Cracked the steel on my Bauer 8090's

[Accord 0]

I was at practice today and we were doing some drills, all of a sudden I felt like I lost an edge on my left Bauer 8090 and I couldn't glide at all, then it felt like the blade on the skate was loose and I knew something was wrong. I went to the bench and looked at my skate and there was this huge crack directly down the middle. I was so PO'ed that I ripped th skin off my left index finger when unlacing my skates, but that's a whole other story. The rink we were at didn't have any 272 Lightspeed runners and our next game is on Wednesday. I came home and called every online hockey store I could think of, nobody had them and some of them told me that there was a serious defect on the 8090's and the blade cracking like that happens often on 8090's. Luckily I found a shop down in Homestead (an our drive)that had exactly what I needed and I got them replaced.

Here are the pictures:

[JR Boucicaut 3810]

It's nothing new, Bauer's bad batch of steel is known and has been corrected.

Homestead has a store? Where?

[Chadd 916]

We get our Bauer steel though a wholesaler and their shipment due in mid-December still hasn't shown up.

[Accord 0]

It's nothing new, Bauer's bad batch of steel is known and has been corrected.

Homestead has a store? Where?

It's not an actual hockey store, it's one of those ski and sport type places.

[jimmy 194]

Most breaks are caused way back during the first skate sharpening, not by so-called bad batches of steel. Rushing to get the job done, the sharpener burns and overheats the steel, weakening it's strength (and ability to hold an edge).

I replace hundreds of runners a season, CCM, Bauer, Graf, Mission. It's no coincidence that virtually none of them were sharpened first by me. Very few, if any of the skates bought at my store are brought back with broker runners, even Bauers. It is my opinion the the "bad batch" is a conveinent excuse to blame it on Bauer, rather than at the root cause.

I had one customer who broke 5 blades on VapXX's in two weeks. He kept on getting them replaced under warranty at the place he bought the skates. Luckily for him, they ran out of replacement and he came to me. No more broken blades.

Having said all that, stainless runners can break, even if sharpened properly. But, generally overheating leads to failure.

I got the LS2 steel last week. I'm assuming I'll be replacing them too. :-)

[Accord 0]

Most breaks are caused way back during the first skate sharpening, not by so-called bad batches of steel. Rushing to get the job done, the sharpener burns and overheats the steel, weakening it's strength (and ability to hold an edge).

I replace hundreds of runners a season, CCM, Bauer, Graf, Mission. It's no coincidence that virtually none of them were sharpened first by me. Very few, if any of the skates bought at my store are brought back with broker runners, even Bauers. It is my opinion the the "bad batch" is a conveinent excuse to blame it on Bauer, rather than at the root cause.

I had one customer who broke 5 blades on VapXX's in two weeks. He kept on getting them replaced under warranty at the place he bought the skates. Luckily for him, they ran out of replacement and he came to me. No more broken blades.

Having said all that, stainless runners can break, even if sharpened properly. But, generally overheating leads to failure.

I got the LS2 steel last week. I'm assuming I'll be replacing them too. :-)

Wow, you hit the nail right on the head. When I bought these skates, I got them from a shop I had never been to before and had them sharpen them, the first time I ever skated in them I had to get off the ice and have them re-sharpened by the rink I always go to because the first job was so bad and the edges were horribly uneven.

Is there anyway that you can tell if the steel was overheated or not? Perhaps a discoloration or something along those lines?

[Eazy_b97 1]

Burns can be pretty obvious. You want to look at the bottom of the skate and make sure that the lines are all like this ====== (except connected) instead of line this ==I=== which means the person paused at that place.

[JR Boucicaut 3810]

It is my opinion the the "bad batch" is a conveinent excuse to blame it on Bauer, rather than at the root cause.

Um...when the manufacturer admits to it being faulty steel and telling their dealers that, what do you call it then?

[jimmy 194]

J.R,

If that's the case, then how many years has the steel been substandard. I'm replacing just as much Bauer steel as I have in the past few years. Haven't seen any rash increase. Still, this season, I haven't had to replace any of the Bauers I've sold. So, I guess, they are sending me skates with good steel. :-)

[JR Boucicaut 3810]

The first batch of 8090 steel had problems. I can't remember what the problem was but they changed something in the manufacturing process. I will ask my rep exactly what they changed.

I agree with you on the overheating - yes, it contributes to the problem, but like I said, they have changed the steel.

[Accord 0]

The first batch of 8090 steel had problems. I can't remember what the problem was but they changed something in the manufacturing process. I will ask my rep exactly what they changed.

I agree with you on the overheating - yes, it contributes to the problem, but like I said, they have changed the steel.

Is there anyway to tell if my skates came from the first batch?

[asdfa 0]

wow, that's the exact same thing that happened on my 8090's, except on the right skate. i played through a period with it though :P

i got my skates in.. april-may and it was the "first batch", so if you got yours around them, that would definately be the case.

[Jbone 0]

Did it break by getting hit with a puck? I broke steel twice on Missions and Tuuk Custom+ but the stell was much skinnier than yours, so that must be the reason.

[Eazy_b97 1]

You're the third person today who I've heard of breaking a blade on Lightspeeds (2 perf, 1 non).

[Sniper407 0]

add 1 to perf from my XXs at a nice pick up game with my cousins today

[black296tuuk 3]

The first batch of 8090 steel had problems.  I can't remember what the problem was but they changed something in the manufacturing process.  I will ask my rep exactly what they changed.

I agree with you on the overheating - yes, it contributes to the problem, but like I said, they have changed the steel.

Is there anyway to tell if my skates came from the first batch?

Despite the superior skills of Jimmy, you should take the steel back to where you bought the skates and if they wont help you call Bauer yourself. You should not have to pay for that steel.

[joshy207 15]

I've seen probably 10 times the amount of broken Bauer/Lightspeed steel in the last 6 months than I ever have, and I've been in the business since 1991. Bauer admitted to the faulty batch of steel, and I've seen blades cracked on the first, second, third skates, or after 4 months... talked to guys who have gone through 3 and 4 pieces of steel over a 3 week period... seen broken steel on guys between 12 and 60 years old... had them sharpened at just about every place possible... shall I go on?

From talking to the local Bauer pro rep, I gathered that the problem surfaced late last NHL season. The problem carried over into retail. Bauer was basically out of stock for a time, while the problem was being corrected and the faulty steel was being replaced. As already said, the problem is fixed and any new, recently-shipped steel should be fine.

I'm not a fan of the Lightspeed anyway, I think it's inferior even to the Tuuk Custom+. (Now that the bottom edge of the holder and the screw system have been fixed, my opinion is improving... slightly.) The only thing I like about it is the higher heel.

I bought a pair of 8090s off a kid I work with, he wore them 6 times and broke the steel, never got them fixed and went back to his old skates, then ended up buying (and liking) Synergy skates. First thing I did was take the Lightspeeds off and put on ICMs. I LOVE the ICM, it's extremely durable and isn't much heavier than a Tuuk or Lightspeed. Easier to sharpen, too. And if I need to find more blades, I can go to a Play It Again and find some cheap, used skates with decent ICMs....

[Cavs019 710]

Same exact break in the same exact spot happened on my 8090s the first time I used them. They were from the first batch as well. Clearly it is a steel issue.

[Accord 0]

The first batch of 8090 steel had problems.  I can't remember what the problem was but they changed something in the manufacturing process.  I will ask my rep exactly what they changed.

I agree with you on the overheating - yes, it contributes to the problem, but like I said, they have changed the steel.

Is there anyway to tell if my skates came from the first batch?

Despite the superior skills of Jimmy, you should take the steel back to where you bought the skates and if they wont help you call Bauer yourself. You should not have to pay for that steel.

I just called the store and they won't do anything about it, I told them about the bad first sharpening and they gave me some crap about how their sharpener was specially trained by CCM or something even though he's like 15.

I then called Bauer but they're closed because it's MLK day, so i'll try them again tomorrow.

[Accord 0]

Here is a picture of the cracked steel out of the holder:

[Tricky4L 0]

Had the same thing happen to me about a month ago. Worst part, I was into the first peroid reffing a u-18 game... yea didn't go over well. Had the crack just about centre. Now I'm using one perf and one non-perf and I looks like the perf blade is warping the holder, looks like it's turning into a $70-90 problem.

Whatever such is life huh?

[Brandonov22 0]

Any Bauer retailer should be able to warrenty the runner for you, even if the skates weren't purchased there.

As for the problem with the L/S steel, if I remember right the same thing was happening a few years back with Graf runners too. My Bauer rep told me that it had something to do with the way they were cut. The laser would start cutting the steel in the middle and go to the edge, and then come back to the middle and cut the other side. Now they are starting the laser closer towards the heel of the runner. Graf did something similar if I remember right and we havn't had a problem since with their runners.

[jigsaw 0]

cool.. the same thing happened to my bauer vapors during a game of mine

[biff44 0]

RE: First sharpening. There is not reason for overheating blades on a first sharpening! If you don't know what you are doing, just take a damp cloth and cool down the blade after every 5 passes or so!

[Accord 0]

Does anyone know what Bauer's phone number is? I looked on their website and can't find anything and on their contact page they list the address but no phone number.

Thanks