Gold seals for ice dance? | Golden Skate

Gold seals for ice dance?

kayeonice

Spectator
Joined
Apr 19, 2025
Hello everyone, I am looking for some blade advice.

I am an intermediate freestyle skater looking to switch to ice dance due to injuries. I am currently in gold seals, but since they’re at the end of their life I am undecided whether to invest in another pair of gold seals or look for a dance blade.

I have never liked 7ft rockers, which is my biggest concern when it comes to dance blades.

Has anyone ever used gold seals for ice dance? What’s your experience and pros/cons?

Thanks
 
Hello everyone, I am looking for some blade advice.

I am an intermediate freestyle skater looking to switch to ice dance due to injuries. I am currently in gold seals, but since they’re at the end of their life I am undecided whether to invest in another pair of gold seals or look for a dance blade.

I have never liked 7ft rockers, which is my biggest concern when it comes to dance blades.

Has anyone ever used gold seals for ice dance? What’s your experience and pros/cons?

Thanks
For solo dance or partnered? The danger in using freestyle blades for partnered dance (or in synchro) is getting tangled, kicking and/or tripping each other with the longer tail in close positions. The MK Dynasty synchro blade has an 8' rocker, with the blade length at the back halfway between freestyle and dance. I wouldn't use Gold Seals for partnered dance, but I'm a pairs skater who only dabbles in dance for fun and prefers 7' rockers anyway, so I have a seldom-used pair of boots with MK Dance attached.
 
For solo dance or partnered? The danger in using freestyle blades for partnered dance (or in synchro) is getting tangled, kicking and/or tripping each other with the longer tail in close positions. The MK Dynasty synchro blade has an 8' rocker, with the blade length at the back halfway between freestyle and dance. I wouldn't use Gold Seals for partnered dance, but I'm a pairs skater who only dabbles in dance for fun and prefers 7' rockers anyway, so I have a seldom-used pair of boots with MK Dance attached.
For solo dance or partnered? The danger in using freestyle blades for partnered dance (or in synchro) is getting tangled, kicking and/or tripping each other with the longer tail in close positions. The MK Dynasty synchro blade has an 8' rocker, with the blade length at the back halfway between freestyle and dance. I wouldn't use Gold Seals for partnered dance, but I'm a pairs skater who only dabbles in dance for fun and prefers 7' rockers anyway, so I have a seldom-used pair of boots with MK Dance attached.
Thank you! It would be just for solo dance.
 
Hello everyone, I am looking for some blade advice.

I am an intermediate freestyle skater looking to switch to ice dance due to injuries. I am currently in gold seals, but since they’re at the end of their life I am undecided whether to invest in another pair of gold seals or look for a dance blade.

I have never liked 7ft rockers, which is my biggest concern when it comes to dance blades.

Has anyone ever used gold seals for ice dance? What’s your experience and pros/cons?

Thanks
MK Dynasty. You can do both disciplines on them and they have an 8 ft rocker.;)
 
I'm so sorry you have suffered injuries that affect your skating! :(

I have seen lots of skaters (and coaches) use freestyle blades for both disciplines. Just like skaters have used freestyle blades for "Moves" (or "Skating Skills") and even old style school figures even though they possibly aren't optimal for that.

This is going to sound crazy - actually it is crazy, but:

Those Gold Seals that are near end of life: Is it only the relationship to the toepick that makes them so? You can trim toepicks, and make them less aggressive. Some people would say non-aggressive toepicks are great for Dance, because if you touch them slightly without meaning to, they won't stop you nor will the touch be obvious. (E.G., on MK Dance, the drag picks are rounded off, and point backwards. You couldn't make Gold Seal blade picks point backwards, but you or a really good skate tech could trim and round them.)

You could also trim the tails, so you can have the "neat feet" (e.g., place the feet closer together than long tail freestyle blades allow) many ice dancers (and the judges who grade them) prize. So not just good for the close partner positions without tripping Diana mentioned. And maybe you will find a partner. I never did, at least not one that worked out - but if you are a good enough freestyle skater to be using Gold Seals, maybe you will. Perhaps you should find a good ice dance coach (preferably of the opposite gender, so you could more comfortably dance with them) who has a lot of other ice dance students, and good relations with other ice dance coaches, to give yourself a better chance. As with ballroom dancing (which has points of similarity), there are a lot of very different ice dance styles, in the ways you interact with your partner, so picking the common style for your geographic area (as I did not) matters a lot.

But if there isn't enough hardened and chrome reliefed steel left, or the tech has had to distort the point where the rocker curvature changes too much, modifying the Gold Seal for Dance may be hopeless. And you may have been paying your skate tech extra because the Gold Seals are harder to sharpen than parallel side blades.

FWIIW, most of the very high level dancers have settled on MK Dance. I had them too, and loved them, even though I was an extremely low level dancer. Because of the short tails, the rounded toepick. Plus the thinline grind, which I believe made them fast and glide longer, and easier to change edges. But, like the Gold Seals, they are made of a high carbon steel that isn't stainless, so you have to take good care of them to avoid rust. They do have the 7' rocker rocker you dislike.

As I'm sure you know, Dance emphasizes difficult turns, deep edges, constant radius arcs, that match prescribed patterns quite precisely, and edge changes, rather than jumps. Dancers only do little jumps, and the initial pattern dances don't include any. It's conceivable you might find the improved maneuverability a 7' rocker gives you acceptable or even desirable in that context. Or not.

I think MK Dance would be terrible if you recover enough to do freestyle again. And they aren't cheap.
 
Last edited:
I'm so sorry you have suffered injuries that affect your skating! :(

I have seen lots of skaters (and coaches) use freestyle blades for both disciplines. Just like skaters have used freestyle blades for "Moves" (or "Skating Skills") and even old style school figures even though they possibly aren't optimal for that.

This is going to sound crazy - actually it is crazy, but:

Those Gold Seals that are near end of life: Is it only the relationship to the toepick that makes them so? You can trim toepicks, and make them less aggressive. Some people would say non-aggressive toepicks are great for Dance, because if you touch them slightly without meaning to, they won't stop you nor will the touch be obvious. (E.G., on MK Dance, the drag picks are rounded off, and point backwards. You couldn't make Gold Seal blade picks point backwards, but you or a really good skate tech could trim and round them.)

You could also trim the tails, so you can have the "neat feet" (e.g., place the feet closer together than long tail freestyle blades allow) many ice dancers (and the judges who grade them) prize. So not just good for the close partner positions without tripping Diana mentioned. And maybe you will find a partner. I never did, at least not one that worked out - but if you are a good enough freestyle skater to be using Gold Seals, maybe you will. Perhaps you should find a good ice dance coach (preferably of the opposite gender, so you could more comfortably dance with them) who has a lot of other ice dance students, and good relations with other ice dance coaches, to give yourself a better chance. As with ballroom dancing (which has points of similarity), there are a lot of very different ice dance styles, in the ways you interact with your partner, so picking the common style for your geographic area (as I did not) matters a lot.

But if there isn't enough hardened and chrome reliefed steel left, or the tech has had to distort the point where the rocker curvature changes too much, modifying the Gold Seal for Dance may be hopeless. And you may have been paying your skate tech extra because the Gold Seals are harder to sharpen than parallel side blades.

FWIIW, most of the very high level dancers have settled on MK Dance. I had them too, and loved them, even though I was an extremely low level dancer. Because of the short tails, the rounded toepick. Plus the thinline grind, which I believe made them fast and glide longer, and easier to change edges. But, like the Gold Seals, they are made of a high carbon steel that isn't stainless, so you have to take good care of them to avoid rust. They do have the 7' rocker rocker you dislike.

As I'm sure you know, Dance emphasizes difficult turns, deep edges, constant radius arcs, that match prescribed patterns quite precisely, and edge changes, rather than jumps. Dancers only do little jumps, and the initial pattern dances don't include any. It's conceivable you might find the improved maneuverability a 7' rocker gives you acceptable or even desirable in that context. Or not.

I think MK Dance would be terrible if you recover enough to do freestyle again. And they aren't cheap.
Actually no, OP, do NOT have your picks or anything else altered on a freestyle blade to make them for dance, it's not safe. And definitely do NOT ice dance on freestyle blades.

Also, @Query, all of us that are elite, former elite or pro ice dancers have not all settled on MK Dance as our blade. There are many that use Ultima Apex Dance, Eclipse, etc...

Also, freestyle blades were used for MITF, figures etc. There wasn't even thought of using dance blades for that like :what:
 
Last edited:
I was basing my claim that most of the best (specifically Olympic) ice dancers used MK Dance on sources like




Of course those might be out of date. Perhaps the other blades you mention are substantially replacing them now, for many. They are certainly cheaper. A guy running a big pro shop in Canada told me that Eclipse Dance are increasingly popular among his ice dance customers because of price, and he said they were similarly shaped. Are they ground thinner than most figure skating blades too? I used the old Matrix I Ultima Dance blades, and they were not, but are the modern Ultima Apex Dance?

I based my claim that Dance blades were used for school figures on various coach's claims.

Do you have a specific reason for believing that modifying toepicks is "dangerous"?

Mike Cunningham - who used to often be the USFS[A] official sharpener at many International and Olympics events, and had many ISU Worlds and Olympic customers, - said he often did that, though he most commonly did that just to compensate for the loss of metal the rest of the blade receives as they are sharpened over time. Jaya Kanal used to have a video online in which she interviewed him about school figure blades. He talked about older school figure blades as being better for that, which often had no toepicks, and how he modified modern blades for school figures, including blunting or completely removing toepicks. (I think he said blades optimal for school figures would be wider than modern designs, so I guess MK Dance would be a bad starting point, but am not sure - I think the video has been taken down.) Dance blades obviously aren't that close a substitute, but neither are freestyle blades.

I believe in taking an empirical approach, and trying things oneself to see what works best for the individual. Of course, unlike you, I am not and have never been an elite skater, and lack the athletic abilities to have ever been one. I watched Mike (now retired) work for a while. Some of his customers wanted the custom blade shapes he created for them, sometimes including toepick modifications.
 
Back
Top