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Their machine seems sort of equivalent to Sparx 1.5 😬 Exciting space to watch though, makes me wonder if CCM would ever consider acquiring Sparx.

Edge checker has recently been marked down to $90 USD as well. The 2 is still a good buy imo if you need to get the entry cost down. Like you said, if you play for a few years and sharpen for others, you will likely find it worth it. Not to mention you can likely sell if needed.

The best use case is for those who literally don't want to have to think at all about how to correct, at least as I see it. No doubt BEAM is extremely valuable for them, I just don't know how many people fit into that category. It's possible that most new customers fit that profile today. Whereas v1, v2 users like us knew that adjusting manually would be part of the experience.

And I love your vids, thanks for weighing in! I feel like now at least one person will appreciate all my time spent in editing 😂 Using BEAM on others' skates is a great callout. That's something I haven't done on the 3 yet, whereas I was doing that several times a week on my original machine. It definitely still has its uses, but perhaps just a slightly more narrow appeal than at least I originally suspected at launch.

Is the black one the one they had previously? These are the only two I've tried, but I like how the Sparx one fits together, has the green zone, and maybe most importantly for usability, the magnet seems way stronger.

​​@@SeenByYoshthe prosharp/Bauer one I've usee and seen has always been blue. I didn't know they had a black one. The Sparx one is a bit fancier but I'd argue they both work the same.

Thanks for watching. Even skating considerably less this year than I was in 2023, I would have sorely missed not having it, even if for a little. It's one sticky product, that's for sure!

It's difficult to definitively recommend one over another - you're going to know best based on your budget, sharpening habits, and buying preferences. But if entry cost is a primary concern and you're happy to get the hang of calibration as necessary, Sparx 2/Ring/Edge Checker would appeal to me as a way to start for $1k. What's unclear is how long they will maintain stock of that model.

In some ways looking fairly justified, especially looking head-to-head with Bauer. And for those who will benefit most from BEAM. But still a hike 🥲

I would be interested in doing a direct comparison, if I could get my hands on one. But I definitely don't want/need two sharpeners generally. Based on my relatively quick look, Sparx is looking like the much more friendly option so far. The price in the edge checkers is interesting enough that I wanted to comment on it in this vid, but the Sparx edge checker is much nicer for sure.

Sure, that's a good interim hack. Less control and messier though.

Grabbing on sale would be great for most people. I think I prefer the speed of their edge checker to something like BEAM

Kimberton! What are the options near Horsham like??

@@SeenByYosh there’s a few tbh. This rink looked just like one i played at years ago. Anytime I’ve played roller i usually play at a park in North Hampton which has a pretty nice rink

You can "rent" the rink for $10, and they'll unlock them. But they aren't full size, are already filled with holes, and you couldn't use them much with pucks. I'm hoping that someday I can help get them regulation nets back like they had there when I was a kid. It makes a big difference for those who don't have one at home.

Wait, $25 for a regular sharpening??

@@SeenByYosh Last time I was in Pure Hockey (also CO) I was told they are moving from $10 to $15.

That feels like a big jump 😔

Haha yeah, I find I usually do more frequent sharpening and fewer passes with FBV to make sure I'm not stepping on the ice to start a game with a dead spot.

Thanks so much for sharing your experience. Encouraging to hear about the accuracy but a bummer about the dying. Hopefully they’ll replace it quickly.

@@SeenByYosh shipping label provided for a return/replacement withing 30 minutes of contacting Sparx through the beam portion of the sparx app through live chat. This is just how tech is these days, it's the customer service that sets a company above which they have done.

@denisfrenchforwin that’s awesome to hear. I think they were slower in the past when smaller, but I’ve had good recent experiences as well

@@SeenByYosh so...... I just got my replacement Beam today. I sent my defective one back within 3 days of getting the label. Then heard nothing from them until I sent an email. Within a day a shipping label was created. 8 days later I have the replacement.

@denisfrenchforwin glad to hear it’s in! How’s it working so far?

Very interesting, it probably does, but no doubt also slowing him down. I'd be nervous to accidentally catch an edge but maybe that's a non-issue if you've been doing it 😅

Lol idk about dork. In the sense of using the readings to fine tune calibration, beam does seem easier. Remember, I think they want to market this version to appeal to a wider group of people that want it dead simple. But to your point, getting the fastest reading that still works for most? Still edge checker.

Not necessarily. If the recommended adjustment helps, then I would leave it on that setting assuming it's now even closer to true alignment. 3 clicks is a pretty small amount.

It definitely seems like the best one all these years later.

Thanks!!

Haha thanks. Tbh, pretty new to audio editing and no expert, but glad it's sounding good. Beam is a pretty niche skate sharpening accessory 😂

Not dumb, if you aren't familiar with Sparx or their newest products, I wouldn't expect you to. This is a video intended for a pretty specific audience of those who have or are considering their latest skate sharpener. And even then I jump right in, as it's meant as a video to watch after my initial overview vid.

Haha I'm borrowing my blank white wall "set" and mic from my photo channel 🤣 I did pop a QR code on my skates, but to your point, they will really come in handy when sharpening for family members and friends... I haven't been doing that on the 3 yet, so I don't feel a big positive impact from those. Great to hear yours is also accurate though, appreciate you sharing!

User defined would be cool too!

When I say beam being accurate, I mean accurate edge checking. After using the edge checker to verify, I'm really confident in the beam readings. When I say the app, I mean the accuracy of the sharpening cycles, which I know to be incorrect right now. There have been a handful of sharpnenings where I've run four cycles and it reported 5. And then still a number of instances where it duplicated the sharpening in the log entirely. I'd call this a nuisance, I'm not too worried about this. I'm thinking that the ring probably has solid cycle data and it's just a bug in the app/communication. Unless the chip in the grinding ring thinks it has been run more than it actually has. Then that's a real issue - over time it will report as dead when in fact there's some life left, which would be wasteful.

@@SeenByYosh So when you get Beam reading on the app shows you how off you are somewhere? ei. 0.0028" If so, how much more helpful is it if the suggested rotations and cycles to correct that are inaccurate?

Their recommendation in my case would have been really good. That's part of why I'm not fretting over that part as much yet. The difference in 3 alignment clicks (9 vs. 12 in my case) is REALLY small. The edge checker likely would have still been just about flat. There are variables too, like the part of the blade I measured for instance. I want to maintain that factory setting so long as it's working, so that's why I turned back the full 12. And the thing people want to keep an eye on is trying to overcorrect their sharpener based on one bad blade. The scenario that you don't want is to take a BEAM reading on a localized part of the blade that for whatever reason is misrepresentative of the true calibration. Then BEAM recommends 15 clicks one way to fix it. Then you test the next blade, and it recommends 10 clicks the OTHER way. That's when you start to lose a good sense of where true alignment is. While the optical alignment tool is tricky to read and kind of a pain - in this hypothetical scenario, it would be nice to have one to bring things back into the ballpark of even, without a lot of grinding and BEAM readings to sort things out. Would love to know if anyone has actually run into scenarios like this because beyond my forced testing, I haven't had to do anything to get great results so far.

@@SeenByYosh It would have been nice for them to include the alignment tool as a backup. But is there a way to do that using a magnifying glass. One of the Sparx users FB groups has a lot of people having issues where Beam tells them 10 turns one way for 6 cycles and they do a reading and it's 7 clicks the other way for 5 cycles and they end up burning up their spinners and blades. So much so that some of them have sold their Beam and just went out and bought an edge checker. But you're right some of these folks might have bent blades and measuring at different parts of the blade. I suppose theoretically you could doing readings at 3 different parts of the blade to see where things are at. It could also be user error, because others have been beaming about Beam in the group.

@@thedaveko Yeah one thing to def check is that you always have the toe facing forward. That would be easy to mess up if not paying close enough attention.

lol welp, thanks for being here 😂

🤣 Because it has immeasurably enriched your life? 🙂

Great question - currently editing my initial BEAM to edge checker comparison as we speak, video should be live in the next few days. I'm also very curious, and have tried to monitor Reddit for issues. Mine has been incredibly accurate so far. I was suspicious at first, but edges were feeling great, and I borrowed an edge checker to verify (sold my original checker with my gen 1 bundle). I had to purposely misalign my sharpener in order to test some things because mine was so consistently good. And the BEAM recommendation after I did that was pretty close to returning it to original alignment, but not quite. The app is a bit less trustworthy for me so far, so maybe if you follow the BEAM recommendations repeatedly it slowly falls out of calibration? It's tough for me to generalize so early.

@@SeenByYosh looking foward to watching that video and seeing what your findings are. i'm on my journey or determing which sharpener to buy. narrowed things down to Sparx or a Cag One. if you know anything about those machines I'd love to hear your thoughts. Doing some general calaculations and it'll take about 1000 sharpenings for them be have been of equal investments, because Cag One machine works out to about $0.15 (Canadian) per pair skates, whereas Sparx about $2-$3 CAD /pair. Would love to hear your thoughts on that machine if you know of them.

@@thedaveko I don't know much about the Cag One unfortunately, but 1000 sharpenings is a lot. That might make sense if you are doing a ton of skates and don't have better things to do with such a large up front investment (and that might very well be you). Otherwise, a Sparx is probably a better entry point for most.

@@SeenByYosh that makes sense. I think you’ve done 500ish in over 7 years for you and your friends.

Yeah I was gonna say, I haven't been sharpening for others on this one yet as they start to become more prevalent and I've averaged closer to only two skates/wk lately. Might take me another 5-10 years for the next 500 if it's mostly me.

Keep running it! It's possible that at some point the grinding rings change enough to not be compatible, but hopefully that won't be the case in the next few years.

I'm not familiar, do they have special steel that sharpens differently? I'd love to try 1" just for fun sometime.

Thanks! The 1/2" FIRE has really grown on me. If you find a good place to do mail-in FBV, it might be better money spent to pick up several new sets of steel and mail multiple at a time. That said, I do find the FBV more fragile, so it's harder to get away with skating on it a long time confidently.

My opion of FBV is its for people who havent developed the confidence to skate on ¾, 1 1¼ and 1½ roh

@@gerardnadrowski5672 thanks Gerard, I'll try to work on my confidence then.

@@gerardnadrowski5672 I think the sentiment of trying to find the most shallow that works for you is a good one. I've recently tried warming up to 5/8" again. But I've certainly seen good skaters on deeper than a blanket 3/4" - 1 1/2". Personal preference still plays a big role.

I'm working on some BEAM videos now, but I can try to do something short on deburring soon. I like Sparx's coated steel kit for these, and based on my experimentation on my own skates, the gummy stone is really forgiving. I like to run it up and down along both edges at a 45 degree angle and take short strokes at a much shallower angle as well. Then a few passes with the leather stop afterwards.

Just saw your other comment. Having any version of the sharpener is awesome, and for anyone else on the fence between the 2 and 3 while considering prices, and discounts, and BEAM, and accessories... you can't choose wrong. I'm going deeper on BEAM in my next video, but imo, it's not a product that anyone should feel devastated missing out on. There's some cool stuff there, and it might shorten the learning curve, but once you get the hang of everything you'll get great edges on any of the three machines.

@@SeenByYosh right on. I almost went 3 but the best deal is the bundle and it didn’t come with the stones I wanted so I’d have to try and sell them but the beam looked cool. Once they get it to an automated level I’ll probably sell my 2 and go with that.

Enjoy it! Yours is a perfect example of a use case where I wouldn't fret about when the payoff will happen - like you said, that's a lot of skating, and the simplicity and time savings will be great.

Details at 6:22, but for most people, I say expect 40-50 sharpenings realistically.

Yeah, good question, adding a bit more here now for others as well: One of the things you have to adjust repeatedly, completely separate from calibration, is the height at which the grinding ring sits. If you have taller steel, you set the adjust to a lower number (1-8) and steel that is usually pretty old is closer to 8 so that the ring contacts enough of it. If you just have one set, and you're only sharpening for you, this might be the same setting until you grind enough down to need to change it (think MANY sharpenings, then adjusting one click upwards). If you have multiple different sets yourself, or you are sharpening for others, you may need to adjust this almost every single time. It's a little red lever with the numbers printed on it when the head unit is open. For the skater profiles in the app, you can add multiple sets of blades. So far I have two of mine added. But there's nowhere to note down what the grinding ring height should be for each set of steel. The is one of those things I actually want the app to save, so I don't need to note this down elsewhere or spend time figuring it out at the time of sharpening. I'll sent that feedback in hopes it gets added 🤞

@@SeenByYosh do you have a video on correctly setting the height? I've followed the Sparx set up but who knows if I'm actually doing it right haha

More of the NHL players are now using a 3/4 hollow radius. I use a 1/2 hollow radius im 215lbs

You have to consider the average nhl player is 6’1 and 200+ lbs

Thanks for watching, hope it was helpful!

Appreciate the feedback, at the same time, not meant as a set up tutorial 🤷🏻‍♂️ Looking at how this fits into the product evolution and Sparx future, and who who should be most excited for sharpener 3, is more interesting to me. It’s easier than in the past, for those looking to skip the instructions - install the clamp, remove the guard, install your grinding ring, pair the machine and download the latest firmware.

Nice, glad you like it! It seems to me well intentioned for beginners, but to your point, if the edge checker was already working well, I may find it overkill at times. And it would be upsetting if only one small area tested read as incorrect, prompting for a big cycle count correction. My readings were pretty bang on... I actually may have to adjust the calibration in order to force an uneven sharpening for demonstration purposes. I'm hoping to borrow an edge checker for that deep dive. That way I can show visually how the edge checker and BEAM readings compare for readings within normal ranges.

@@SeenByYosh I'm mostly curious to see if Beam's "Recommended Cycles" to correct a "slightly uneven" measurement is accurate or wasteful in terms of passes...

Good callout, a lot has changes since this vid!