Sharpening blades outside of the holders

[jkent27 5]

Question for all of you that sharpen skates.  Do you see any problems with sharpening skate blades outside of the holders?  I've been sharpening at home with a Wissota since the 90"s and I've never really thought about it.  I live in a town with not a lot of sharpening options so I like to sharpen skates around the league when I can.  I hate taking people's skates home and it's not always convenient  for players to  come by my house.  Seems a lot easier, with the new technology, for them just to hand be a set of blades rather than skates.  Last week I had a goalie come by with a brand new pair of skates and try as I might, I couldn't get the skate on my holder because of it's shape.  I had no choice but to take it out of the holder.  

The only down side I could see would be if it's a long blade, it might flex more outside of the holder.  Thoughts?

Jeff

[VegasHockey 1267]

58 minutes ago, jkent27 said:

Question for all of you that sharpen skates.  Do you see any problems with sharpening skate blades outside of the holders?  I've been sharpening at home with a Wissota since the 90"s and I've never really thought about it.  I live in a town with not a lot of sharpening options so I like to sharpen skates around the league when I can.  I hate taking people's skates home and it's not always convenient  for players to  come by my house.  Seems a lot easier, with the new technology, for them just to hand be a set of blades rather than skates.  Last week I had a goalie come by with a brand new pair of skates and try as I might, I couldn't get the skate on my holder because of it's shape.  I had no choice but to take it out of the holder.  

The only down side I could see would be if it's a long blade, it might flex more outside of the holder.  Thoughts?

Jeff

I prefer to free sharpen blades instead of sharpening them in holders when possible. The downside is we are usually so busy, doing 100+ skates daily, that I don't always have time to do such.I like that removing the steel allows me to use steel wool to clean up the blade, rust, clean the channel in the holder, and inspect the steel for any non-visible damage. 

Tools like the CSW Free Runner : https://shop.blackstonesport.com/custom-skateworks/product/free-runner or the Blademaster Quick Clamp: https://blademaster.com/web/en/blademaster/643-qc100.html work nicely 

[jkent27 5]

4 hours ago, PBH said:

I prefer to free sharpen blades instead of sharpening them in holders when possible. The downside is we are usually so busy, doing 100+ skates daily, that I don't always have time to do such.I like that removing the steel allows me to use steel wool to clean up the blade, rust, clean the channel in the holder, and inspect the steel for any non-visible damage. 

Tools like the CSW Free Runner : https://shop.blackstonesport.com/custom-skateworks/product/free-runner or the Blademaster Quick Clamp: https://blademaster.com/web/en/blademaster/643-qc100.html work nicely 

Wow, I had no idea those clamps existed!  That definitely answers my question.  I'd much rather use that than try to sharpen the blades by themselves on the holder.  Thank you for the links.  I just ordered the Blademaster one.