Skate blade coatings and treatments

[goodguy 7]

Been researching skate blade treatments (i.e. Teflon coatings, etc)

The FBV (Flat Bottom V) sharpening diiscussions have sparked my interest in better glide, etc.

Does anyone have experience with blade treatment options such as Teflon coating, etc. that has worked well for them and your thoughts on the subject.

My research has touched on a couple of topics from the T-Blade system (less thermally conductive therefore better glide?) to diamond plasma diamond coating of skate blades to make them harder, to the thermablade.

While other innovations try to make the steel harder (fewer sharpenings) and some focus on less steel (ligher skate and less thermally conductive).

Other than the FBV innovation, there does not seem to be too much information on getting more out of the current blade design without significant cost (i.e Thermablade).

I did find a product called Fastrax (www.fastrax-online.com) but it seems to be an old site without much information.

Can anyone speak to the effectiveness, availability and their experience with any of these options.

I know the Thermablade was promising but it seemed to me the cost is too prohibitive for the incremental advantage it provided. I am sure you guys have already hashed the Thermablade discussion to death (I will search the posts) but I am more interesed in cheaper alternatives you have thought of (or tried) that have given you an improvement in speed, less friction, and the drawbacks to what you have tried. Is there anything that works besides stronger legs and better technique and dosen't cost $400.

Thanks in advance for your discussion on this topic.

[highorder 0]

In my opinion: aside from blade geometry, surface finish is the single most important factor relating to glide.

I used to grind tooling for a living, and surface finish has alot to do with tool longevity in circumstances where other factors (like heat) are successfully mitigated.

[interpathway 9]

surface finish is the single most important factor relating to glide.

Step steel. Superior finish on their product leads to less resistance. Check them out, plenty of threads lingering around here on the topic.

[Chadd 916]

surface finish is the single most important factor relating to glide.

Step steel. Superior finish on their product leads to less resistance. Check them out, plenty of threads lingering around here on the topic.

Higher quality steel is always better, not really applicable to this discussion.

I do agree that proper surface finish is more important than any coating or product that can be applied after sharpening. There are products that you can use on your final pass to improve the finish quality, and there are varying opinions as to what product is the best. I haven't seen any player-used products that will add glide/speed and will last more than a shift or two.

The reality is that there aren't shortcuts available