What is the best profile for skates?
what profile is best? A smaller profile (7′) will make less contact with the ice than a larger profile (13′). Less ice contact (7′) allows for greater maneuverability and acceleration, but also digs into the ice more than a larger profile (13′), which means slower top speeds and increased fatigue.
When you buy a new pair of skates they come with a factory grind on the steel. It is recommended that you get them profiled before skating in them. The most common profiles are 7 foot 9 foot 11 foot and 13 foot.
A quick test for a sharp edge is to hold the skate upside down, place one thumbnail on the edge of the blade and gently pull down and away from the blade on three or four parts of the blade. A good, sharp blade will easily scrape a layer of your thumbnail, leaving the remnants on the blade.
Prosharp recommends a quad profile for players who need to cover a lot of ice. It is the ideal profile for centers and defense. You will feel balanced on your skates when transitioning from gliding to striding. This profile maximizes full stride length.
In the NHL, however, the most common cut is much shallower, between 5/8” and 3/4″. Players in the NHL also get their skate profiles customized 100% of the time. Obviously they are very persnickety about their skates, as this is their livelihood.
Summary: Typically ice hockey skates have been inherited as the skate stock for permanent and seasonal rinks, where the edge of the blade is commonly 65 or 70mm from the sole of the boot. This patented invention reduces this height, lowering the centre of gravity and making it easier to skate.
A Guide to the Recommended Skate Sharpening Radius
The most common skate sharpening radius we see for ice hockey players is a 1/2″ inch or 5/8″ inch cut.
Let them sit for 24 hours. The adhesives need to set again. If you absolutely have to, you could skate after a 12-hour cooling period, but that is not recommended.
One of the first NHL teams to be using the flat bottom v skate sharpening method was the St. Louis blues, now over 20 NHL teams are using this method, quite a bold statement for a technique that just took off at the beginning of the year!
Glide and bite are determined by the amount of blade cutting into the ice. 1/2 inch is our standard hollow, a 3/8 would provide more bite, a 5/8 would provide less bite.
Can skates be too sharp?
While your skates can never be too sharp, they can certainly be too dull and that can take a whole lot of fun out of the game. For those skaters who do feel their skates are too sharp at times, we recommend reviewing our post on selecting an ROH. You should experiment with a slightly shallower radius.
Blades which have been poorly sharpened often leave a weak or rolled edge that quickly breaks down leaving the skates dull. To protect your blades in your bag and while carrying them use SKATE GUARDS.
Which Skate Profile is Best for Me? | Prosharp BAUER - YouTube
The longer blades help speed skaters go faster because they provide more pressure into the ice. These blades also help speed skaters have more grip on the ice while they skate. It's very similar to track and field athletes wearing spikes on their shoes to have more grip while they run.
Hockey skate profiling is a term used to describe the shape of an ice skate blade where it makes contact with the ice viewing from the side. Other terms for hockey skate profiling you may hear are rocker, radius (not to be confused with a radius of hollow), or contouring.
Connor McDavid uses custom Tydan Performance Blades. Connor McDavid runs a 10' profile. We sell Tydan Performance Blades.
The most common radius of hollow cuts are ½” and 5/8” for skate sharpening shops because it provides the best balance between edge depth and glide speed.
To put it simply, the profile is the curvature or shape of a skate blade from front to back. It is sometimes also referred to as a contour or – by the old-school players – a rocker. On average, the profile on an adult hockey skate is around 11 feet and the average profile on an adult goalie skate is around 25 feet.
More than two-thirds of NHL players wear Bauer skates. Some of those players may use aftermarket blades (more on those in a bit), but when Bauer introduces a new runner, it's usually a big deal. The LIGHTSPEED 5 Carbon EDGE, new for 2018, is no exception.
The normal range for this is ⅜” to ¾”, although higher or lower hollows are occasionally seen. Typically, skate shops will do 1/2”, 5/8”, or 7/16” hollow as a default if they aren't given any specific instructions.
How do I check my skate edges?
Testing for Even Edges
Bring the skate blade to eye-level and look down the blade towards the coin. If there is a significant height difference between the inside and outside edge, it will be visible; you'll see one side of the coin will be higher than the other.
A hollow or 'U' shape is ground into the blade to create a right and left edge. The deeper the hollow or U shape, the sharper a skate feels. The following are common sharpening measurements in order of deepest to shallow: 1/4, 3/8, 7/16, 1/2, 5/8. A sharper skate will give you more bite but less glide.
| Wayne Gretzky - 1/2" | Sidney Crosby - 9/16" |
|---|---|
| Joe Sakic - 5/8" | Evgeni Malkin - 11/16" |
| Chris Pronger - 7/8" | Jordan Staal - 5/8" |
| Mark Messier - 1" | Sergei Gonchar - 1-1/4" |
| Paul Coffey - 1" to 2" | Alex Ovechkin - 1/2" |
5/8 (Shallow) grind is what most figure skaters skate on. This gives you a good flowing edge and has little friction on the ice.
Some hockey players choose to heat mold their skates at home in the oven, and others take them to a pro shop.
Each time you bake a skate, it can accelerate the breakdown process of the skate. Most modern skates are meant to only be baked once or twice. Anything further can start doing more harm than good. The materials that are molding to your foot might not harden up the same way.
New skates are not sharpened, so you will need to get them sharpened by a trained sharpener, and then re-sharpened every 15-20 hours of ice time – to keep them in tip top condition by removing knicks and deformaties in the metal edge.
You can get your skates sharpened anywhere from 1/8th of an inch to one inch. 1/8th would be the sharpest, and one inch would be the least sharp. The majority of pros use something with a shallower hollow, but preference does widely vary.
Some players will take a shower during the intermission to feel revitalized for the upcoming period. Other players choose to meditate, closing their eyes, staying silent and visualizing their success for the remainder of the game.
Generally skates should be sharpened every 20-40 skating hours. This depends on a few different factors such as how many times a week a skater is on the ice, which elements the skater is working on, and the build of the skater.
What is a 3/8 skate sharpening?
Different Types of Skate Sharpening Hollows
For example, a lighter player can benefit from a deeper hollow (7/16" or 3/8") by providing them with the ability to cut deeper into the ice. This type of sharpening provides more bite for the user, allowing for more responsive turns/stops and quicker overall acceleration.
Skate Sharpening & Skate Care
Skates need to be sharp even if the skater is young. Most often children's skates require sharpening every 2 months depending on how much they skate.
The optimal hollow varies for each individual skater. It depends on your skating style, your weight, the ice hardness and your preference. Most skaters prefer hollows from seven 16th to five eights. A deeper hollow may make you feel like the blade is in control.
If a player's skate chatters as the stop occurs, it means the player's weight is too much on the heel of the skate! Weight will be applied equally on both skates with the feet shoulder width apart or slightly wider in the hockey stance position. The head is up with two hands on the stick.
Use a hand stone to dull the blade if the plastic on the boards isn't dulling the skate blade enough. The hand stone can also be used to remove scratches or chips that are missing in the blade.
Ice Skate Care and How To Know When They Need Sharpened
The biggest factor is how often you skate, hence the rule of thumb based on ice time. It's not unheard of for some players to sharpen their blades before every game, and others once or twice a year. If you're playing twice a week, try dropping your skates off for a sharpening once a month and adjust from there.
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. This consensus is based on a few factors: First is how the skates are being used.
Ice in backyard or outdoor rinks can gather dirt quickly or have it frozen into the surface. This makes the ice abrasive and potentially dangerous. This dirt and debris will dull blades faster than when skating indoors. Outdoor ice is typically harder than indoor ice and can wear your blades down quicker.
Bauer's Power Profile is a 4 Zoned Radii, known as a Quad profile. The blade shape is designed with 4 zones uniquely placed and designed for specific performance improvements during all types of edge work. • The first zone, located near the toe of the runner, is shaped to maximize acceleration.
What is the difference between D and EE width skates?
While the way a manufacturer classifies the fit of a skate may vary, the common rule used by skate manufacturers is: skate width size D is a standard width skate size (Medium Volume) and skate width size EE is a wide width skate size (High Volume). Back to the example of my skate size.
NEW Bauer Performance Fit System | Fit 1, Fit 2 & Fit 3 - YouTube
what profile is best? A smaller profile (7′) will make less contact with the ice than a larger profile (13′). Less ice contact (7′) allows for greater maneuverability and acceleration, but also digs into the ice more than a larger profile (13′), which means slower top speeds and increased fatigue.
When you buy a new pair of skates they come with a factory grind on the steel. It is recommended that you get them profiled before skating in them. The most common profiles are 7 foot 9 foot 11 foot and 13 foot. Most players go with a 9 foot radius, but there are many options to consider.
Four NHL players are skating on heated blades said to enhance performance. Heated skate blades that are supposed to enhance performance are being used by four anonymous NHL players.
Prosharp recommends a quad profile for players who need to cover a lot of ice. It is the ideal profile for centers and defense. You will feel balanced on your skates when transitioning from gliding to striding. This profile maximizes full stride length.
The Sparx Sharpener will not contour the profile of the blade. But, unlike traditional manual sharpening which alters the profile after 15-20 sharpenings, the Sparx Sharpener will hold the skate profile throughout the life of the steel thanks to the consistent RPM, Speed, and Pressure applied by our Grinding Rings.
Premium steel, custom colors and logo etching, and a proprietary speed boosting technology for what the other guys are charging for their skate blades. If you are in the market for some new steel, we think Bladetech is definitely worth your money.
A hockey skate profile is measured as the radius of an imaginary circle typically in feet. If you were to draw a large circle with a 9-foot radius and then match the side profile of the steel to that circle, you would create a 9-foot radius profile on that steel.
Glide and bite are determined by the amount of blade cutting into the ice. 1/2 inch is our standard hollow, a 3/8 would provide more bite, a 5/8 would provide less bite.
What skate radius do NHL players use?
A Guide to the Recommended Skate Sharpening Radius
The most common skate sharpening radius we see for ice hockey players is a 1/2″ inch or 5/8″ inch cut.
Boiled down to its essence, performance profiling is about customizing the shape of a hockey skate blade to put more blade in contact with the ice (with the attendant gains in top speed, stability and efficiency), while preserving the agility and explosiveness that are essential to the game of hockey.
The longer blades help speed skaters go faster because they provide more pressure into the ice. These blades also help speed skaters have more grip on the ice while they skate. It's very similar to track and field athletes wearing spikes on their shoes to have more grip while they run.
More than two-thirds of NHL players wear Bauer skates. Some of those players may use aftermarket blades (more on those in a bit), but when Bauer introduces a new runner, it's usually a big deal. The LIGHTSPEED 5 Carbon EDGE, new for 2018, is no exception.
The normal range for this is ⅜” to ¾”, although higher or lower hollows are occasionally seen. Typically, skate shops will do 1/2”, 5/8”, or 7/16” hollow as a default if they aren't given any specific instructions.
The most common radius of hollow cuts are ½” and 5/8” for skate sharpening shops because it provides the best balance between edge depth and glide speed.
A hollow or 'U' shape is ground into the blade to create a right and left edge. The deeper the hollow or U shape, the sharper a skate feels. The following are common sharpening measurements in order of deepest to shallow: 1/4, 3/8, 7/16, 1/2, 5/8. A sharper skate will give you more bite but less glide.
One of the first NHL teams to be using the flat bottom v skate sharpening method was the St. Louis blues, now over 20 NHL teams are using this method, quite a bold statement for a technique that just took off at the beginning of the year!
| Wayne Gretzky - 1/2" | Sidney Crosby - 9/16" |
|---|---|
| Joe Sakic - 5/8" | Evgeni Malkin - 11/16" |
| Chris Pronger - 7/8" | Jordan Staal - 5/8" |
| Mark Messier - 1" | Sergei Gonchar - 1-1/4" |
| Paul Coffey - 1" to 2" | Alex Ovechkin - 1/2" |
5/8 (Shallow) grind is what most figure skaters skate on. This gives you a good flowing edge and has little friction on the ice.
What sharpening does Crosby use?
In this video, the Penguins' equipment manager talks about Crosby's skate sharpening preferences. Around 3:44, he mentions that Crosby used to prefer a deeper hollow, but now uses a 1/2" hollow.
Which Skate Profile is Best for Me? | Prosharp BAUER - YouTube
Testing for Even Edges
Bring the skate blade to eye-level and look down the blade towards the coin. If there is a significant height difference between the inside and outside edge, it will be visible; you'll see one side of the coin will be higher than the other.
Bauer's Power Profile is a 4 Zoned Radii, known as a Quad profile. The blade shape is designed with 4 zones uniquely placed and designed for specific performance improvements during all types of edge work. • The first zone, located near the toe of the runner, is shaped to maximize acceleration.