A local shop has new Jackson Freestyle boots with new Ultima Aspire XP Blades. Essentially the same model and size as the used skates I bought.
I traced the profiles of the new blades and took measurements, to try to figure out whether the blades on the similar used boots I bought were sharpened right. And also in possibly vain hope a very competent skate tech could try to modify the old blades to have the same profile, and trim the drag pick to have the same relationship to the rocker profile as the new ones. (Answer: The used blades have a lot different shapes from the new blades. Just for starters, the used blades have a gradually blended transition between spin rocker and main rocker radius, whereas the new ones have nice abrupt ones, like I like - I personally need it abrupt so I can feel where I am on the blade. And the other parts of the rocker profiles are a lot different too.)
Even on the new blades, the profiles of the left & right new blades are different. E.g., if I line up one blade with the tracing of the other, the spin rockers match reasonably well, but the backs depart from each other by roughly 1.5 mm.
Specifically one of the new blades has 8' main rocker, which is what people list those blades as having, and the other new blade is a bit different. I'm not sure how much that matters - many people claim spin rocker is much more important. But it wasn't what I expected. (When I placed my old Ultima Matrix 1 runners next to each other shortly after buying them (I bought 4 or 5 pairs of Ultima Dance runners at the time, as well as one pair each of Ultima Supreme and Ultima Synchro runners, and checked them all against each other), I could not see any visible difference. So they were much more consistent. But they were possibly higher end blades than Aspire XP, and they were bought in the early 2000s, so maybe that's why they were more consistent than the modern Ultima Aspire XP I looked at? Or maybe the particular Aspire XP pair I looked at was defective...)
Is that much deviation between new blades of the same size & type normal for Ultima blades now, or at least for relatively low level blades like Aspire XP? Also, the skate tech said that new Aspire XP blades have a rust-proofing coating on the bottom part of the blades when new, so they need to be re-sharpened before use. Is he right?
(I like the idea of using a lower level blade than the Ultima Matrix 1 Supremes I've recently been using. I've stopped ice dance, but I can't do more than 1/2 rotation jumps on the ice, and don't spin well. The Supremes were probably designed for more difficult jumps. I also like the idea of moving to 1/2" ROH, or maybe even more, because I like to go fast. But I have no practical way to figure out how well I can use a given model blade other than to buy used equipment and test it, because none of the shops I know of rent blades, or have ones available for trial.)
BTW, do any of you know any pro shops that do rent 9 3/4 inch figure skating blades of multiple types? I realize that would be extremely difficult for a shop to manage, for several reasons, but do any such shops exist, and where? (I'm not talking about the complete beginner level blades you see on typical rental skates - I find their toepicks too hard to reach on the 3 models I've tried.)
I traced the profiles of the new blades and took measurements, to try to figure out whether the blades on the similar used boots I bought were sharpened right. And also in possibly vain hope a very competent skate tech could try to modify the old blades to have the same profile, and trim the drag pick to have the same relationship to the rocker profile as the new ones. (Answer: The used blades have a lot different shapes from the new blades. Just for starters, the used blades have a gradually blended transition between spin rocker and main rocker radius, whereas the new ones have nice abrupt ones, like I like - I personally need it abrupt so I can feel where I am on the blade. And the other parts of the rocker profiles are a lot different too.)
Even on the new blades, the profiles of the left & right new blades are different. E.g., if I line up one blade with the tracing of the other, the spin rockers match reasonably well, but the backs depart from each other by roughly 1.5 mm.
Specifically one of the new blades has 8' main rocker, which is what people list those blades as having, and the other new blade is a bit different. I'm not sure how much that matters - many people claim spin rocker is much more important. But it wasn't what I expected. (When I placed my old Ultima Matrix 1 runners next to each other shortly after buying them (I bought 4 or 5 pairs of Ultima Dance runners at the time, as well as one pair each of Ultima Supreme and Ultima Synchro runners, and checked them all against each other), I could not see any visible difference. So they were much more consistent. But they were possibly higher end blades than Aspire XP, and they were bought in the early 2000s, so maybe that's why they were more consistent than the modern Ultima Aspire XP I looked at? Or maybe the particular Aspire XP pair I looked at was defective...)
Is that much deviation between new blades of the same size & type normal for Ultima blades now, or at least for relatively low level blades like Aspire XP? Also, the skate tech said that new Aspire XP blades have a rust-proofing coating on the bottom part of the blades when new, so they need to be re-sharpened before use. Is he right?
(I like the idea of using a lower level blade than the Ultima Matrix 1 Supremes I've recently been using. I've stopped ice dance, but I can't do more than 1/2 rotation jumps on the ice, and don't spin well. The Supremes were probably designed for more difficult jumps. I also like the idea of moving to 1/2" ROH, or maybe even more, because I like to go fast. But I have no practical way to figure out how well I can use a given model blade other than to buy used equipment and test it, because none of the shops I know of rent blades, or have ones available for trial.)
BTW, do any of you know any pro shops that do rent 9 3/4 inch figure skating blades of multiple types? I realize that would be extremely difficult for a shop to manage, for several reasons, but do any such shops exist, and where? (I'm not talking about the complete beginner level blades you see on typical rental skates - I find their toepicks too hard to reach on the 3 models I've tried.)
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