Blackstone Flat-Bottom V Thread

[Chadd 916]

Good to know when i try the 90/75 for the next sharpening

That's what I've been using for years. I was thinking about going to something more shallow but after losing 40lbs, I'm sticking with it.

[GunRunner 28]

That's what I've been using for years. I was thinking about going to something more shallow but after losing 40lbs, I'm sticking with it.

Chadd, were you planning on staying in the X/75 scale? Just curious which spinner you were thinking of going down to, 85/75 or 80/75? I'm in the same boat, I'm on 90/75 and have thought about going a little more shallow but don't know which one. I skated on the 100/50 once and I didn't care for the edge bite and I love the 90/75 edges, great glide and I can turn as hard as I want and have never lost an edge. I'm about 5'-9" and 200 lbs.

Edited January 21, 2016 by GunRunner

[Chadd 916]

Chadd, were you planning on staying in the X/75 scale? Just curious which spinner you were thinking of going down to, 85/75 or 80/75? I'm in the same boat, I'm on 90/75 and have thought about going a little more shallow but don't know which one. I skated on the 100/50 once and I didn't care for the edge bite and I love the 90/75 edges, great glide and I can turn as hard as I want and have never lost an edge. I'm about 5'-9" and 200 lbs.

I wouldn't go more than one step at a time, it's a pretty significant change

[jimmy 194]

Just had my runners done up at NoIcing with a 90/75 and a 8/14' combo radius. FBV is noticeably better for me than ROH ever was. I'm kind of in shock.

Most skaters are in shock after trying FBV first time. Combine that with a nice radius and you just upped your performance big time.

[GunRunner 28]

Most skaters are in shock after trying FBV first time. Combine that with a nice radius and you just upped your performance big time.

I would agree with this, everyone I sharpen for love it. I even have all of the Squirts on my team on a 90/75 and they have never lost an edge that I can tell.

[JR Boucicaut 3759]

Blackstone is running a special on the X01 - for $699.

We're awaiting artwork to update their banner ad, but figured it'd be beneficial to post this first.

[lpgbackups 17]

sick deal

[IPv6Freely 2082]

Nice.

[Solo_man11 9]

That's what I've been using for years. I was thinking about going to something more shallow but after losing 40lbs, I'm sticking with it.

Congrats Chadd, 40llbs, great job. Off topic but wow, I think FBV made me slightly more lazy because the glide is so good.

[trtaylor 3]

Does anyone know, did Blackstone show, or announce, anything new at last week's Let's Play Hockey Expo?  I've been wondering if the recent price drop of the X series portends something new coming.

[lpgbackups 17]

hey im wondering if there are any X-Series owners in the Montreal area because right now i need to buy a single $12 bottle of tef top fine shine and they want to charge me $31 for shipping which is the cheapest option. not gonna happen..  i've owned an X02 for about 5 years now and everytime i would want to buy some small items....like wheels or diamond discs, i'd wait and combine a $150 order which gets free shipping...but now i  just need something small and im tired of doing $150 orders..

i thought if i knew someone in my  area with the same problem, we could combine our orders.

peace.  I love blackstone...but their shipping options disgust me.

[mickz 107]

You can find alternatives to fine shine.  Some guys in the skate sharpening threads have mentioned bars of ivory soap for the final pass.  I like to use a soft wax when I don't have a bottle of gusto glide available.  I don't notice a difference in finish or glide.  Wax may get caked on the wheel quicker than oils but you should be re-dressing before it gets to that point anyways.

[lpgbackups 17]

Goddamn, i ran into another bad batch of ruby wheels....they're soft as hell, i cant make 1 single proper pass, and they make a weird loud noise while putting a huge dent in the grinding wheel and totally screwing up my blades....last time that happened to me i had to sell my ruby wheels on ebay because i thought Ruby were not meant for my kind of steel (oops..sorry to that ebayer )     apparently others had the same issue in this thread so for sure its a bad batch....ruby wheels are known for this issue.

i bought 3 ruby wheels back in december of this year, the first one was fine, but the other 2 are unusable ( i just found this issue today but its way past the 30 day deadline for returns)...goddamn......will blackstone still send me new ones?   i could not have detected this within 30 days unless i tried all my wheels out of the box as soon as i received them...pretty stupid if you ask me...  anyways, i sent an email to blackstone. not sure what they'll say.

[lpgbackups 17]

i had to skip my game today because of that

[chiefs17 2]

20 hours ago, lpgbackups said:

hey im wondering if there are any X-Series owners in the Montreal area because right now i need to buy a single $12 bottle of tef top fine shine and they want to charge me $31 for shipping which is the cheapest option. not gonna happen..  i've owned an X02 for about 5 years now and everytime i would want to buy some small items....like wheels or diamond discs, i'd wait and combine a $150 order which gets free shipping...but now i  just need something small and im tired of doing $150 orders..

i thought if i knew someone in my  area with the same problem, we could combine our orders.

peace.  I love blackstone...but their shipping options disgust me.

$31 for shipping?  I thought being in Canada you would pay less for shipping than we do in the States.  Wow, that is a hose job.  $150 for free shipping is a lot of money to spend.  It should be $50.

I would bet that the Fine Shine is just a standard light machine oil, nothing more.  When mine runs out I will be experimenting with using a light oil, like 3-in-one.  Something you can get anywhere.

http://www.amazon.com/3-IN-ONE-Multi-Purpose-Oil-3-oz/dp/B0083V8LPO

If I remember, I will do my next pair of skates using 3-in-one and post the results.  

[chiefs17 2]

14 hours ago, lpgbackups said:

Goddamn, i ran into another bad batch of ruby wheels....they're soft as hell, i cant make 1 single proper pass, and they make a weird loud noise while putting a huge dent in the grinding wheel and totally screwing up my blades....last time that happened to me i had to sell my ruby wheels on ebay because i thought Ruby were not meant for my kind of steel (oops..sorry to that ebayer )     apparently others had the same issue in this thread so for sure its a bad batch....ruby wheels are known for this issue.

i bought 3 ruby wheels back in december of this year, the first one was fine, but the other 2 are unusable ( i just found this issue today but its way past the 30 day deadline for returns)...goddamn......will blackstone still send me new ones?   i could not have detected this within 30 days unless i tried all my wheels out of the box as soon as i received them...pretty stupid if you ask me...  anyways, i sent an email to blackstone. not sure what they'll say.

That's too bad lpg, Blackstone knows there is a problem with the ruby wheels.  I called them and they sent me new orange wheels in exchange.  I didn't think the ruby was anything special when they did work, so I'm fine with orange.

Give them a call.

[GunRunner 28]

In regards to the shipping price, I am located in Ohio and every time I order from Blackstone it comes from Detroit.  Never has the origin started in Ontario.  My guess is that they have a storage facility located in Detroit and all of their US orders come out of there.  It would be much easier to have an employee drive to Detroit and ship from there than it would be to pay the duties, taxes and to go through customs.  My guess is they either import into the US so they only have to clear customs once or they make a large enough load that is worth their time and export out of Ontario and take it to a storage facility in Detroit.  But I agree, their shipping rates are a rip off and you are hand cuffed to go through Blackstone because there is no distributor or third party selling their product

[lpgbackups 17]

so yeah......thanks for the replies guys...i know that their oil is not anything special but i feel good using it (placebo)

as far as my wheels issue, they answered today and asked me to send them back the non working wheels for them to inspect.. so they'll probably send me 2 working ones.  heading to the post office right now......thats probably gonna set me back another 10 quids..but hey...what can you do...hockey is expensive

[lpgbackups 17]

meanwhile, anybody knows if orange wheels would work on a LS4 blade?   i already removed enough material from my blades that im scared to try it... 

[chiefs17 2]

18 hours ago, lpgbackups said:

meanwhile, anybody knows if orange wheels would work on a LS4 blade?   i already removed enough material from my blades that im scared to try it... 

I'm not sure if I've ever done a sharpening on LS4 steel.  I never bother to look at the model number of the blades.

In my opinion, if the blade is stainless steel, or carbon steel of any kind, then yes the orange wheel will work just fine.

[JR Boucicaut 3759]

On March 8, 2016 at 9:39 AM, GunRunner said:

In regards to the shipping price, I am located in Ohio and every time I order from Blackstone it comes from Detroit.  Never has the origin started in Ontario.  My guess is that they have a storage facility located in Detroit and all of their US orders come out of there.  It would be much easier to have an employee drive to Detroit and ship from there than it would be to pay the duties, taxes and to go through customs.  My guess is they either import into the US so they only have to clear customs once or they make a large enough load that is worth their time and export out of Ontario and take it to a storage facility in Detroit.  But I agree, their shipping rates are a rip off and you are hand cuffed to go through Blackstone because there is no distributor or third party selling their product

Orders are brought over by a freight forwarder on Fridays and they in turn process the UPS labels out of Detroit.  It's done to save on shipping costs as they would be considered domestic packages.  There are times in which I've needed emergency supplies (riveter horns/machine heads) and have to get them out of Canada because I need them right away.  At that point it's an international shipment.

[JR Boucicaut 3759]

21 hours ago, lpgbackups said:

meanwhile, anybody knows if orange wheels would work on a LS4 blade?   i already removed enough material from my blades that im scared to try it... 

I use ruby and sharpen them in the store (on a Stealth, not an X02).

It's a nice steel to sharpen.  You'd probably need less passes than usual though; you should feel the difference when you cut it.

[lpgbackups 17]

i know JR,  ive been able to sharpen my LS4 with my working Ruby wheels on my X02 for a couple months without any issues, but i ran into soft ruby wheels....i had 2 left... one was midway through its life, then started failing suddenly...which i thought was really weird...then i took my last ruby wheel, and this one started failing right away...  still waiting for Blackstone to send me new ones.

i hope someone can confirm that orange wheels are good for LS4's.

[JR Boucicaut 3759]

Last sentence was my response to orange.

[GunRunner 28]

7 hours ago, JR Boucicaut said:

Orders are brought over by a freight forwarder on Fridays and they in turn process the UPS labels out of Detroit.  It's done to save on shipping costs as they would be considered domestic packages.  There are times in which I've needed emergency supplies (riveter horns/machine heads) and have to get them out of Canada because I need them right away.  At that point it's an international shipment.

Good to know, thank you.  I still wish they didn't require a $150 order to get free shipping.