Contents
- 1 Can I sharpen my skates at home?
- 2 Can you skate with dull blades?
- 3 How do I know if my skates are dull?
- 4 How do I know if my skates need sharpening?
- 5 How often should skates be sharpened?
- 6 Can you sharpen skates with a sharpening stone?
- 7 Do new figure skates need to be sharpened?
- 8 Is it bad to skate with unsharpened skates?
- 9 How can I sharpen my skates without a sharpener?
- 10 Are dull skates bad?
Can I sharpen my skates at home?
Speed- and tour skates have a flat glide surface and can reliably be sharpened at home with fairly basic equipment. A long stone, and a fixture to hold the blades perpendicular will work fine.
Can you skate with dull blades?
No one should ever skate on dull or unsharpened blades. Your skating edge will help you turn and maneuver, as well as keep your balance. Keep them sharp — but not too sharp: A sharp blade grabs the ice better than a dull one. Sharpen your blades when they start to slide uncomfortably when you land.
How do I know if my skates are dull?
To see if blades are dull, you can simply feel them with your finger. Run your finger width-wise across the blade, not length-wise as you can cut yourself this way. You should be able to feel two distinct edges.
How do I know if my skates need sharpening?
Basically, get them sharpened when they feel too dull for you, or you lose an edge on one side of the skate or you have nicks in the blade. As a rule of thumb, an average hockeyplayer will lose somewhere between 5 and 10 % of the skates edge per hour of skating.
How often should skates be sharpened?
The rule of thumb is to sharpen ice skates after every 15-20 hours of use. This is typical for athletes who play hockey or figure skate multiple times on a weekly basis.
Can you sharpen skates with a sharpening stone?
Most skaters sharpen their skates with sharpening stones. Which stones are best depends on the material of your skates. There are, for instance, stainless steel skates with a hardness of 57 HRC, while there are also (professional) skates on the market made from powder metallurgic steel.
Do new figure skates need to be sharpened?
Yes. New figure skates need to be sharpened. When the brand is shipping the skates, they send dull blades so that there is no issue when in transit and there are no injuries when they are shipped. They are not sharp when sent, so you need to sharpen them before you begin skating.
Is it bad to skate with unsharpened skates?
Some people believe that a beginner skater should skate with dull blades. While on the other hand, others believe it is dangerous for the novice to do skating drills with an unsharpened blade. The suggestion is for you to have a skate that will grab the snow; unsharpened skate will not do that.
How can I sharpen my skates without a sharpener?
Use your flat file and begin at the toe or heel and move it across the blade in a diagonal motion. The file should always remain perpendicular to the blade when sharpening. Run the flat file across a blade in one direction 15 to 20 times and then repeat in the opposite direction. Do the same for the other skate.
Are dull skates bad?
I would describe dull skates as slippery. The worse they are, the more it feels like you forgot to take your guards off. If they are really dull, your edges will slide, so that instead of being able to hold a clean edge, they will slip to the side creating a tracing that looks more like a skid or a stop than an edge.