Transition from Coronation Ace to MK Gold Star

[swim&skate]

Hi. This is my first post. I'm seeking some guidance on a recent blade transition. I learned to skate on Coronation Ace at 5 years old and it has been the only blade I've used for years. I returned to skating 6 months ago after taking many years off as an adult, and I have been using Coronation Aces again with no problems (on my old custom Harlick's). However, because my Harlick's are breaking down, I just got a new pair of boots (Risport Royale Prime) and new MK Gold Star blades (regular, not revolution). The boots are FANTASTIC and make me feel so secure, strong and stable on the ice. However, I am having difficulty finding the "sweet spot" on the Gold Stars for spinning. With the Gold Stars, if I rock too far forward on a spin, the big toe pick scrapes the ice, but if I shift slightly back on the blade, the back of the blade scrapes the ice. It feels like there isn't much of a spin rocker. I'm sooo confused b/c I thought Gold Stars were supposed to called "The King of Spin."

I've managed to "feel" a bit of a spin rocker when I do a back spin, though I must have PERFECT balance in order not to scrape the ice with my toe pick or back of blade. However, on the forward spins, especially the sit and camel spins, I'm still getting the scraping no matter how much I experiment with shifting my weight to different parts of the blade.

There are diagrams online that show the location of the sweet spots on various blades. It looks like there are three rockers on the CAs and only 2 rockers on the Gold Stars. I'm also looking at my CAs in person and they look massively rounder overall than the Gold Stars. In fact, the Gold Stars look extremely flat in comparison.

Has anyone gone from CAs to Gold Stars and had this problem of "scraping" the ice on spins? I'm wondering if it is hopeless or if I should keep trying to spin on the new blades. I've only practiced four sessions with the new blades, but it just seems so difficult. Like I'm embarrassed to even practice the spins because it looks like I've never done spins before when I spin with the Gold Stars.

I'm hesitant to replace the Gold Stars with the CAs because with the Gold Stars, I feel extremely stable and strong on my edgework, stroking and turns. Even twizzles, which I'm learning as an adult, are easier, though I have to shift my weight further forward on the blade to turn and I think I can overcome that hurdle with more practice. The Gold Stars make me skate super fast, too!

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

Hi. This is my first post. I'm seeking some guidance on a recent blade transition. I learned to skate on Coronation Ace at 5 years old and it has been the only blade I've used for years. I returned to skating 6 months ago after taking many years off as an adult, and I have been using Coronation Aces again with no problems (on my old custom Harlick's). However, because my Harlick's are breaking down, I just got a new pair of boots (Risport Royale Prime) and new MK Gold Star blades (regular, not revolution). The boots are FANTASTIC and make me feel so secure, strong and stable on the ice. However, I am having difficulty finding the "sweet spot" on the Gold Stars for spinning. With the Gold Stars, if I rock too far forward on a spin, the big toe pick scrapes the ice, but if I shift slightly back on the blade, the back of the blade scrapes the ice. It feels like there isn't much of a spin rocker. I'm sooo confused b/c I thought Gold Stars were supposed to called "The King of Spin."

I've managed to "feel" a bit of a spin rocker when I do a back spin, though I must have PERFECT balance in order not to scrape the ice with my toe pick or back of blade. However, on the forward spins, especially the sit and camel spins, I'm still getting the scraping no matter how much I experiment with shifting my weight to different parts of the blade.

There are diagrams online that show the location of the sweet spots on various blades. It looks like there are three rockers on the CAs and only 2 rockers on the Gold Stars. I'm also looking at my CAs in person and they look massively rounder overall than the Gold Stars. In fact, the Gold Stars look extremely flat in comparison.

Has anyone gone from CAs to Gold Stars and had this problem of "scraping" the ice on spins? I'm wondering if it is hopeless or if I should keep trying to spin on the new blades. I've only practiced four sessions with the new blades, but it just seems so difficult. Like I'm embarrassed to even practice the spins because it looks like I've never done spins before when I spin with the Gold Stars.

I'm hesitant to replace the Gold Stars with the CAs because with the Gold Stars, I feel extremely stable and strong on my edgework, stroking and turns. Even twizzles, which I'm learning as an adult, are easier, though I have to shift my weight further forward on the blade to turn and I think I can overcome that hurdle with more practice. The Gold Stars make me skate super fast, too!

No, John Wilson Gold Seals are the "King of Spins." Not MK Gold Stars. But honestly, you're used to 7ft rocker on the CoroAce all these years so 7ft rocker on Gold Stars should not be giving you issues unless there's a blade issue.

Also, what level are you that you felt that you needed a Risport Royal Prime boot? That's for Triples, Quads and Elite/Pro skaters.

 

[swim&skate]

I got the boots for triple jumps. I like them, but they are only to tide me over until I get new custom Harlicks. Harlick is overworked right now with lots of orders, so they have taken 7 months to make my skates, and I'm still waiting. The new blades are hard to spin on, but my coach said not to go back to the CAs and to stick with the Gold Stars and try to get used to them. I wanted to know if anyone here has had any issues going from CA to Gold Star. I'm wondering if it could be that the type of foot (length of toes, etc.)I have is not compatible with the profile of the spin rocker. I read that the natural ball of the foot must align with the placement of the sweet spot, so perhaps that is off. All the spins are scratchy now, whereas before they were smooth and fast.

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

I got the boots for triple jumps. I like them, but they are only to tide me over until I get new custom Harlicks. Harlick is overworked right now with lots of orders, so they have taken 7 months to make my skates, and I'm still waiting. The new blades are hard to spin on, but my coach said not to go back to the CAs and to stick with the Gold Stars and try to get used to them. I wanted to know if anyone here has had any issues going from CA to Gold Star. I'm wondering if it could be that the type of foot (length of toes, etc.)I have is not compatible with the profile of the spin rocker. I read that the natural ball of the foot must align with the placement of the sweet spot, so perhaps that is off. All the spins are scratchy now, whereas before they were smooth and fast.

The rocker isn't as pronounced on the MK's as they are on the JW blades. So going from a JWCoro Ace to an MK Gold Star would explain it. Hence why I said you might have been better off going to another JW---The Gold Seal.

 

[swim&skate]

Thank you so much. I wish I had known that before buying them, but oh well. Live and learn. I will try on these some more and maybe get the gold seals later. I was trying to figure out your screen name Ic3Rabbit and then I realized the c3 looks like a rabbit. Cute!

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

Thank you so much. I wish I had known that before buying them, but oh well. Live and learn. I will try on these some more and maybe get the gold seals later. I was trying to figure out your screen name Ic3Rabbit and then I realized the c3 looks like a rabbit. Cute!

You're welcome! Just know that gold seal has a higher stanchion on them.

As far as my screenname: LOL I haven't even thought into it that far. It's just ice spelled with a 3 instead of e (backwards e) and rabbit for jumps

 

[gliese]

rabbit for jumps

Off topic but I have been trying to figure out what the rabbit had to do with anything and damn that's smart.

 

[WednesdayMarch]

I'm on Gold Stars and absolutely love them for spinning. It's been a long journey since I was on Aces, via Phantoms (glorious) and MK Dance (heaven for most things but not spinning) but I'm now an old ice dancer with a very unstable right leg (metalwork, muscle and nerve damage), I skate for fun and realised I really missed spinning. I have only been actually skating on the Gold Stars for roughly 4 months, owing to lockdowns in the UK. I'd recommend persevering with them, taking the spinning right back to the two foot version, making sure you're absolutely centred and tracing beautiful, approximately foot wide, almost overlaid circles - not loops - on the ice. Knees bent, arms waist height like you're hugging a beach ball. I call it the "reset position" and it helps with pretty much everything but especially with spinning. You'll find your sweet spot on the blades and then love them for spinning as well.

 

[swim&skate]

Hi. I wanted to report back about the Gold Star blades. Someone finally looked at them and it appears they do not have a spin rocker and may be from the 80s or 90s. I wish I had thought initially to post a photo on this forum for your analysis and opinions. I switched the blades out a couple of weeks ago with Gold Seals and, magically, I can spin again, and better and faster than I did on the Coronation Ace...though I always thought the CA's felt good for spinning, too. Someone also took a look at the Gold Stars and said they look like "patch blades." There is extremely low chrome relief and the bottom toe pick is tiny. I cannot tell the difference between having a 7 and 8 foot rocker except these gold Seals feel a little less unstable and rocky than the Coronation Aces.

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

Patch blades aren't like freestyle ones. They lack a bottom pick and are ground to a very much flatter radius of hollow.
It sounds like you might have gotten someone's Gold Stars that did had a Patch sharpening done to which means they ground them super flat and ground off the bottom pick.

 

[tstop4me]

Hi. I wanted to report back about the Gold Star blades. Someone finally looked at them and it appears they do not have a spin rocker and may be from the 80s or 90s. I wish I had thought initially to post a photo on this forum for your analysis and opinions. I switched the blades out a couple of weeks ago with Gold Seals and, magically, I can spin again, and better and faster than I did on the Coronation Ace...though I always thought the CA's felt good for spinning, too. Someone also took a look at the Gold Stars and said they look like "patch blades." There is extremely low chrome relief and the bottom toe pick is tiny. I cannot tell the difference between having a 7 and 8 foot rocker except these gold Seals feel a little less unstable and rocky than the Coronation Aces.

In your first post, you said the Gold Stars were "new" blades. Did you mean "new out of the box" or simply a new purchase? If the seller represented them as "new out of the box", you should try to get your money back. But if you knowingly bought used blades, then you may not have much recourse.

ETA: Also, if they were from 80's or 90's, the MK logo would be different from the current one. And what size is your blade? I'm fairly sure MK supplied blades in 1/3" increments (instead of 1/4" increments) back then.