Guide to Skate Blade Sharpening and Proper Care for Blades

Whether you are into ice hockey or figure skating, you probably found out quickly what an impact skate sharpening has on your skating. Blade sharpening can make or break your skating performance. In fact, skating with dull skate blades, or skate blades that have undergone an improper blade sharpening regimen can be downright dangerous. Fortunately, there are businesses that specialize in skate sharpening all over the place, and they can sharpen blades quickly and accurately so that you can get many more hours of use out of your skates.

First, you need to find out where to go to sharpen blades. The best blade sharpening location may be a local skating rink, skate store or even a skate sharpening specialist. You may want to ask your figure skating instructor or hockey coach where the best place to go is. Or you could ask other members of your team where they go for blade sharpening. When you arrive at the chosen skate sharpening location, you need to check that the blade sharpening specialist knows what they are doing and will do an accurate job on your skate blades. A quick test is to see if the skate sharpening specialist knows what a hollow radius is. You could also check to see if they have a block or square for checking how level the blades after the blade sharpening. If the sharpener doesn't understand your question or have a way of checking the levelness of the skate blades, then they should not be considered competent enough for skate sharpening on your skate blades. You want someone who will do an extremely accurate job when they sharpen blades. The blade sharpening specialist should also know the appropriate amount to sharpen blades for beginners and more advanced skaters, as well as the difference in skate sharpening between figure skaters and hockey skaters.

Once you've found someone who can accurately sharpen blades, you need to know how often to visit them. If you skate every day, or nearly every day, you'll want to sharpen blades about once a month, or once every six weeks. If you only skate once a week, you can get away with only having a blade sharpening done every eight or nine months. The best guideline to follow when deciding how often to sharpen blades is that you need a skate sharpening done for every hundred hours of skating. This is assuming that you're taking good care of your skate blades. If you step on concrete or metal, you'll have to sharpen skates before skating again. Materials like concrete are extremely damaging to skate blades.

To decrease the number of times you need blade sharpening, take proper care of skate blades. This can be done by avoiding stepping concrete and metal with your skate blades and using guards on your skate blades. Be sure to wipe off the skate blades with a dry towel or cloth after each use. This will prevent the skate blades from rusting.

If your skate blades begin skidding sideways, it is probably time for a skate sharpening. Advanced skaters can tell quickly if they're in for a blade sharpening, but it's harder for beginners to sense dull skate blades. The best thing to do is watch for sideways sliding when doing crossovers or pushing off of the skate blades.