Skates: Profiling vs. Wedges

[woodford 0]

Long time lurker, first time poster!

I recently purchased a new pair of NB One55's for my 8 year old son. He has skated approximtaley 10 times on them and we have been trying to work the bugs out before the start of hockey school.

Today we brought them into a LHS (not where they were purchased) and the gent there proceeded to tell me that we should remove the plastic heel wedge (put in by the original LHS where we purchased) and profile the blade instead. He had a few very valid points of profiling over wedging, but I figured I throw it out to the forum as I did not find too much in the search function.

Is there a benefit of one versus the other? Pro's/Con's of each? Or do the do the same thing? Essentially I am trying to promote a deep knee bend for the little guy.

Thanks

[JR Boucicaut 3815]

Do a search for heel lifts instead of wedges.

For me it depends on the type of skate and how much is needed. The only thing with profiling is that if you should be fine if you are seeing the same sharpener every time. A bad sharpener can ruin a profile with one pass.

[jimmy 194]

I would keep the lifts in since they are there. But, I also recommend profiling. What if the balance point is off on the stock steel, as is common. You have lifts but it could be counteracted by an off blade, or as JR said, by a bad sharpener at anytime in the future. The price for a profiling is so little, it is well worth it to have the blades balanced and matched, even if you don't add more pitch to them. With the lifts, is his knee bend still lacking? If so, you could profile a little more pitch in.