Several different types of wheels can be used to cater to which skates are being sharpened. A fast cutting hard wheel is useful to sharpen abused rental skates that get ruined due to abuse. A fine finish wheel to sharpen normal customers who own their own skates and do no walk on concrete! Or bang them together! :) Eons ago hockey skates were all carbon steel say pre 1980. These give off a fuzzy spark pattern and are easy to sharpen. When stainless hockey blades came into vogue sharpeners complained the stainless loaded up the wheel. A harder wheel is often used with stainless. With EZ sharp wheels i found the grey to be super soft and white medium and the pink red to be hardest and good for cheap rentals. An added variable is the surface velocity drops when the wheel is used up plus the composition can degrade towards the hub. Blademaster makes a high end sharpener with a variable speed motor where you set the wheel diameter. Ie us 3600 at 8 inch and higher rpm at 7.5 and 7 etc. Regards to all. The madening thing is all the grind disc makers use a mess of adjectives for all their different color wheels and often you really need to experiment with your own ZOO of local skates to sharpen.
I loved the green one. I’m ordering a 8VBP now to try it out. I have a 3 head legend in my garage, it’s a little overkill but I have fun doing my teammates skates and a few guys from my neighborhood.
Good video, I 100% prefer the blue wheels over the same price red wheels. Better finish and less burning. I sharpen a ton of skates and can’t seem to bring myself to pay for the higher priced wheels unless they can give a scientific reason why a wheel gives a far superior finish. Also I don’t buy that just because a blade is thicker, such as goalie or figure, you need a different wheel. Sounds like old fairytale voodoo to me. I also use compressor oil to refill my gusto glide, can’t tell the difference. =)
We only use the 8as at my shop. (Yellow). We have Ruby’s as backups though. I’ve tried the green wheel for goalie skates. Haven’t tried purple yet. Might buy one on my next purchase to give it a whirl.
Definitely agree on the Gusto Glide. When you are doing the ‘polishing pass’, meaning the last pass, I use the Gusto Glide, I apply it, then, on my last pass, i go slower. The results are noticeably better.
Great info in the video. Definitely going to try the purple. I have always used pink with my ez-sharps however sounds like I may get a better edge with the purple. Thank you! Never was a believer in the Gusto or Blackstone's "lube tube" but I'm open to trying the gusto again after watching your video.
Yes I was not a fan of Gusto glide either but I have come around. I just wonder if there is a cheaper alternative. Like motor oil. It's just a little expensive.
Ive always wondered how you get so much use from the grinding wheels? The green wheel has like less than half an inch of stone left. I have the same machine and I have to change the wheels when there is still a inch left on the wheel. fells like such a waste. tips?
Any time I've been using wheels down around the 5.5"-6" diameter range, I have to re-dress the wheel noticeably more frequently. Like after every other pair (sometimes even after each pair), when I would normally do it anywhere from every 3-4 pairs up to like 8 pairs (8 would be if I get a run of definitely just ODR skates, and none of them happen to immediately destroy a dress haha). I'm guessing he probably just re-dresses the wheel very frequently, which he might have to do anyway to change radii for the junior team players.
Currently using the white Howie's wheel. Like it a lot. About how often or how many pairs of skates do you go though before you change wheels and diamond dresser? We seem to be going though a wheel a month (approximately 100 sharpening's).
I heard from another guy they use the white wheel. too. Gonna after to order one. I was told by Blademaster to replace the diamond once every wheel. I keep one to the side for me to use and let the others use one. So about every five wheels we order more. I get a new one for me and give the one I use to the others. We can not afford one per wheel. So I guess it's like 2 per 5 wheels with us. I am not sure how many sharpening one gets out of a wheel. You know. Probably depends on how often the wheel is re-dressed, how much is taken off. Some get happy with it. Type of wheel. I will re-dress the wheel more often for customer skates over rentals. Hope that helps.
Several different types of wheels can be used to cater to which skates are being sharpened. A fast cutting hard wheel is useful to sharpen abused rental skates that get ruined due to abuse. A fine finish wheel to sharpen normal customers who own their own skates and do no walk on concrete! Or bang them together! :)
Eons ago hockey skates were all carbon steel say pre 1980. These give off a fuzzy spark pattern and are easy to sharpen. When stainless hockey blades came into vogue sharpeners complained the stainless loaded up the wheel. A harder wheel is often used with stainless.
With EZ sharp wheels i found the grey to be super soft and white medium and the pink red to be hardest and good for cheap rentals.
An added variable is the surface velocity drops when the wheel is used up plus the composition can degrade towards the hub.
Blademaster makes a high end sharpener with a variable speed motor where you set the wheel diameter. Ie us 3600 at 8 inch and higher rpm at 7.5 and 7 etc.
Regards to all.
The madening thing is all the grind disc makers use a mess of adjectives for all their different color wheels and often you really need to experiment with your own ZOO of local skates to sharpen.
Thank you for the information! Comments like this really add to the channel.
I loved the green one. I’m ordering a 8VBP now to try it out. I have a 3 head legend in my garage, it’s a little overkill but I have fun doing my teammates skates and a few guys from my neighborhood.
Good video, I 100% prefer the blue wheels over the same price red wheels. Better finish and less burning. I sharpen a ton of skates and can’t seem to bring myself to pay for the higher priced wheels unless they can give a scientific reason why a wheel gives a far superior finish. Also I don’t buy that just because a blade is thicker, such as goalie or figure, you need a different wheel. Sounds like old fairytale voodoo to me. I also use compressor oil to refill my gusto glide, can’t tell the difference. =)
We only use the 8as at my shop. (Yellow). We have Ruby’s as backups though. I’ve tried the green wheel for goalie skates. Haven’t tried purple yet. Might buy one on my next purchase to give it a whirl.
Definitely agree on the Gusto Glide. When you are doing the ‘polishing pass’, meaning the last pass, I use the Gusto Glide, I apply it, then, on my last pass, i go slower. The results are noticeably better.
Great info in the video. Definitely going to try the purple. I have always used pink with my ez-sharps however sounds like I may get a better edge with the purple. Thank you! Never was a believer in the Gusto or Blackstone's "lube tube" but I'm open to trying the gusto again after watching your video.
Yes I was not a fan of Gusto glide either but I have come around. I just wonder if there is a cheaper alternative. Like motor oil. It's just a little expensive.
Did you try the purple? Curious as I have one pink one left for my EZ- Sharp. Did you get a better finish?
Ive always wondered how you get so much use from the grinding wheels? The green wheel has like less than half an inch of stone left. I have the same machine and I have to change the wheels when there is still a inch left on the wheel. fells like such a waste. tips?
Any time I've been using wheels down around the 5.5"-6" diameter range, I have to re-dress the wheel noticeably more frequently. Like after every other pair (sometimes even after each pair), when I would normally do it anywhere from every 3-4 pairs up to like 8 pairs (8 would be if I get a run of definitely just ODR skates, and none of them happen to immediately destroy a dress haha). I'm guessing he probably just re-dresses the wheel very frequently, which he might have to do anyway to change radii for the junior team players.
Currently using the white Howie's wheel. Like it a lot. About how often or how many pairs of skates do you go though before you change wheels and diamond dresser? We seem to be going though a wheel a month (approximately 100 sharpening's).
I heard from another guy they use the white wheel. too. Gonna after to order one. I was told by Blademaster to replace the diamond once every wheel.
I keep one to the side for me to use and let the others use one. So about every five wheels we order more. I get a new one for me and give the one I use to the others. We can not afford one per wheel. So I guess it's like 2 per 5 wheels with us.
I am not sure how many sharpening one gets out of a wheel. You know. Probably depends on how often the wheel is re-dressed, how much is taken off. Some get happy with it. Type of wheel. I will re-dress the wheel more often for customer skates over rentals.
Hope that helps.
I do minimum 200 pairs per wheel.
I am on my original diamond dresser, and have gone through maybe 10 grinding wheels.
Howie’s white wheels 👍.
They look like 45 rpm records!⛸️