As a general guideline, hockey players and figure skaters should sharpen their skates approximately every 3-4 hours of ice time. For an average player during the season, that means you should be sharpening your skates at least once a week for optimal
We recommend using a sharpie or similar type of marker to apply some marks to the bottom of your steel where you will be sharpening. Mark a line on the heel, center, and toe. Then run 2-4 cycles and check back to see if the marker has been removed.
Yes, we can sharpen this type of steel. Just make sure that you clamp the blade on the flat part of the steel before the steel begins to flare. Due to the taper of Flare blades they are not compatible with our original Edge Checker or Sparx BEAM™.
The grinding ring height needs to be adjusted because steel comes in many different heights (not talking about thickness). Some steel is taller than typical steel so that players can make lower/tighter turns without the skate boot hitting the ice.
The most significant factor is the grinding ring used by Sparx. Our grinding ring is made with a completely different material than a traditional grinding wheel. We're using a synthetic diamond abrasive. This different abrasive material results in a
The cross-grind rings are only compatible with our PS100 and PS200 commercial model sharpeners. To sharpen new steel, damaged steel or change hollows, we recommend using whichever Grinding Ring you prefer and sharpening 10 cycles. We recommend usin
The Sparx Sharpener will fit up to a size adult 13 in a player skate - max goalie skate size is size 11, although we have been able to successfully sharpen some styles of size 12 goalie skates. For figure skates, it is somewhere in the neighborhood o
Both ways will work. We previously advised toe to the left because it is typically easier to judge your contact point on the heel than it is on the toe. But, with most skates we see demoing in the field, their toes have been worn down so much we need
Most hockey player skates are somewhere between a 5 and 7 for the height setting. One way to figure out where the grinding wheel will make contact with the skate blade is to load the skate and then press the button that looks like "<-O->". Then use t
You will need to replace your air filter approximately every 4 Grinding Rings. The air filter button will illuminate to let you know when it needs to be changed.
The Sparx sharpener does a great job of sharpening goalie skates! If your goalie skates have a cowling, you will need to install goalie risers to sharpen your skates - they come included in the box. If you have the new cowling-free style of goalie sk
Yes, the Sparx sharpener does a great job of sharpening coated steel blades. Please note, a traditional honing stone will scratch the coating on coated steel, so we recommend using a rubberized stone and a leather strop to deburr. We offer both the r
The Sparx Sharpener can sharpen Carbonlite steel with excellent results; you'll just want to use the Sparx Skate Blade Lifts which ensure that you clamp on the steel portion of the skate blade. This is because of the way the steel is made (steel and