Buying Sharpener

[troybruins89 0]

Im new to this board and need some help...Sorry to give you my life story but here it goes. The closest rink to my house is a 30 minute drive away and the skate sharpener there does not sharpen correctly and leaves blades very jagged. The people working at the rink have no clue what they're doing and dont even know that there is something wrong with their sharpenings. The only other option for me to sharpen skates is a man that lives 45 minutes away from me and bought a sharpener for his home use. He does a very good job and has a lot of knowledge in the area. The problem with this is that he is unreliable and with him living 45 minutes away and me playing 6 times a week there is not alot of time for me to get my skates sharpened. I get my skates sharpened every other week so im paying about $10-$15 a month and i dont plan on stopping playing anytime soon. I think that it would be good to buy a sharpener for my own use...the man who sharpens them now is willing to teach me how to do it correctly and help me out with any problems i have but i would like to hear your input on if this is a good idea or not and here some ideas on what type of sharpener i should look into. Im not looking to spend over $1500 and less if i can find a nice one for a lower price. The members on this board seem to be very knowledgable and i would really appricate(spelling?)any ideas or input you have to offer. Thanks.

[JR Boucicaut 3765]

You can get a Wissota that will do the job for $800 new.

[sweetblazer 0]

Another thing you may want to look into is T-Blades.

[biff44 0]

I have had a Wissota for years! It is great. But it takes some skill to learn how to do the blades right.

Benefits:

Hundreds of hours saved by not having to drive around to get skates sharpened.

The ONLY way to sharpen skates in off times, like during a summer tournament when the rinks are closed.

You can do a custom hollow, and experiment around.

If you learn your stuff, you can get a very repeatable grind, far better than 95% of the teenagers running the sharpener at the local rink.

I have seen many many grinds from local rinks that are UNSKATABLE! If your kid keeps falling down, maybe its NOT his skating ability!

Drawbacks

Initial investment is high.

Running the sharpener is a little tricky. Sometimes the blade is a little bent, so the edges do not come out at the same height. You then either have to rebend or play around with positioning the skate in the fixture until it comes out right.

You have to keep checking the end result, the best way is with a pretty expensive edge checker dial guage.

The grinder makes a mess of relatively toxic material, you need to use it in a garage or with a ventilation system.

There is some danger, you need to add an eye protection shield in case the stone explodes.

Probably not something you want someone under 18 years old to operate.

But all in all, I highly recommend it. I don't know what I would do without mine.

[biff44 0]

And another benfit: your skate blades will last forever, or until they crack in half. What happens at most rinks is that they first take your skates over to a crosscut grinder and grind the bottom of the blade flat. They then move to a rounded stone and grind the hollow. Each grinding you are losing around 0.020" of blade depth. That adds up pretty quickly.

When you are grinding them yourself, you are basically just touching up the hollow grind. You might be losing 0.004" of blade depth per sharpening.

[Eazy_b97 1]

That may be area specific. I've never seen anyone use a grinder except on a first sharpening. I think a sharpeners a good investment, I plan to get one once I end my tenure at an LHS. The guys here are great for helping learn to sharpen.

[biff44 0]

I see it a lot in the Northeast. I can understand why. If a shop gets random skates in that have all different tilts (bad grinds) to the edges, it takes a lot of passes on the rounded stone to get the blade back to the correct profile. During the multiple passes, the rounded stone wears away unevenly, so they have to redress the stone, and grind some more, in a vicious circle. By grinding flat first, the do not have to redress their rounded stone so much. So they can save a few pennies per sharpening by not having to buy as many rounded stones. The fact that you, the customer, is standing there wincing as the sparks fly off your expensive blades is not their concern.

[JR Boucicaut 3765]

Not necessarily...

I never cross-grind. And TRUST ME, I have to correct a lot of skates.

Keep on cross-grinding and you ruin the profile of the skates.

[dix0r 0]

rink by my house cross grinds...but i get free sharpenings :[

[MDE3 0]

I have an older "Dupliskate" for sale, but I am afraid it is out of your stated price range and would be overkill for your personal needs unless you want to go into the sharpening business.... :P

[biff44 0]

JR, don't be bashful, where is your shop? There are plenty out there that need a good place to go to.

[JR Boucicaut 3765]

Orlando, FL.

And when I mean that I have to correct a lot of skates, THAT INCLUDES SKATES SHARPENED BY CO-WORKERS!

[troybruins89 0]

I have had a Wissota for years! It is great. But it takes some skill to learn how to do the blades right.

Benefits:

Hundreds of hours saved by not having to drive around to get skates sharpened.

The ONLY way to sharpen skates in off times, like during a summer tournament when the rinks are closed.

You can do a custom hollow, and experiment around.

If you learn your stuff, you can get a very repeatable grind, far better than 95% of the teenagers running the sharpener at the local rink.

I have seen many many grinds from local rinks that are UNSKATABLE! If your kid keeps falling down, maybe its NOT his skating ability!

Drawbacks

Initial investment is high.

Running the sharpener is a little tricky. Sometimes the blade is a little bent, so the edges do not come out at the same height. You then either have to rebend or play around with positioning the skate in the fixture until it comes out right.

You have to keep checking the end result, the best way is with a pretty expensive edge checker dial guage.

The grinder makes a mess of relatively toxic material, you need to use it in a garage or with a ventilation system.

There is some danger, you need to add an eye protection shield in case the stone explodes.

Probably not something you want someone under 18 years old to operate.

But all in all, I highly recommend it. I don't know what I would do without mine.

i dont think there will be much problem in the skill area an extensive background in machining should help me out there.

[Chadd 916]

I just sold my old wissota yesterday, with my new Blackstone I didn't need the old one anymore. Decent machine and you can put a nice edge on with one, even one that's 25 years old.

[Eazy_b97 1]

Were using a few old Wissota's at the store right now. I've never used anything else, so I can't rate these, but it gets the job done. I have no complaints, but like I said I don't have anything to compare it with.

[Chadd 916]

Were using a few old Wissota's at the store right now. I've never used anything else, so I can't rate these, but it gets the job done. I have no complaints, but like I said I don't have anything to compare it with.

It's nothing like my new machine, but it works.

[nieminen24 0]

EZ Sharp also makes a nice, affordable sharpener. It's costs a bit more than the Wissota, but there are more options for grinding wheels.

[biff44 0]

Troy, if you are a machinist you will have NO trouble using one. The only problem I run into routinely is if one of the blades is bent and I don't notice it before I sharpen. The geometry of the grinder is such that the blade has to be parallel to the table bed to get even edges. Since the blade is longer than the holder, sometimes you get a droop on one end.

The other potential problem would be if you sharpen a bunch of different skates with different blade thicknesses. The thin blades would ride in a different spot on the radius of the grinding stone than the thicker blades, since they both rest on the same spot--the bottom of the blade touching the holder. You could tilt the holder in or out to compensate (there is an adjusting knob).