Sparx Skate Sharpener - At home sharpener

[smcgreg 81]

8 hours ago, JR Boucicaut said:

Novi's closer.  Jose will be there.

Glad he was able to land on his feet.  I hear you'll have to deal with Darren though... ;-) 

My son Liam was asking what was going to happen to Darren and Jose today.  I told him Darren would be at Troy and Jose would be at Novi.  He said, "Darn it.  That would have been great if JR, Jose and Darren were all at the same store".  That's the kind of impression the TH people from around here have made on him.   How many 11 yr olds look forward to seeing the staff at their LHSs?

On the TH front, I think they made a mistake closing AA.  People were just starting to realize it was there.  Seriously, last winter, people who frequented the Cube still didn't even know it was there.  I think one more year and it would have been as profitable as Novi or better.  Lots of underserved population in and west of Ann Arbor with nowhere else to go now.  Not to mention tournaments, etc.  but.. I digress.

Back to the topic at hand... Novi still isn't all that close.  With 3 people in the family all skating 4 or more times per week (actually my daughter's in figure skating too, so, add another pair of skates), without having a reliable shop in the neighborhood, it's really not practical to have to go out of town for a sharpening.  I'll give it some time to see how the logistics can work out before pulling the trigger though.  I'll probably try running up to Novi a couple times or having Darren take care of my steel at Troy since he'll be on the ice with me a couple times/week.  Still, not as handy as what I've had the past two years.  I'm pretty spoiled right now. 

[rlshky 0]

On ‎8‎/‎4‎/‎2016 at 8:35 AM, IPv6Freely said:

that said, I'm not sure I'd pay full retail for this thing, I'd probably buy an X01 instead (though not having to learn how to use it and get good at it is a plus for me). But at the Kickstarter price, I'm happy. 

 

That's the decision I'll be trying to make by the end of this month.  From Blackstone what I would get (X-01, 2 extra spinners, hone, edge checker, oil) would be about $970.  From Sparx what I'd get (Sharpener, 2 extra wheels, and eventually edge checker when they release one) will likely be just over $1100. 

 

Been trying to weigh pluses and minuses between the two.  Originally thought it would be fun and would be a feeling of accomplishment of learning how to use the X-01 and perfecting the skill/craft of sharpening my own skates, but since seeing the Sparx sharpener I'm starting to think the ease of use may be more appealing.  I also never considered possible dust etc. the X-01 would create until reading about the Sparx air filter/clean up.  Leaning towards the Sparx, but just wish it was a little cheaper than $900.  Will definitely be keeping up with this thread to see what experiences others have w/ it over the next month. 

[mc88 160]

1 hour ago, rlshky said:

 

That's the decision I'll be trying to make by the end of this month.  From Blackstone what I would get (X-01, 2 extra spinners, hone, edge checker, oil) would be about $970.  From Sparx what I'd get (Sharpener, 2 extra wheels, and eventually edge checker when they release one) will likely be just over $1100. 

 

Been trying to weigh pluses and minuses between the two.  Originally thought it would be fun and would be a feeling of accomplishment of learning how to use the X-01 and perfecting the skill/craft of sharpening my own skates, but since seeing the Sparx sharpener I'm starting to think the ease of use may be more appealing.  I also never considered possible dust etc. the X-01 would create until reading about the Sparx air filter/clean up.  Leaning towards the Sparx, but just wish it was a little cheaper than $900.  Will definitely be keeping up with this thread to see what experiences others have w/ it over the next month. 

Sharpening skates is overrated and can be quite tedious... but, aside from that, just keep in mind that you'll need to have a good ventilation system and some sort of vacuum set up. Else you'll get all those lovely shavings in your lungs and around the surrounding area.  My buddy has an X01 setup and runs a vacuum that sits on the outside (for noise control), and has the hose running thru an open door and up to the end of the base plate... and takes up a good chunk of his garage space! You'll also be looking at $22/grinding ring, $58-$88/spinner and $125 for a bronze clamp (doesn't look like they include it in their X series sharpeners).

 

You can also take a look a fellow member's X02 setup:

Edited August 6, 2016 by mc88

[All Flash 49]

16 hours ago, mc88 said:

Sharpening skates is overrated and can be quite tedious... but, aside from that, just keep in mind that you'll need to have a good ventilation system and some sort of vacuum set up. Else you'll get all those lovely shavings in your lungs and around the surrounding area.  My buddy has an X01 setup and runs a vacuum that sits on the outside (for noise control), and has the hose running thru an open door and up to the end of the base plate... and takes up a good chunk of his garage space! You'll also be looking at $22/grinding ring, $58-$88/spinner and $125 for a bronze clamp (doesn't look like they include it in their X series sharpeners).

 

You can also take a look a fellow member's X02 setup:

Ouch ...... Sharpeners....... first to get blamed last to get credit.

 

[oldtrainerguy28 478]

Sharpening skates is overrated? Say what?

[cmflynn 16]

I think he meant overrated as in sharpening your own skates isn't as fun and rewarding as some of us assume it would be

[mc88 160]

1 hour ago, cmflynn said:

I think he meant overrated as in sharpening your own skates isn't as fun and rewarding as some of us assume it would be

This. 

After you've done your first ten pairs, the initial wow factor diminishes quite quickly. Depending on the jig, it can become a cat and mouse game (adjust one side and then the other side becomes unleveled--back and forth, back and forth!)

This past season, a local EQM had problems with his stationary machine where it would work for 30mins then randomly power off. One of my co-workers had to hot wire the damn thing so it would bypass some plug or something. The EQM was super stressed out because he had a playoff game he needed to prepare for and the machine wasn't playing nice.

 

 

 

Edited August 7, 2016 by mc88

[IPv6Freely 2092]

I think it'd be fun sometimes, but yea generally it's a "will be nice to give them a fresh edge while I'm packing up my gear to go play".

The fact that I literally just "push play" and walk away is appealing to me.

[marka 526]

Howdy,

9 hours ago, mc88 said:

Depending on the jig, it can become a cat and mouse game (adjust one side and then the other side becomes unleveled--back and forth, back and forth!)

 

 

 

That reminds me of a question I had...  Why is adjusting the height necessary?  Are the various steels/runners not the same thickness?  I'd have thought that once you adjusted the holder to hit the center of the wheel with an 1/8" steel, any 1/8" steel would also hit the center?  The holders clamp directly to the steels, right?

Mark

[Kgbeast 195]

29 minutes ago, marka said:

Howdy,

 

That reminds me of a question I had...  Why is adjusting the height necessary?  Are the various steels/runners not the same thickness?  I'd have thought that once you adjusted the holder to hit the center of the wheel with an 1/8" steel, any 1/8" steel would also hit the center?  The holders clamp directly to the steels, right?

Mark

The hockey blades are between 0.11 and 0.125, with goalie blades are between 0.13 and 0.16. The difference are across the brands as well as within brand sometimes (like youth vs senior, or low end vs high end)

[stevebalchunas 32]

On 8/1/2016 at 4:28 PM, Bane said:

They say it's FBV, so just going off of their literature and labeling of their Fire rings. I'm not sure what BFD is, but I would be interested in hearing what the difference is and why Sparx isn't Flat Bottom V.  

 

 

Just to clear the air a bit here... the FIRE Ring is not FBV as most of you have gathered by now. It's also not a direct copy of the BFD. It's our own version of the flat bottom profile where we keep the 3/8", 1/2", etc. bite angle but truncated the hollow. So, that's like BFD right? Almost, although we cannot speak for the angles/radius of Blademasters profiles. What we did was since those edges (fangs) on any flat bottom profile, for the most part, are thin (paper thin as jimmy and kgdbeast have pointed out), we shortened the flat area and made the fangs more forgiving.

Why do they have to be more forgiving? We've done a decent amount of research on blade straightness and one thing is clear, most if not all steel is bent to some degree. So, to make sure all of our flat bottom customers were getting edges, we wanted to account for this and NOT make profiles that we knew internally would end up not producing consistent, great edges.

Personally, I've always wondered why those who went to FIRE, BFD, FBV didn't just try a shallower hollow first, but that's a discussion for another thread I'm sure. 

 

[flip12 714]

16 minutes ago, stevebalchunas said:

Personally, I've always wondered why those who went to FIRE, BFD, FBV didn't just try a shallower hollow first, but that's a discussion for another thread I'm sure. 

 

Some have.

[mojo122 535]

4 hours ago, stevebalchunas said:

Personally, I've always wondered why those who went to FIRE, BFD, FBV didn't just try a shallower hollow first, but that's a discussion for another thread I'm sure. 
 

There must be something significant in regards to FBV and BFD otherwise there would be no FIRE with SPARX.

[stevebalchunas 32]

On 8/7/2016 at 0:15 AM, mc88 said:

11 hours ago, mojo122 said:

There must be something significant in regards to FBV and BFD otherwise there would be no FIRE with SPARX.

Consumers request it.

There would be handful of folks who wouldn't purchase a Sparx if we didn't offer a flat profile. 

%-wise though, there's a very small number of elite/pro level players using flat profiles and a bigger % with average consumers. I would suspect, if there was an enourmous performance benefit (that could only be acheived through the flat profile and not a larger radius), there would be higher pro adoption. 

I do totally understand it's a preference thing though. If you like it, I wouldn't judge you, I just may have had you try some crazy larger hollows before switching over to a flat if you came to me for advice.  

[flip12 714]

3 hours ago, stevebalchunas said:

 

Quote doesn't seem to be working, but the part about trying larger hollows: even some of an area's better local shops simply don't get it and treat you like a moron for asking for shallower hollows. FBV is a little more accessible maybe.

[stevebalchunas 32]

6 minutes ago, flip12 said:

Quote doesn't seem to be working, but the part about trying larger hollows: even some of an area's better local shops simply don't get it and treat you like a moron for asking for shallower hollows. FBV is a little more accessible maybe.

 

I think that may be the case. 

In general, there's not enough sharpening knowledge out there (on both sides of the fence). 

[IPv6Freely 2092]

I thought the whole concept was that with standard radius you:

- sacrifice glide if you go to a deeper cut, or;

- sacrifice bite if you go to a shallower cut

But, with FBV you can get as much or as little bite as you want without changing how much glide you get because of the flat bottom.

At least that's the idea if I understood correctly from the massive FBV thread on here. 

Even as a poor skater I felt like it made a significant enough difference to keep doing it. Though that could very well be all in the head.

Either way, while it wouldn't have kept me from buying Sparx, I'm sure it's very true that without it there may have been some customers who would have passed.

Im just dying to get back on skates after this damn broken ankle so I can use my Sparx again!

[smcgreg 81]

On 8/17/2016 at 3:00 PM, flip12 said:

Quote doesn't seem to be working, but the part about trying larger hollows: even some of an area's better local shops simply don't get it and treat you like a moron for asking for shallower hollows. FBV is a little more accessible maybe.

In fact, some may even give you a 1/2 in unbeknownst to you, because they think they know better.  It's happened to me before.  As if I wouldn't be able to tell.  When approached, they told me they wanted to prove to me that it wouldn't make any difference.   Needless to say, I don't go there anymore. 

[Truckie 27]

50 minutes ago, smcgreg said:

In fact, some may even give you a 1/2 in unbeknownst to you, because they think they know better.  It's happened to me before.  As if I wouldn't be able to tell.  When approached, they told me they wanted to prove to me that it wouldn't make any difference.   Needless to say, I don't go there anymore. 

Exactly!  I was given 1/2"  with no asking or explanation of sharpening options and results...  Just went back and asked for 5/8  as I feel I am biting too much

[bootsmagee 15]

Can anyone chime in on what we should be looking for when a freshly sharpened skate has been properly deburred?  Especially when deburring those new specialty (blackened/polished) blades where the skater might not want the outside finish to be scuffed by the deburring stone.  Sparx instructs to use only the leather strop for these blades, but I'm not sure the leather strop alone gives the same result as using the stone, even when following the directions word-for-word.  The leather stop alone doesn't seem to remove the microscopic "curled over" edge that can be felt after a sharpening, whereas the stone seems to remove this edge.  I'm no sharpening expert though, so what exactly are we looking to see/feel, if anything, after deburring?

[stevebalchunas 32]

On 7/22/2016 at 6:55 PM, colins said:

7 hours ago, bootsmagee said:

Can anyone chime in on what we should be looking for when a freshly sharpened skate has been properly deburred?  Especially when deburring those new specialty (blackened/polished) blades where the skater might not want the outside finish to be scuffed by the deburring stone.  Sparx instructs to use only the leather strop for these blades, but I'm not sure the leather strop alone gives the same result as using the stone, even when following the directions word-for-word.  The leather stop alone doesn't seem to remove the microscopic "curled over" edge that can be felt after a sharpening, whereas the stone seems to remove this edge.  I'm no sharpening expert though, so what exactly are we looking to see/feel, if anything, after deburring?

 

 

3

We're going to be putting out a pretty in-depth blog on deburring in a couple days on the Sparx site, but in the meantime... here are a few things you could try on a polished/coated blade:

Ceramic Honing Stone, Arkansas Honing Stone, Scouring Pads, Leather Strop mounted on wood (more sturdy than the strop), Gummy stone... all of these can help, but be careful with the first two, you can gently peel off the burr with them if you're careful.  

Personally, I'd say you might not have to obsess over the real small burrs. I've been sharpening and skating for a long time and I definitely do not spend 15 minutes deburring my blades. But I do understand that some can be very anal about it and will spend that time on it. To each his own, figure out what works for you!

2

3

Edited September 27, 2016 by stevebalchunas

[Kgbeast 195]

Lowes sells Smith 4in Arkansas Honing stone for $6. You can get the same from Amazon as well. 

[aintitthelife98 28]

It seems the quality of sharpening I get at my LHS is pretty hit or miss as they have a wide range of employees in terms of age/experience.  This device is extremely tempting to me with having a 4 year old who's skating 2-3 times a week and then I also skate 2-3 times a week.  Break even on the cost will be a while but there is definitely something to be said for convenience and consistency.  What to do, what to do :-)

[IPv6Freely 2092]

I just use the leather for my coated blades.

[bootsmagee 15]

11 hours ago, stevebalchunas said:

 

Thanks, Steve.  I look forward to checking out the new blog post.  And maybe a slight burr isn't a big deal or will wear down on it's own after a little skating; I haven't experimented with that, so we'll see.