Anyone have experience with the paramount aluminium blade? I understand that it has to be sharpened by a special machine. Any high level skaters out there with the blades? Any opinions?
Bummed that I haven't seen any response to this, As I ogle at the blades (they are gorgeous and seem that they would have no flex) I see that the issues with sharpening them would be the "grip / vice" that holds them and possibly the offset of the grinder stone. Not sure at all but a modification of the grinder stone would be the only issue due to width of the blade and the shape that it is held in. That does not seem all that difficult.
My daughter has these, and likes them. She is preparing her Senior test program, and working on Pre-Silver dances. They are definitely lighter, and hold a sharpening longer. At the moment, one of her coaches takes them out of town for sharpening. I talked to the guy at the Paramount booth at Adult Nationals, and, while I had trouble understanding what he was talking about since I'm totally technologically challenged, it seemed like the main thing needed is an attachment to the sharpener that can hold these blades properly. It's apparently an easy piece of equipment to get, but I've been told by some people that they don't see enough Paramount blades to make it worth their while to buy the thing. We bought them because they extend the time between sharpenings - she only needs it every 2-3 months.
I asked Mr. Edge himself about what he thought of these blades and he thinks they're the blades of the future. And while he charges an extra $5 to sharp them, he also said that as they gain in popularity there should be more people that are willing to deal with them.
and I love it! Mine is purple.
It's very light weight compare with traditional blade and once got sharppened, last a lot longer.
The guy at the pro shop told me that unless a sharpner have very old type of sharpning machine, most of recent machine can sharppen this blade.