In general a hockey player should have their skates sharpened once every 6 hours on
indoor ice. For
outdoor ice the time should be reduced dramatically.
The
grind to be used depends on where you are going to skate. In
cold climates it is generally better to stick with a
3/8" grind, in warmer a 1/2" would suffice.
The grind is the
radius of the circle that fits into the
blade of the skate. (Forgive my poor
ASCII graphics)
| _____ |
| / \ |
| / \ | < --- BLADE
|| --A---||
________
ICE________
"A" is the radius of the circle that fits inside the blade's
hollow. That is the measurement that "3/8" or "1/2" refers to. Depending on the firmness/softness of the
ice that you play on you should adjust your hollow accordingly. For
hard ice you need to be able to cut deeper to avoid losing an edge, a 3/8" grind would be best. For
softer ice, 1/2" grind would be better to avoid
cutting too deep and
reducing your glide, thus requiring more effort to skate.
A lot of
goalies prefer to use a 1/2" grind, and then dull them by rubbing their blades on wood or rubber. For them a
dull blade makes their "
shuffle" easier to execute. And since they rarely need to skate and
turn at high-speeds the dull blade is acceptable.
Having this
hollow also gives the two
edges that many skaters refer to. The
inside edge is obviously on the inside, naturally the
outside edge is on the outside. Putting weight on either
edge gives the skater the neccesary friction to
stride,
stop and
turn. The edges of the hollow become
rounded and cause the skater to "
lose an edge" at high speeds.
The
Skate Sharpening Machine generally has 3 wheels on it. One is usually set to a 3/8" grind, another to 1/2" and the last is a flat grinder. The skate is run along the sharpening stone removing the center of the hollow and reforming the two edges.
Attached to each sharpening stone is an "
adjustment arm", a diamond tipped swivel-arm that can be set to different radii. These are is swung down across the grinding stone to change the radius the stone will provide. Having two stones on one machine is a good idea in a public setting since most hockey players preffer either one or the other (I prefer a 3/8") while figure skaters and goalies prefer a 1/2".
The flat grinder runs on a
horizontal axis (versus the
vertical axis of the two sharpening stones). The
grinder removes a large portion of the blade and any nicks that may have developed in the blade. Because it removes so much of the blade it is rarely used. Unless there is a
very large
nick in the skate blade, generally the Sharpener will just make a few more passes on the
sharpening stone to remove any small nicks.