inch of the grinding wheel, that initial factory balance may be long gone. If the wheel is unbalanced, it will move back and forth as you sharpen. A really bad balance on the wheel will result in a scalloped look to the blade bottom when held up to reflecting light. If you do your last pass really slowly, even a poorly balanced wheel will tend to not scallop the blade.

And you want to be careful to not screw up the steel temper. When I sharpen, after a while I touch the steel to see how hot it is getting. If it gets too hot, I stop and cool it off with a little water on a rag before sharpening some more. This is normally only required when you are grinding out some gouges.

[Wolfpack_1986 154]

One hand pass, oldest trick in the book. Next time take the finished skate and let it stand balanced on the table top. That is also a fun show off move!

lol, thats waht my boy wally does after he does my skates. "hehe look at that. that right there is balanced, eh?!"

[Ngo_35 1]

one hand finish yeah we've all tried that however if you can one hand pass with your LEFT hand i'll be impressed. It's fun to dick around with the garbage skates we have lying around. (training skates)

Yeah, but can you give it to a customer like that is the question? ;)

Left-hand final coming next Monday.

Regardless, yes, all for fun.

haha alrite i'll try it out too then! But too bad we dont have a videop cam. Maybe i'll use a cell phone cam.

Give it to a customer eh? hmm nah i dont think i'll do that but JR if you really had balls forget the customer...would you do it to your own skates? I know I sure as hell wont. (i love my babies)

[TBLfan 25]

I think those were his skates. Those were S15s with PITCH right?

[JR Boucicaut 3799]

Those were my skates.

[Ngo_35 1]

Really eh? I didnt know that. You sir are a brave man.

[JR Boucicaut 3799]

Really eh? I didnt know that. You sir are a brave man.

LOL yep...good enough to skate on at the Bell Centre on Tuesday (if new Vector doesn't fit!)

[Zamboni 6]

Final pass going too fast? Well, it may be fine and it may be a disaster. When the grinding wheels come out of the factory, they balance them so they spin true. BUT, as you wear away an inch of the grinding wheel, that initial factory balance may be long gone. If the wheel is unbalanced, it will move back and forth as you sharpen. A really bad balance on the wheel will result in a scalloped look to the blade bottom when held up to reflecting light. If you do your last pass really slowly, even a poorly balanced wheel will tend to not scallop the blade.

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I've wondered about grinding wheels, we had a journeyman that maintained a large industrial shop. He had a diamond 'dressing' stone to square up the abrasive wheels and was constantly busy doing that. Told me bearings often went, even though sealed from the abrasive grit-and any abrasive wheel made as a universal fit that required a bushing insert would vibrate, eventually wobble and drive the machinsts nuts.

Was thinking of that watching a skate sharpening at Crappy Tire last week....machine was trying to walk around the room it vibrated so badly. :o

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And you want to be careful to not screw up the steel temper. When I sharpen, after a while I touch the steel to see how hot it is getting. If it gets too hot, I stop and cool it off with a little water on a rag before sharpening some more. This is normally only required when you are grinding out some gouges.

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Steel is actually tempered by bringing it above the A1 and A2 critical temps for its carbon content....and then slowly allowed to cool in a controlled manner. To embrittle it you would heat it and the cool quickly with water. Your probably trying to prevent the blade from reaching blue discolouring danger point but keeping it far from "too hot" would be better. Never heated/cooled quick steel will hold an edge better. Don't take that as a critismn-just a suggestion to stay far away from too hot to touch comfortably when working the steel. That tempering info is from memory, probably good info on that and 'quenching' on the net....too fully remove/add temper steel would need to be cherry red.

Saw an interesting saw blade demp this week, blade (with teeth, not abrasive) in a circular saw cut through 1/2 steel like it was wood-amazing technology.....only the removed "chips" were hot!

[thejackal 46]

Really eh? I didnt know that. You sir are a brave man.

LOL yep...good enough to skate on at the Bell Centre on Tuesday (if new Vector doesn't fit!)

you're gonna be in montreal? daaaaamn

[JR Boucicaut 3799]

Yeppers. Fly in Tues AM fly out Thurs afternoon.

[thejackal 46]

wanna come to mcgill for shinny wednesday 12-1:20?