skate sharpening education

[pipes26]

well a rescent thread on the hollow and grind of goalie skates got me thinking...though i've been a goalie all my life, i have never known the benifits of different sharpening's. all i've known is, where i go to get my skates sharpend...and where i DONT go to get them sharpend. so if someone could please educate me on the performance benifits of different hollows and grinds accompanied by style and weight, that would be awsome.

me specificaly, im a perdominent butterfly style with a pretty damn wide stance. im all over half slide recovery and reaction. 6' 165ish lbs. i despise not being able to have a clean smooth shuffle, but i also realy like having a good sharp edge to challenge and retreat...discuss.

[puctrgt]

I still have a bunch of Sloths' popcorn, leftover from last night.

[GoalieBilly]

I think having sharp skates is very important, especially for butterfly goalies because of backside pushes, butterfly slides, tpush, etc.
There is a range, i'm not sure how high or low it goes but the highest I'ne heard of is 1 and the lowest is probably 2/8ths hollow
I too am 6' 165 and I play a butterfly style with a pretty wide stance. I go with a 3/8 hollow.
I'm not sure many stores still offer a "goalie skate sharpening", but thats very old school. You never really know what your gettign with those, but your skates end up really dull whcih is great for stand up guys but bad for butterfly goalies who need to dig into the ice as much as possible for power slides and things of that nature.
If you're concernedwith shuffling, shuffle differently. Let's say your shuffling left: dig in and push hard with the toe of your right skate; have your left skate on an angle so that only the inside edge is on the ice, creating less resistance.

Basically, having sharper skates makes you much faster latterally. I don't think weight is an issue on how sharp your skates are or should be.
All of the NHL goalies go with a sharp skate because they need to be very fast laterally.

[#00]

Depends on the ice you play on also. When it's a nice cold rink I like 1/2" but if it's a warmer rink I need 3/8".

[morphius]

ok, I've been sharpening skates for almost 5 years now.

the dullest you can go to depends on the radius adjuster on the machine, some go up to 2'' others go up to 1, or i'm sure other even go past 2'' (i've never seen one though).

now for hollows, you can have as low as 1/8th (this is the lowest that any place will do willingly and they will still try to talk you out of it) and however high your machine allows. now the reason why most places will try to talk you out of it is because it's dangerous to have such an edge; the deeper the hollow the weaker the edge therefore you might try to stop and you could fold your edge and go crashing and get hurt.

you can also get your skates rockered, this is when they change the foot radius of your blade, you how much blade touches the ice at any 1 time, so if you want lots of pivet ability you want a lower radius.

or you can go for the fancy rocker called a profile, the profile is the exact same as a rocker the only difference is on the profile they regularily change the angle of your blade, so you may lean more to the front or the back whatever you want ( i do not reccomend this for goalies, but forwards and defence benefit from this if they like it.)

for someone as yourself as you've described 6' 165lbs, i'd tell you to try anything between 5/8 and 3/4'' (i'm leaning more around the 3/4) you have more than enough bite to push across, your edge will last longer, and your hollow isn't deep enough to really hinder shuffling.

Originally Posted by #00

Depends on the ice you play on also. When it's a nice cold rink I like 1/2" but if it's a warmer rink I need 3/8".

00 you got it mixed up. 3/8'' on soft ice you want be able to move, not be stuck in the ice, you'd want 1/2 on the sof ice, 3/8 on the hard ice... i mean unless you really do like not being able to move worth a damn on soft ice but love slippin and sliding on hard ice

[marvintpa]

00, you prefer sharper edges on softer ice?
I believe that is opposite to what most would opt for, interesting choice. Could you please explain why?

[#00]

Ooops, my bad. I meant the oppisite, 3/8 on hard ice and 1/2 on soft ice. Sorry for the confusion.

[That1Goalie13]

i know this is probably a stupid question to most but, i don't get what the difference is between a goalie sharpener and a normal sharpener. My local recently got a goalie sharpenr and i havn't really noticed a difference,

[morphius]

Originally Posted by That1Goalie13

i know this is probably a stupid question to most but, i don't get what the difference is between a goalie sharpener and a normal sharpener. My local recently got a goalie sharpenr and i havn't really noticed a difference,

there is no difference.

[blackmamba]

Originally Posted by That1Goalie13

i know this is probably a stupid question to most but, i don't get what the difference is between a goalie sharpener and a normal sharpener. My local recently got a goalie sharpenr and i havn't really noticed a difference,

A Player's skate is more rockered and a Goalie's skate is flatter. If you are not carefull as to who does the job your Goalie skates may become more and more rockered taking away too much blade from the toe and heel of your skate. The toe and heel are extremely important to you as a Goalie .

[EvilPepe]

Originally Posted by That1Goalie13

i know this is probably a stupid question to most but, i don't get what the difference is between a goalie sharpener and a normal sharpener. My local recently got a goalie sharpenr and i havn't really noticed a difference,

By a "goalie sharpener" do you mean an actual person, or something they USE in the process? Odds are, they got a new rig for sharpening - a larger one that is made specifically for goal skates, figure skates, and really really big player skates. To do a decent job, the sharpener needs the right rig, and a normal one almost never cuts it for goal skates. (The "rig" is the thing the skate sits on while being sharpened).

When I started working at the shop I am at now, however, the staff let all the goalies know that they now had a goalie on staff to sharpen their skates, so it could be a similar case.

This is a good thread. I've been thinking of trying to put together some sort of FAQ for skates, I just never got around to it.

[kalistruth]

Has anyone else who sharpens skates found a good way to sharpen the new rbk/ ccm skates? With our normal holder its impossible and with our figure/ goalie holder it sits very akwardly. Its very far back towards the heel due to the middle bolt and pushed out towards the edge of the blade (instead of right against the plastic) due to the short height.

[Bengal34]

For me, it all depends on who is sharpening it. I know some who do a real good job and when I ask one person for slightly sharper than a 1/2 inch it is always sharper than if I ask for a 3/8 with someone else. The key is that I won't mind at all if my shuffling is a bit more difficult because in clutch situations I need that extra grip on the ice to push off hard enough to make the save. Movement when down is much more important than movement while standing up.

[bc30]

Originally Posted by #00

Ooops, my bad. I meant the oppisite, 3/8 on hard ice and 1/2 on soft ice. Sorry for the confusion.

That's why I just split the difference and get mine done at 5/16.

[morphius]

Originally Posted by kalistruth

Has anyone else who sharpens skates found a good way to sharpen the new rbk/ ccm skates? With our normal holder its impossible and with our figure/ goalie holder it sits very akwardly. Its very far back towards the heel due to the middle bolt and pushed out towards the edge of the blade (instead of right against the plastic) due to the short height.

I havn't found a good way to get around this yet... if the blades are to short what I have been starting to do is remove the blade from the cowling and sharpening it without the cowling