People are retarded

[JR Boucicaut 3760]

Funny story in the shop today -

Woman walks in and asks me if I'm qualified to sharpen skates. I tell her I am and she is like "Okay, good because I'm very anal about my skates and they have to be done just right. I haven't gotten my skates done in a year and a half because I haven't found anyone qualified enough." She then tells me that she just got hired as the rink's powerskating coach. I'm thinking to myself, she probably is very precise and whatnot.

Anyway, she has NO idea what her hollow is, however, they felt like 1/2. I put her Vapor 8 skates on the skate holder and I notice that they have been given a forward radius, and that it is EXTREMELY low in the front (past the wear line). I sharpen her skate, then finish it, and put the 2nd one one. I then notice this skate has a DEFENSIVE radius*. I say to myself, "She's about to find out how qualified I am."

She comes back and I go "Here you go. Just out of curiosity, why do you have a forward radius on your left skate and a defensive on your right?" She looks at me and is like "What?" then I show her. All this time and she had NO IDEA...

*reason why it happened is b/c the radiuser was a dipshit who did one skate with the toe to the right and one to the left. Both have to be done to the right.

[habsfan87 0]

That is pretty funny. A year and a half without sharpening her skates?

[JR Boucicaut 3760]

Habsfan, I think you missed the entire point.

Imagine having one skate leaning forward and one leaning back.

[Ranger-#8 1]

She must be a pritty good skater to have gone all that time and still teach power skating.

[JR Boucicaut 3760]

That's what I thought. But honestly, if she were THAT anal about her skates and that knowledgable, she would've known, right?

[tjobity 0]

Did you fix them up for her? Or did you just keep them at what she was used to. I dont know how someone could skate with one foot leaning foreward, and the other leaning backwards.

[JR Boucicaut 3760]

No, because there is not enough steel to correct it.

I'm beginning to think she went ALL this time with it like that. I'm just going to order her new steel, swap it out and give her another radius.

[Alden 0]

Could you tell just by looking at it that the defensive radius had a lot more steel on the front?

[JR Boucicaut 3760]

But of course! Oh, not to mention that the 'fwd' skate had overall at least 1 mm less steel on it.

[Chadd 916]

I find that most of the people who make a big deal about being picky are usually the most clueless. I love the guys who used to come in asking for 1/4 because they needed it to go faster. One guy was over 240 and he wanted 1/4 because "that's what the pros use". Of course he blamed me when he ripped up his knee 20 minutes later. I had three other people verify my work on that one because I knew what was going to happen. I did the old balance a razor blade thing and they were perfect.

[habsfan87 0]

Habsfan, I think you missed the entire point.

Imagine having one skate leaning forward and one leaning back.

I got the point, but that is also weird for someone anal like that too.

[MDE3 0]

Just curious...was her name "Fran"?

I have seen the same thing done as you observed in a skate pro shop. Sometimes this is a problem when the younger kids working there are allowed to sharpen the rental skates, and nobody really shows them how it has to be done. Then they graduate to doing private skates, and all hell breaks loose.

What really happened to me was that whoever cut the "rocker" on the one skate went brain dead, and rockered the one skate backwards...just forgot which way the boot was pointing..completely ruined my blade. When I showed the proshop operators what had happened(actually in this case it was one of the partners and rink hockey director who screwed it up) they were so embarrassed that they let me do my own skates after that, and anyone else on the travel team I coached.....not necessarily a situation I enjoyed...six kids clamoring before game time..coach coach....

The other most common flaw I have seen, is when the boot clamp height setting has not been centered to the center of the stone...so when I would balance the deburring stone across the edges, it could be at as much as a 30 degree angle...really fun to skate on.

As far as the radius goes, I also found that the feel of the bite as well as the duration of the edge varied with the quality of the steel used, as well as the radius.

Some of the steels used to make the blades were inferior, and you could not use a small radius, as they would loose their edge almost within a few shifts. If you looked carefully, the edges were actually "annealing , where the metal was too soft, and sometimes breaking slightly when it was too brittle in the cold..you needed a magnifying glass (at least I did..I could feel it but not see it with the naked eye)....Also the quality and hardness of the particular ice you are skating on should influence what radius you use.

[JR Boucicaut 3760]

All good points. It amazes me sometimes how people bastardize this profession and get away with it.

Yes, that's exactly what happened to her. On a Custom Radius holder, there are three settings - S/F/D...if you clamp the boot with the toe to your right then the settings work. However, if you go with the boot to the left, then the settings on the holder are reversed.

[Kyle_M 0]

Didn't she ever look at her steel? I mean wouldn't she realize her left steel had a different height and radius than her right? And whoever sharpened her skates before JR must have done a pretty bad job too.

[JR Boucicaut 3760]

No, she had no idea.

It's just really funny. She first questions my skills, then realizes that I knew more than she did all along. A lot of people throw a lot of terms and mumbo-jumbo around and think that they know it all. It's always fun correcting those people.

[Kyle_M 0]

A lot of people throw a lot of terms and mumbo-jumbo around and think that they know it all. It's always fun correcting those people.

I love it when I know more than those people. It makes me feel smart. :)

[habsfan87 0]

I thinks it funny when you go into hockey stores and the people telling you things and it being totally wrong.

[JR Boucicaut 3760]

Not in mine when I'm in :)

[Chadd 916]

That happens every time I'm in the Pittsburg Perani's, I end up helping more customers than the emloyees do.

[Kyle_M 0]

You're an exception to that, JR.:) That would be funny to watch ljack at a hockey store, telling the customers more than the employees could. :lol:

[Fire0nIce228 1]

ljack where do you live? I live pretty close to the Peranis but I've never been in there. Is it really nice? I go to Kosports in Canonsburg for most of my hockey needs as of late..

[Alden 0]

That happens every time I'm in the Pittsburg Perani's, I end up helping more customers than the emloyees do.

Exactly! My favorite one was when I went in asking about the XN10 (last Nov.) and they guy told me it wasn't anything special, just an orange Response! I bit my tongue because I don't like that type of confrontation.

[Chadd 916]

ljack where do you live? I live pretty close to the Peranis but I've never been in there. Is it really nice? I go to Kosports in Canonsburg for most of my hockey needs as of late..

I live in Harrisburg but I go to Pittsburgh every couple months. Don't get me started on those bums at KoSports again.

[Fire0nIce228 1]

lol, I never heard what you had to say about them the first time but sometimes they dont know what they're talking about but they have great selection and always have the latest stuff. My friend wanted some Eagle x80's and they didnt have our school colors out on the rack so the guy went in the back and found x80's in the right colors. They're real friendly atleast :)

[Chadd 916]

It took several months to get my replacement stick from them. In the meantime they got in the exact same model several times and sold them. There's a very long version but they were pricks every step of the way.