Skate Sharpening Methods Compared
Ordinary Sharpening Jig vs. the Sharp Master
Ease of use and speed are all well and good, but what matters to the real skater is the result. Below are several photographs (much enlarged) of the sliding surfaces of skate blades sharpened with a traditional sharpening jig on the one hand, and sliding surfaces sharpened with the Sharp Master on the other. See the difference and judge for yourself.
| Result sharpening with traditional jig, coarse side of grinding stone |
Result sharpening with Sharp Master, coarse plate (black) |
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| Result sharpening with traditional jig, fine side of grinding stone |
Result sharpening with Sharp Master, standard plate (blue) |
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| Result sharpening with traditional jig, red diamond plates on an aluminium bar |
Result sharpening/polishing with Sharp Master, fine plate (red) |
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| Result sharpening with traditional jig, red diamond plates on an aluminium bar |
Result sharpening/polishing with Sharp Master, extra fine plate (green) |
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Sharpening skates with the traditional sharpening jig…
In order to sharpen skates on a jig, the skates are clamped squarely in such a way that their blades are level. Then, the skates are first sharpened with the coarse side of the grinding stone by moving it diagonally from front to back until a burr appears on the edges of the blades. This burr is removed (pushed upwards) with the (small) burr stone. Subsequently, the sliding surface is sharpened with the fine side of the grinding stone, after which the resulting burr has to be removed again with the burr stone. After this, the sliding surface may optionally be smoothed with a polishing stone. Proper sharpening of a pair of skates on a traditional sharpening jig can easily take up half an hour. A sharpening jig is a bulky apparatus that takes up quite a lot of space and is certainly not easy to take along to the skating rink. The weight of a sharpening jig with grinding stone ranges from 6.5 to 7.5 pounds (3 to 3.5 kilograms).
…versus sharpening skates with the Sharp Master
When using the Sharp Master, each skate is sharpened in turn. The Sharp Master is positioned on the blade from behind and drawn across the blade from front to back about ten times (depending on how dull the skate is). At the last stroke, the two deburring plates are clamped against the front of the blade. The Sharp Master will have your skates sharp and deburred within minutes. The Sharp Master fits in your jacket pocket and weighs as little as 6.88 oz (195 grams).