Sparx Skate Sharpener - At home sharpener

[bootsmagee 15]

The hate is real..

[IPv6Freely 2092]

We definitely should not be discouraging manufacturers from replying to questions/comments/concerns. We should be embracing that, as most other consumers don't get that opportunity. 

If this thread was full of spam, it would be a different story.

[DarkStar50 679]

^^^ hahaha.......I've been here a long time and seen the input that other vendors have shared.  However, those vendors were not selling their products directly to you, were they? I understand what is going on.  Long before there was Sparx, there were plenty of other in home automatic sharpeners. I'm not going to rehash old news on that front. I just see a different dynamic here that's all. Now that I've got your attention, I don't expect anything to change. No worries on my part. Guys like jimmy, oldtrainer, and myself confidently stand behind our work and knowledge in sharpening.  Carry on.

[DarkStar50 679]

the hahaha was for the hate comment. No hate here. That is just wasted emotion and energy.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

8 minutes ago, DarkStar50 said:

^^^ hahaha.......I've been here a long time and seen the input that other vendors have shared.  However, those vendors were not selling their products directly to you, were they? I understand what is going on.  Long before there was Sparx, there were plenty of other in home automatic sharpeners. I'm not going to rehash old news on that front. I just see a different dynamic here that's all. Now that I've got your attention, I don't expect anything to change. No worries on my part. Guys like jimmy, oldtrainer, and myself confidently stand behind our work and knowledge in sharpening.  Carry on.

Well, one of you can feel free to move to north county San Diego so I don't need the Sparx ;)

That said, there's nothing "going on" here. 

[Stewie 721]

34 minutes ago, DarkStar50 said:

^^^ hahaha.......I've been here a long time and seen the input that other vendors have shared.  However, those vendors were not selling their products directly to you, were they? I understand what is going on.  Long before there was Sparx, there were plenty of other in home automatic sharpeners. I'm not going to rehash old news on that front. I just see a different dynamic here that's all. Now that I've got your attention, I don't expect anything to change. No worries on my part. Guys like jimmy, oldtrainer, and myself confidently stand behind our work and knowledge in sharpening.  Carry on.

how they are selling the product has no bearing on the validity of this thread. Just because Warrior/Bauer/CCM distributes its product through your LHS/Big Box/ETC, they still want you to buy their product over the competitors, and have countless times mentioned their features or added performance benefits. The difference here is that the Sparx is a high costed, niche product that wouldn't do as well at a LHS due to the cost, nor is likely wanted due to the perceived competition. There is no different dynamic here, other than vitriol, as 75 percent of sparx posts on this thread lately have to do with responses to those same 3 you mentioned. People ask questions, they answer. All they have asked for thus far is an open mind, not an open pocketbook.

I have no desire to own one, but I do enjoy reading about it.

 

Edited October 21, 2016 by Stewie

[bootsmagee 15]

55 minutes ago, DarkStar50 said:

the hahaha was for the hate comment. No hate here. That is just wasted emotion and energy.

I was just being a wize a**, but on a more serious note..all of you guys who sharpen skates as or as part of your small business (assuming that you do quality work and provide a good service) , I don't think you're going to see a product like Sparx take away your livelihood.  I mean, if I had received the kind of service I expect at my local rinks or a local shop, I wouldn't have brought up the idea of investing in the Sparx to my hockey team and I wouldn't be sharpening our skates with the Sparx.  I'm of the belief that if you're good at what you do and you're a personable person, you will have no problem attaining and keeping a customer base.  Business isn't ONLY about good service, most people also like to have "their guy" and develop that personal relationship.  So unless all you guys are in doubt of the service you provide, or you're just plain grumpy, what's with all the negativity here??

Now like I said a few pages ago, if some of you guys seriously don't believe that the product is effective or you think it's not capable of something, ask questions or tell us why you think so!  We've got a knowledgeable guy in here directly from the company willing to answer these questions and comments.  So instead of being so off-put by the whole thing, why not just have some constructive conversation on the topic?

[TBR 11]

1 hour ago, IPv6Freely said:

Well, one of you can feel free to move to north county San Diego so I don't need the Sparx ;)

That said, there's nothing "going on" here. 

Pretty sure the quality of work you'll get in Poway will put to shame anything the sparkle can do.

[Chadd 916]

2 hours ago, IPv6Freely said:

If this thread was full of spam, it would be a different story.

I've deleted quite a bit of spam, there's a reason that you don't see it in this topic, or others.

[bootsmagee 15]

25 minutes ago, Chadd said:

I've deleted quite a bit of spam, there's a reason that you don't see it in this topic, or others.

I think he meant spam from Sparx, if I was following correctly.

36 minutes ago, TBR said:

Pretty sure the quality of work you'll get in Poway will put to shame anything the sparkle can do.

You had some bad sharpenings off a Sparx?  What happened?

[stevebalchunas 32]

4 hours ago, marka said:

Re: bent blades, wouldn't a sufficiently stiff clamp fix this, at least in terms of keeping the center of the stone in the center of the blade?

Somewhat related assumption, my guess is that as long as the edges are consistent, a minor bend in a blade isn't going to be noticeable when you're skating.

 

 

Hey Mark, 

Yes, the skate clamp (clearing the air here, when I say clamp, I'm referring to all clamps Sparx, Blackstone, Blademaster, etc.) is going to straighten (for the most part) that center 4 to 5 inches to probably < .001", it's once you get outside of that where the blade can still bend. 

I would also agree with the second statement as well, in general, if you have a mild bend you'll be just fine. If you search the "perfect" blade, you may never find it.

[DarkStar50 679]

I have seen bent blades in the middle of the blade. The bow is not necessarily always at the toe or heel of the blade.

Just curious, how long have you been sharpening skates?

For the record, no malice intended in this question. I am asking as a frame of reference.

Thanks.

[stevebalchunas 32]

15 minutes ago, DarkStar50 said:

I have seen bent blades in the middle of the blade. The bow is not necessarily always at the toe or heel of the blade.

Just curious, how long have you been sharpening skates?

For the record, no malice intended in this question. I am asking as a frame of reference.

Thanks.

 

100% agree... I was trying to say when you clamp the skate in, you still can't control the bend outside of the clamp. When we did our research, all of the blades were in a clamp, we never tested a loose piece of steel (one would assume those bends would only be even more pronounced). But again, we can only control what we can control, so that's why I always reference that center 4"-5", and in those cases, a clamp is going to do a real good job straightening a bow in the middle. 

I've been sharpening for going on 14 years now. A lot of that was in retail, so I'd like to think I've seen a lot. And I think like a lot of us in here who sharpen know there are a lot of theories and ways people think it should be done and we take bits and pieces of all of that stuff and form our own opinions. I think the coolest thing for me has been the last couple years and getting to toss all those theories to the smart guys in the office who can measure the smallest bends, changes in hollow depth, put burrs under powerful microscopes, and prove a lot of what we think we know/knew.

And for the record, I really do hope we can learn stuff from each other and not be all manual vs. Sparx in here all the time. If I think I can provide some value or insight, I'm going to post if that's OK with everyone. 

How about yourself?

 

 

[marka 526]

Howdy,

Is there a reason the skate clamp can't be wider, if mildly bent blades are a common problem?

Mark

[stevebalchunas 32]

That's a good question. 

I wouldn't call mild bends an issue, though. If they exist in almost every blade, we're all doing fine skating on what we have now so... and remember, if you straighten a mildly bent blade while sharpening, it's going to go right back to being mildly bent when skating (with level edges? sure, but we're kind of splitting hairs at that point). 

There are so many variables at play when trying to nail all the things in a great sharpening. I think the best of us (even the pros) try and get as close to perfect as possible but understand you'll almost never get everything going for you all at once (I'm sure our engineers would argue you'd never hit "perfect"). 

[IPv6Freely 2092]

4 hours ago, TBR said:

Pretty sure the quality of work you'll get in Poway will put to shame anything the sparkle can do.

Maybe, but it's far enough away that I've never been there, so quite irrelevant.

[DarkStar50 679]

I've been sharpening since 1980 on the hockey side. My partner in the shop has been sharpening since 1978. He works exclusively with elite and Olympic figure skaters in sharpening and fitting. In 2002 our rink sent 11 figure skaters to Salt Lake City for the Olympics, including freestyle Gold Medalist Sarah Hughes, pairs Gold Medalists Elena Berezhnaya/ Anton Sikharulidze. We were responsible for all competitors skates at those Olympics as well as future competitions in Torino 2006, Vancouver 2010, and Sochi 2014 that trained at the Ice House in Hackensack, NJ. 

[oldtrainerguy28 478]

4 hours ago, stevebalchunas said:

100% agree... I was trying to say when you clamp the skate in, you still can't control the bend outside of the clamp. When we did our research, all of the blades were in a clamp, we never tested a loose piece of steel (one would assume those bends would only be even more pronounced). But again, we can only control what we can control, so that's why I always reference that center 4"-5", and in those cases, a clamp is going to do a real good job straightening a bow in the middle. 

I've been sharpening for going on 14 years now. A lot of that was in retail, so I'd like to think I've seen a lot. And I think like a lot of us in here who sharpen know there are a lot of theories and ways people think it should be done and we take bits and pieces of all of that stuff and form our own opinions. I think the coolest thing for me has been the last couple years and getting to toss all those theories to the smart guys in the office who can measure the smallest bends, changes in hollow depth, put burrs under powerful microscopes, and prove a lot of what we think we know/knew.

And for the record, I really do hope we can learn stuff from each other and not be all manual vs. Sparx in here all the time. If I think I can provide some value or insight, I'm going to post if that's OK with everyone. 

How about yourself?

 

 

If you really want it not Sparx vs the Pros you may want to adjust  some of your ad's. They are kind of of putting. 

[Vet88 674]

9 hours ago, marka said:

Howdy,

Is there a reason the skate clamp can't be wider, if mildly bent blades are a common problem?

Mark

Some machines have a clamp that runs the length of the blade (eg Incredible Edger machine) and I haven't seen a blade yet that these can't straighten for the sharpen. When you take them out of the clamp then that's another matter, they are still bent and as hard as I have tried, I haven't found a way to reliably straighten them. I was told if you retemper them whilst clamped in a shaping jig then you can have some success but that seems a lot of work for a $50 blade. Better of spending your time and money on a quality blade like Step etc.

[Chadd 916]

14 hours ago, bootsmagee said:

I think he meant spam from Sparx, if I was following correctly.

If you were following correctly, you would have noticed that I said "...in this topic...."

[bootsmagee 15]

1 hour ago, Chadd said:

If you were following correctly, you would have noticed that I said "...in this topic...."

Wut...the validity of this thread was brought into question.  I took IPv6Freely's comment as to say "If this thread was full of spam [from Sparx], it would be a different story."  We all appreciate guys such as you who keep threads clean, so thanks for that.

[Chadd 916]

3 hours ago, bootsmagee said:

Wut...the validity of this thread was brought into question.  I took IPv6Freely's comment as to say "If this thread was full of spam [from Sparx], it would be a different story."  We all appreciate guys such as you who keep threads clean, so thanks for that.

He says a great number of things that are wrong and treats his opinions as facts. Frequently, the loudest voices are the ones that you should listen to the least. 

[JR Boucicaut 3795]

Let's get back on topic. 

[Buzz_LightBeer 969]

On 10/18/2016 at 3:46 PM, IPv6Freely said:

This is why I got a Sparx (photo of my old runners courtesy of JR):

 

If that's the worst sharpen your local place puts out, consider yourself fortunate. 

 

 

Ive been sharpening for 15+ years, I'm sure this Sparx will find its place in the niche markets, just as any other upstart product does. However, people who try to remove the element of human error also eliminate the element of human correction, which I submit is necessary to the art of skate sharpening. 

I'm curious as to how these machines will hold up durability wise, and how long-term calibration of them will be handled. I find it hard to believe these machines can sit in homes and sharpen for any length of time without requiring some maintenance. 

Edited October 23, 2016 by Buzz_LightBeer

[IPv6Freely 2092]

1 minute ago, Buzz_LightBeer said:

If that's the worst sharpen your local place puts out, consider yourself fortunate. 

 

 

Ive been sharpening for 15+ years, I'm sure this Sparx will find its place in the niche markets, just as any other upstart product does. However, people who try to remove the element of human error also eliminate the element of human correct, which I submit is necessary to the art of skate sharpening. 

I'm curious as to how these machines will hold up durability wise, and how long-term calibration of them will be handled. I find it hard to believe these machines can sit in homes and sharpen for any length of time without requiring some maintenance. 

Yea it was really more about having something convenient than anything else.