BLADE PROFILING

What is blade profiling?

At the factory, skates have a standard profile, often 9 or 10 feet. 1 foot is 30.48 centimeters. For a better understanding of what 11 feet profile means, I’ll tell you an example. Imagine a big tire of 11 feet (3 meters and 35 centimeters) radius. The tire’s height is therefore twice the radius, ie 6 meters and 70 centimeters. If that tire is standing upright, is the area that touches the ground, just what comes to your skate 11 feet profile. If the radius of the circle is reduced, the area affected by the ground also decreases. In this simplicity, what we do in the design of a blade, that is, either decreases or enlarges the area affected by ice.

In Finland, almost nothing was known about blade profiling until a Swedish manufacturer of sharpening machines published for marketing purposes: ”A straight flat section of 1 cm / 10 kg. This was used a long time in Finland too. In fact, many top players are still playing with blades with flat part on it. They are used to it during their long career. In North America, only radius is used. All leading skate manufacturers are also talking about radius profiling. CCM, Reebok, Bauer, Graf, Easton, all coming from the factory with radial shapes.

The advantage of radius profile is that even if the center of gravity changes slightly in front or behind (as in skating), the area affected by the ice remains as large. For this reason, the grip remains the same all the time.

Skater does not always use only the center of the blade. On fast turns, the center of gravity is moved slightly to the front so that after the turn you can quickly reach forwards. Also in backward skating the center of gravity is on the front. There are also situations where the focus is on the blade’s main part. And, in particular, the translations from the forward skating to backward skating
and vice versa shift the center of gravity across the blade.

Different profiles have a huge impact on your skating and therefore it is necessary to regularly shape your skate. The center of the profiled area should be at the center of gravity of the foot. Very often, you can see incorrectly profiled skates, where the center point is incorrectly measured from the blade. When the center of gravity is measured from the shoe, it always comes to the right place with respect to your leg. We use a measuring device specifically designed for this purpose to measure the center point. The length of the blades varies and there may be a few millimeter difference between the skates and the blade attachment points. These errors are also corrected when the measurement is performed on the skate shoe.

In profiling you can then decide how much blade hits ice when skating. A longer sliding surface means more smooth skating and more speed. A shorter sliding surface facilitates curves and agility in general, but takes a bit of speed away. The design improves your skating significantly. An incorrectly shaped blade causes faster muscle fatigue, makes skating more difficult and lessens the effectiveness of shots.

Blades can be shaped to increase speed, as well as to facilitate curves, and skating balances.
To get the skating strength, you must keep the body’s weight point down. It only makes it possible for the correct skating rhythm needed to achieve the perfect balance and maximum skating kick. This, coupled with the right profile, will bring you above the average skater. If you do not know which profile you would like to have, we will be happy to assist you. After profiling, we will sharpen your skate with a suitable groove for you. Come visit us and ask the various possibilities of profiling.

WHY SHOULD I PROFILE MY SKATES?

Why profiling should always be done with new skates? If you are an active hockey player, you can greatly improve your skills by profiling. This is the reason. There are several manufacturers of skates and blades and all use their own standard for the blade shape. CCM, Reebok, Bauer, Easton or Graf do not know you and your skating style. For this reason, they shape the skates so that they are for the most part quite ok. Are they ok for you or do you want a profile that is right for you? Another factor to be considered with new skates is that they often come in different shapes. The second skate may therefore be slightly different from the other. How is this possible? Skate manufacturers do not make blades themselves, they always come from some other factory. As in many other manufacturing processes, small bending +/- throws in the final result are allowed in the production of blades. That is, even if the manufacturer would say that the blades are shaped in 9 ’radius, the other blade may be 8.5 ”and the other 9.5. This profile can really ruin your game.

Have you noticed that you get tired easily, or your shot and pass weaken without any sensible explanation? Your previous sharpener may have sharpen the blades unevenly, or even ruined the profile completely. Sometimes you can see skates where the design is even so devastated that only the front and back of the blade touches the ice. This is because the sharpener has pressed the blade too hard against the sharpening stone and smacked too much blade from its center. With one customer, the profiled part of the blade was right at the back of the blade. This led to many unexplained falls backwards. Or one of the skates in which the ice touched only about 2 cm. No wonder he complained about the loss of sharpness.
No problem, we can repair the blades damaged by the previous sharpener. Profiling ensures that both skates have exactly the same profile. You’ve certainly heard about forward leaning profile. This makes the sliding position a little bit ahead to ”crash”. Fast starts are easier to get. The minus is the feeling of falling over at the maximum speed. If you do not get enough down to the game position with normal profile, the front weighted profile can be the solution to you. Always try the normal center-weighted profile first.

All players will benefit from blade profiling. As previously noted, 80 to 90% of the blade has a slightly different profile on each blade. By profiling the blades, your skating is much more efficient.

The youngest players, as well as novices, will benefit greatly from profiling, because then they do not need so much to try to correct the imbalance created by false profiling. They adapt to the new profile quickly and develop much more clearly than unprofiled or misaligned skates. For older players, incorrect profile may have caused an incorrect game position that can be corrected by properly crafted profiling. Taking it may take some time but, as they become accustomed, they will achieve a much more efficient playing position and skating. However, getting used to the new profile is no wonder how to get used to new skates. Usually, one skating is enough. Come visit and discuss different design options.

HOW OFTEN I SHOULD PROFILE MY SKATES?

All skates are good from time to time to profile again. If you always sharpen us, it’s enough to make the profiling again after about 15 sharpening times.

PRICE

The profiling costs 20 euros and includes sharpening.