Are my skate blade heights too short?

[Deker 2]

I have the CCM Ribcore 76K skates that I bought about a year ago (size 7.5 EE).  I'm wondering if the blade height is too small.  You can see a pic here: https://ibb.co/mBC38X6

Even though the ruler reads 0.8 cm, it's about 0.3 cm from the edge of the ruler to "0", so the blade height is roughly 1.0 cm to 1.1 cm.  I'm skating fine with them now but I don't want to have to make a huge adjustment if I have to replace them with taller blades.

Also, I'm noticing that people in these forums seem to like the Step Steel blades.  Are they really that better than other replacement blades?

[althoma1 574]

The steel height in that picture looks good and looks closer to new than replacement level. They should be fine for a while. I would think about replacing them when they're closer to half a cm.

[Deker 2]

Ok, that's encouraging to hear.  But when I showed those skates to a skate sharpener, she said they were too short and she even showed me other players' skate blades that seemed to be taller than mine.  I have to admit, I've had my skates sharpened frequently lately because I've been experimenting (Sparx flat bottom vs Blademaster flat bottom but this is probably another discussion topic).

In any event, if someone did have to replace their blades to taller ones, how long of an adjustment does that take to get used to the new blades?  It's not going to be just the skates, but also the effective stick length I imagine would be altered as well. 

[pucks_putts 13]

7 hours ago, Deker said:

Ok, that's encouraging to hear.  But when I showed those skates to a skate sharpener, she said they were too short and she even showed me other players' skate blades that seemed to be taller than mine.  I have to admit, I've had my skates sharpened frequently lately because I've been experimenting (Sparx flat bottom vs Blademaster flat bottom but this is probably another discussion topic).

In any event, if someone did have to replace their blades to taller ones, how long of an adjustment does that take to get used to the new blades?  It's not going to be just the skates, but also the effective stick length I imagine would be altered as well. 

I replaced steel last season. My old steel was very short and I went to brand new LS4. Took me about 10 minutes to adjust. 

Everyone is different and there are other factors such as radius. It just happens that stock Bauer steel is usually fine for me out of the box. 

I guess what I’m saying is maybe don’t overthink it. Looks like you have plenty of steel left and a good shapener can help you get new steel dialed in when the time is right. 

[althoma1 574]

8 hours ago, Deker said:

Ok, that's encouraging to hear.  But when I showed those skates to a skate sharpener, she said they were too short and she even showed me other players' skate blades that seemed to be taller than mine.  I have to admit, I've had my skates sharpened frequently lately because I've been experimenting (Sparx flat bottom vs Blademaster flat bottom but this is probably another discussion topic).

In any event, if someone did have to replace their blades to taller ones, how long of an adjustment does that take to get used to the new blades?  It's not going to be just the skates, but also the effective stick length I imagine would be altered as well. 

Not all runners are the same height when new. For example, most STEP steel (with the exception of the steel for the True Shift holder) is pretty tall. Bauer LS4 is another runner that's pretty tall. I believe you have CCM +4.0 holders and steel. With the +4.0 holders, CCM made the holders taller than their previous holders, but kept the steel height the same. So the CCM steel is more of a traditional height and if the sharpener compared them to say STEP or LS4 they'd definitely look shorter, but it doesn't mean they're too short to use. If you start bottoming out on tight turns (the holders hit the ice) then you'll know it's time to replace the steel, but I understand wanting to do so a little before that time.

With all that said, I still think your blades look fine unless they're really low at the toe and heel (I can only see the middle in the picture). I've seen some players and refs skate on tiny slivers of steel and often ask them how they skate on those blades or flat out say I think it may be time for some new steel, but their steel is WAY lower than yours.

I've never let my steel get lower than half a cm and I've never had a problem transitioning to new steel as long as I use the same size and brand of steel. If I went to taller steel like Step it might take a little more time, but for the last several years I have been using CXN holders and steel and before that I was consistently using Mission Pitch holders and steel for several years (and before that I had CCM Prolite 3 holdes and steel for a good decade). 

Edited October 24, 2020 by althoma1

[epstud74 24]

I sharpen my skates maybe once or twice a beer league season

[caveman27 208]

On 10/23/2020 at 9:44 PM, Deker said:

I have the CCM Ribcore 76K skates that I bought about a year ago (size 7.5 EE).  I'm wondering if the blade height is too small.  You can see a pic here: https://ibb.co/mBC38X6

Even though the ruler reads 0.8 cm, it's about 0.3 cm from the edge of the ruler to "0", so the blade height is roughly 1.0 cm to 1.1 cm.  I'm skating fine with them now but I don't want to have to make a huge adjustment if I have to replace them with taller blades.

Also, I'm noticing that people in these forums seem to like the Step Steel blades.  Are they really that better than other replacement blades?

At first, you don't notice any difference until you go deep into a turn, all else being equal like radius and radius of hollow.

Aside from that, you'll notice that Step steel can last longer between sharpenings.