Відео

I would hope that it would be some new ingenious invention that can be accurately duplicated for each and every blade in the same way, and not just one of many examples what 100% inspection means and how blades manufacturing process does still have manual machining phases in the critical areas. Every day I dream that the world's best would be synonymous with high quality. Clearly I do have wrong expectations when users seem to be happy what they get. Am I over engineering?

Great question from @KP-zd3hc related to the drag pick positioning!!! I believe Matrix Legacy was 9.5". I have recorded these videos 2021, so it´s hard to remember or find evidences of these specific Matrix blades size, when I have several hundreds of pictures from the skate blades. Drack pick position compared to the end of toe plate is not same in Matrix and Pattern 99. Pattern 99 drag pick seems to be more further than in Matrix, even video gives opposite impression. You are the first person ever whom has asked me about the drack pick positioning compared to the toe plate end. I really appreciate this. Most likely you do have also understanding why some blades are mounted 3-5 mm backwards from the shoe tip, like I did show in one of my videos. I have documented these specific blades drack pick position differences very clearly 2021 , but it seems I have forgot to include that picture in to this video. Alternatively I have chosen not to publish that information in that time. As said, it´s hard to remember everything so clearly after 3 years. But as I said earlier, I do have nice photo where these blades drack pick positions are compered with two different ways.

@@Annisk8s thank you so much. :) I asked because I was forced to go down a blade length due to using Risport boots that require a smaller blade. I use the Legacy blades because my feet are so used to 8’rockers, but I am so annoyed that the drag pick is now so much closer. I’m looking into the Pattern 99 now, thank you!

@KP-zd3hc Are you sure you will get 8´ rocker when you buy P99 blades? I would not. JW seems to have couple manual grinding phases in their manufacturing process and this leads to changes in their profiles. However you mentioned that drag pick positioning is now the main pain point. I will try to find some way to show you the difference your are interested.

@ziadkhedr4244. This is something what I made by my selves. First made 3D model and then I printed it with 3D printer. Unfortunately tool is less or more blade specific and rounds the edge quite easily. As it uses sand paper, and papers thickness also vary, it cause some problems. I have never used it to any skater blades. I have used it to study if hollow polishing is possible without rounding the edge. If you are living in Europe and are interested to test it, we may find some solution for it.

I am happy to see that someone sees my videos to be interesting. Wheel balancing is very slow process and requires patient. I tried 3D-printed wheel balancing washer where I have three screws in the T-slot. Idea I copied from the commercial versions of wheel balancers meant for larger wheels. You can see one commercial versio of the balancing washer in @Clough42 video. I am not sure why same idea was not working in 3" wheels I use. I still use hot glue to make fine balancing. You need to note that wheel balance changes all the time you use it. Typically you need to reduce weight when wheel diameter reduces. I can post video where I balance one wheel, but I can already tell that its boring to watch :D

@@Annisk8s thank you! I would definitely watch it and would not find it boring. Do you rebalance the wheel after every time you re-dress it?

@@kylehicks7130 I will post the balancing video, but it takes some time before I have time to do it. Summer is so short in here and I do have plenty of things to do. I do dress my wheel minimum 3 times per one skate. Rebalancing the wheel even after every skate pair would be overkilling. I rebalance the wheel approx. after 10-15 pairs of skates.

Unfortunately this seems to be more and more common issue in brand new Wilson blades. It is not catastrophic when its close to the toe picks and if you have cross grinder, but still I would not like to see that in new blades. I do never see same issue in factory new Ultima blades. Wilson seems still to use lots of manual work in their manufacturing processes. Example NSZ lengths may vary quite a lot between the blade pairs and even between right and left blade. I agree that more further from the toe picks the flat spot exist, more severe it is. Usually I see these badly destroyed spinning rockers in the blades which has been sharpened several times with Prosharp machine.

Try to use following search words in the Google picture search => BEVEL EDGE SQUARES, ADJUSTABLE DIN 875/0

@@Annisk8s thank you!

The blade and boot is brand new so it was chosen to be like this. It is some kind of trend that people want shorter blades than in the past. Reason why blades are mounted 4-5mm from tip relates to Gold Seals toe pick positioning. In Gold Seals drag pick is further than toe plate.

@wallyhell5834 If the blade is not straight, it will lead most likely to uneven edges when blade is sharpened. In the other words, when sharpening machine axis travels straight and blade isn't straight, hollow will not come in to the middle of blade. You may get some spot where edges are in level, but its not enough. Sharpening machines skate carriage may straighten a bit the blade, but you should not trust this too much. Another possible problem is that the skate will turn in the direction the blade is bent and therefore you may have difficulties especially with one foot glides.

Its designed for engineering. You can find more information about this square by reading comments from the video ua-cam.com/video/DbrR3hBtm70/v-deo.html

@issacasimov I have tried Blademaster BW3 (Norton 66261019852) buffing wheels which are thinner. They have some amount of thickness variation and axial runout which lead to edge rounding. If you have exact proposal of wheel type what to test, I can try that. Problem in 3000 grit wheel would be that it would spin too fast. It would require also constant liquid cooling to prevent grinding wheel clogging. I have tried ones wheels which were custom made with correct radius, but they were not working at all. They just "jumped" on the blade and basically didn't cut anything and it cause terrible noise!

I know the Brian's machine. I have been in his seminar and we have talked about his machine several times. I was even considering to buy machine from him, but the problem is that his machine works with compressed air. I do not have any changes to have compressor which would have enough high capacity. Even I would, system would not be very portable. As you can see from the video, you can purchase IE with follower roller. You can buy also patterns with 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 foots radiuses. You need then also IE hockey carriage. I have tried to use those couple times, but positioning blade to patterns is real nightmare. Brian told me that he has position method which takes just few minutes. I would like to see how does he make it, but it is still his business secret. Purpose of this video was demonstrate to the audience that follower should be in the middle of wheel, not in side like in IE. My plan is make modifications with 3D printer so that I can have better follower. This was also test if I can print grinding patterns with blade profiles. In the video you can see Gold Seal profile. I am confident that printed pattern can restore profile more closer to the original when blades does have erosion from the normal handheld power grinding.

@@Annisk8s I agreed, the following wheel should be right at the centre like Brian's. . I have been experimenting CNC profiling and maybe even laser polishing/sharpening method.

I use IE and Pro-Sharp automatic machine myself. Pro-Sharp maintain profile quite well, occasionally I use IE to do fine finishes .

@gerardmarc5926 J'ai fabriqué près de 10 pièces d'outils de polissage très similaires avec des diamètres de cylindre différents. J'ai réduit le diamètre par pas d'environ 2 à 3 mm, mais ils ont quand même arrondi le bord. Les cylindres imprimés n'ont pas de remplissage à 100 %, donc je ne sais pas s'ils sont trop mous, ont-ils trop d'écart de rondeur, se déplacent-ils de manière non parallèle sur la rainure ou est-ce la poussière de meulage qui arrondit le bord. Il serait plus facile de résoudre le problème si je savais ce qui cause cet arrondi des bords. Votre idée de faire un cylindre ovale est intéressante, mais ne serait-ce pas fondamentalement la même chose si je réduisais le diamètre du cylindre? I have made close to 10 piece of very similar polishing tool with different cylinder diameters. I did reduce the diamater apporox 2-3mm steps, but still they did round the edge. Printed cylinders does not have 100% infill so I am not sure if they are too soft, do they have too much roundness deviation, do they travel unparallel on groove or is it the grinding dust which round the edge. It would be easier to solve the problem if I would know what causes this edge rounding. Your idea to make oval cylinder is interesting, but wouldnt it be basically same thing is I reduce the diameter of cylinder?

At the moment I do not see any working solution to make hollow polishing with power grinder. That is why I have tried test / develop Pro-filer type of hand polishing tool. As soon I have managed to recover my computer, which operating system crashed, I will publish new video about this procedure.

I believe it is easier to get good surface finish with larger wheel. This because the circumferential length of the wheel is longer which provides higher cutting speed. I would use larger wheel machine if blades would not have toe picks. Toe picks causes lots of troubles for large wheel machine operators and that leads often remarkably faster spinning rocker erosion. My Incredible Edger is spinning 20% slower that what it would spin in US. This because we have 50Hz frequency and in US it would be 60Hz. In some day I will put frequency converter to my IE so that I can increase speed to match 60Hz and even above of that. I would like to compensate wheel diameter reduction, just like some Blademaster machines do. One issue in large wheel machines is, that its more difficult to find fine grit wheels. However grit size does not always tell how good surface finish you will get. You can impact quite a lot to surface finish by dressing wheel differently and making sure that your diamond quill cuts nicely (without vibrations). If not, rotate diamond slightly and it usually helps. Rotating the diamond quill in some Blademasters is not anyhow possible.

I am using Incredible Edger. In this video you see their figure skate carriage. That I use in traditional steel blades as well as in aluminum framed blades, like Matrix and Paramount. In JW revolution blades I need to use IE hockey carriage. www.iceskateology.com/Skateology/Price_List.html I do like precision and that is why I am using adjustable precision square. Try to use following search words and search pictures => BEVEL EDGE SQUARES, ADJUSTABLE DIN 875/0 Wissota is otherways nice machine, but I do not like its large wheel size. It increases risk to destroy spinning rocker in the way what you can see in some of my videos. However lots of skate techs are using large wheel machines. Small wheel machines has their own weaknesses, but I still not would change back to large wheel machine.

@@Annisk8sthanks for all the info, it’s really appreciated :)

If people would look their blades, they would probably realize that the skate tech what they have keps professional, is not nessessary so professional. Unfortunate many figure skate shops are making terrible sharpenings.

I can understand your writings. Google translates pretty nicely. Chatter-marks are very common issue. In my opinion if affects more to gliding properties than how sharp edges feels. You can get razor sharp edges by using coarse grit wheel on machine, by dressing wheel with fast movement, using coarse hand hone for deburring and tilting the hand hone more than needed in the deburring phase. With my experience skaters does not like razor sharp edges, because skates feels even too sharp in the beginning and you need skate longer before the edges feels normal again. My target is that skates feels "normal" right after the sharpening. Imagine that you should sharpen blades day before competitions. Can you do it, if skates requires one week running in period? Even I have not seen either of the sharpening s you mention, I am confident that you are doing better job than any other sharpener in France. You are interested about technical things and you try to develop your selves and your methods all the time. That it what I appreciate!

Thank you Marc for your kind words! I don't think I'm the best in the world. My secret is that I'm willing to spend more time sharpening s and development than the pros. Just like you. A very important characteristic of a good sharpener is that you are more interested about the quality than in making skates with as little effort as possible. There is always something what could be improved in your own work and that is what motivates me. You are never the world best, because everyone has their own weaknesses / limitations. If I would like to be closer to world best title, I should grind blades using pattern and polish the hollows to mirror finish. They are still on my development to-do-list. Since I've never even skated on figure skates, my opinions are based on measurements or something what I can visually or audibly witness. What I bring up is the opposite of many other videos where they mostly hype something they don't even understand. Maybe I'm a hardened pessimist, but I feel like I only see problems. How much these problems that I bring up affect skating, everyone has to judge for themselves.

I used 3D-printed tool, which is my own design for the polishing. So I didn't use power grinder for polishing. My tool should not touch the edge in the way that it rounds the edge, but still it happens. I do not fully understand why.

Maybe tape the edge with like Kapton tape

I think tape will not help, but I can try that also@@issacasimov

Today I tried proposed tape trick. Not with Kapton tape, just with normal office tape. It helped a bit, but did not prevent edge rounding. @@issacasimov

I do not know the exact root cause for the weight difference, but I would claim that differences in the touch point lengths might be one reason. Probably there are other reasons too. 2 grams difference sounds very very small, but when you see that it means weight of three nuts, at least I started to wonder where this all material is missing. Based on the rumors JW has invested to new production equipment's. If so, they seems to still grind profiles hand held, which cause inconsistent to the tough point lengths. Also chrome removal is still something what I would hope to be different. Alternatively these blades were some old stock items.

@@Annisk8s I have the old pair ca lite and recently received a new pair. I can compare them later. I noticed the weld has improved. IMO the SS blade with chassis seems to have better QC consistency. I haven’t mastered sharpening SS blades.

I assume your method is very similar than what Precision blade honing enterprises promotes. I just do not understand how or where you use the magnet. Do you use some BAT gauge which has holes as "a scale"? In PBHE method you need to ensure that hollow is ground in to the middle of blade. Factory grinding are typically heavily uneven, which may lead to faulty conclusions.

This video was related to another UA-cam video where the guy was explaining how he positions blade by eye balling insole. I can understand inconsistency in the boots, which means that the outer sole is not either 100% reliable datum, but I do not fully understand how you can eye ball blade in to the middle of the insole. At least I do not have X-ray vision. Maybe the problem is just in my English skills? I use always outer sole center point as a starting point for the blade positioning. No matter what method is used to position the blade, each skater foots are unique. It is also so that not so many skater are able to tell if the blade is position correctly or not. There are also several other problems in the blade´s mounting and that is why this task is not my favorite things.

I also used vertical laser to check alignment. Again chorus QC is hit or miss. Ice Fly and Piano are much better.

I have tried Dremel type of tool, but at least my hands were not enough steady. This kind of 3D printed support could help. cults3d.com/en/3d-model/tool/diy-ice-skate-shaper

I will try that, maybe add tape to the side for thickness adjustment, thank you

What was the most shocking part of this video? :)

That is good way of working. However kids forget our advice's pretty soon :)

I have seen worst, 2mm deep 😅

Unfortunately Blademaster has not replied to my email where I asked their advice's how to use 3BW buffing wheels. I have some problems to understand in detail how they have planned these to be used. Do they example deliver shims together with their machines to compensate width difference, etc.

Did you get any answers from them?

Do you ever see similar blades?

Its possible that Prosharp has been used for these skates. Most likely they have seen couple different machines. Nevertheless, machine is not the root cause for uneven edges or several starting points.

I agree that John Wilson quality has gone down over the years. It´s a pity when they are so popular. May I ask if your opinion related to harder metal is based on visual judgement (color), measurements or something else?

No, these are not parabolic blades. They are tapered and side honed, just like normal Gold Seal´s.

You are welcome!

​@Annisk8s which ypu will recommend and which one is better currently please?😊

Chatter marks which has come from the poor sharpening, which was not even requested. Blades were purchased without sharpening, but they were still sharpened. This Skate-tech seems not to care at all the quality and she does not seems to know how the machine should be operated correctly. I would assume poor grinding causes at least friction and therefore poor gliding properties. Imagine that this skate blade would be old school shaving knife where one side of the blade is honed with very fine grit stone and lapped with leather belt and another side is just grind with angle grinder.

Using diamond paste or some polishing waxes seems to round the edges. Buffing wheel alone seems to keep edges sharpness in acceptable level, but I need to get skaters feedback before being sure about this. Of course this depend also how many passes you make. I would like to test Blademaster buffing wheels, but I believe they are sold only in 6 pc sets so its quite expensive test. Regular white buffing wheels in local stores cost 3-4 € per piece which is 10 times lower than Blademaster prices. I will practice first with these cheaper wheels.

@@Annisk8s I think the solution is using a thinner felt wheel , like 3mm thickness with polishing wax. Regular felt wheel won’t stay in shape, need support frame.

Maybe someone can help to translate this to English?

I agree that many imperfections are coming for following reason... 1. Some manufacturers manufacturing technologies has stuck somewhere in 80-century and way too manufacturing phases are still handcrafted 2. Manufacturers want to maximize profits => high volumes / faster production with low investments rate or outsourced production. 3. Customers and skate techs does not inspect blades, so you can put almost anything to markets and nobody notices that. What comes to this specific case, I think the problem are not necessary related to old fashioned way to produce blades. Its not so easy to keep blade straight when there are couple manufacturing phases where steel gets quite a lot of heat. First there is laser cutting and after that other difficult processes for blade straightness are bracing / induction hardening. Steel behaves sometimes unexpected way when there is internal stresses before or after these process steps. We can only guess what is the root cause if blade is more straight from one side than the other. It could come example from the polishing, which is probably needed before chroming, or some manufacturing phase has caused some dents which has been removed for visual reasons before chroming. Only manufacturer know the real root cause. I will check edges evenness always at least three sections of the blade (see my other videos). When the edges were even in both ends, the middle section was not. This was actually the trigger to me start investigate why I have problems some on blades even I thought everything is OK before I started sharpening. If I would super perfectionist, I would check edges evenness from both sides of the blade. This I will not do because it would drive me probably crazy, if I have too many datum's and they give different result. Stanchions I cannot normally use for edges evenness check, because skate is mounted to skate holder from the stanchions. Its good to keep mind that about 95% of skate techs are using some kind of BAT gauge which will never take contact to stanchions. As said in the video, this is kind of straightness defect is not necessary any issue if your skate holder is not contacting to all three stanchions.

@@Annisk8s Thanks for you prompt reply. Yeah I totally agree with you about the reason why the imperfection in blades can persist. And, about the stanchions evenness checking I just have it in my mind that the "side honed" blades are included. It's my fault that I forgot to mention that. Actually, using stanchions for checking the evenness is the last ditch for possible reference. God knows what the side hone can do to a blade's geometry!! Thanks again for you interesting Video!

Its mine new super secret invention. I have installed servo motor inside the boot heel. I can remote control servo motor with my laptop and steer skates while my daughter skates in the competitions. Whole skating performance is programmed to "CNC program". I think its not forbidden in ISU´s rules :) I have patented this invention. Seriously talking, they are just broken blade.

@@Annisk8s when you actually develop this, I will help with testing!

It means that they do not have same profile as Coronation Ace, they do not have consistent 7 ft rocker radius and edges are heavy rolled. Video is demonstrating how "World best blades" are looking. Answer to question whom should use these blades, that I cannot comment. Its same as I should recommend some certain shoes brand to the people. Every skater is unique and I do not have Chrystal ball which would tell what you like. Personally I do not recommend blades which does have chrome removal grinding to anyone. That is anyhow just my personal opinion. I am focusing more to technical things on blades than what is the best blade to certain skater.

@@Annisk8s I set those blades on my son’s skates and he began skating better with them😀

@@Annisk8s so the CA standard and the CA lite blades don’t have the same profile? That is not what the manufacturer says.

@@andreaelizabeth5494 you need to read more carefully what manufacturer promises. They promise that rocker radius in both blades would be 7ft. Probably you are not aware what rocker radius means, so please take a look this page => scarletskater.wordpress.com/2017/06/02/blade-profiles/ Now when you know meaning of rocker radius, take a look my video from the position 0:54 . There you will see picture from the gauge which measures rocker radius. Focus where there is 7´ marking and jump back to beginning of my video and try to see how well they have succeeded to make 7ft radius. This rocker radius is not anyhow the secret of figure skate blades and therefore I would not focus too much for it. When I am talking about the profile, I am focusing more to spinning area where the all magic happens.

Hi, First at all, I have to say that I am fan of your skate sharpening videos! I would like to share contact details with you somehow. I believe we could have many interesting discussions. This white aluminum Fine oxide wheel is original Incredible Edger product. I have asked ones from Sid their wheels grit specifications and he replied following: "Quality of finish equal to any regular 120 grade wheel from elsewhere from our experience". More detailed specifications I do not have. Anyhow when you dress the wheel, you can feel that its very soft compared example to the Blademaster 120 grit ruby wheel. When dressing Blademaster wheel, you can see sparks, so I am sure that diamond tip will wear also much faster with those Ruby wheels. Ruby wheels I use only in Little Edger and when I have some difficult stainless steel blades => "super market stainless steel blades". In those blades aluminum oxide wheels are way too soft and you remove more material from wheel than form the blade. You cannot make even one grinding pass when the wheel already has groove from the blade. In my opinion, I can get better surface finish with Sid´s wheels even it feels more coarse to finger than 120 grit Ruby sheel. See pictures: www.dropbox.com/s/x7ha5mdp69h5f93/20210207_075826.jpg?dl=0 www.dropbox.com/s/cxirnhq87cn2d89/20210207_080149.jpg?dl=0 www.dropbox.com/s/k37w1ow7gyvilnh/Before%20and%20after.jpg?dl=0

@@Annisk8s until my 850 blademaster arrives. I will have the 8 mx ruby ​​wheel. Which one will be best for stainless steel blades? 88R

@@gerardmarc5926 Unfortunately I do not have any experience about Blademaster 8" wheels. I believe 8MXRUBY is closes to 3DR what I have use recently for all blade types. Based on Blademaster description, I would conclude that 88R is for more rental / beginner skates. What I can unfortunately say, is that you are going to see that 8" wheel diameter is not good feature on figure skates.

@@Annisk8s it's the cold shower !! 8 '' is unfortunately not good for figure skate. I understood that with 8 '' I would not get very close to the spikes. But for the rest, why? Anyway, I would start with that until I see if I get there!

@@gerardmarc5926 Starting the sharpening behind the toe picks is much more difficult with large wheel machines. For this reason you will probably see faster erosion in the frontal area of the blades with large wheel machine than with small wheel machine. This is most important area of the blade. Send me the pictures I requested and I can probably show you in practice what this means.