If you’re considering jumping onto the ice with your new pair of hockey skates right out of the box, you may want to think twice.
New hockey skates don’t come sharpened whether you buy them online or in store. If you buy used hockey skates, they may still be slightly sharpened from the previous owner, but you should take them into a shop to have them sharpened to your preferred hollow.
Do You Have to Sharpen Your New Hockey Skates?
It is an absolute must to have a new pair of hockey skates sharpened. The tiny difference of shaving off a little bit of steel to get that hollow in the bottom of your skate blades makes an incredible difference.
New hockey skates that haven’t been sharpened only have a flat blade which is useless when on ice. I have personally tried skating on skates that were not sharpened at all and you simply can’t move on the ice. In fact, you’re better off crawling across the ice than skating with blades that haven’t been sharpened.
How to Tell if Your Skates Are Sharpened
When you get a new pair of hockey skates, whether they are new or used, you will probably want to make ensure that they are or aren’t sharpened yourself. This can be a handy skill to have if you are new to ice skating and want to know when to sharpen your skates. Here are a few ways that you can check if your skates are sharpened or completely dull.
Hold A Flat Edge Across Your Blades
Hockey skates are sharpened by hollowing out a measured radius along the center of the steel blade. This creates a cresent shape down the length of the blade with an edge on each side.
If you were to hold something flat perpendicular to the blade, the two edges of the blade will touch the straight line but the center of the blade will not. If you can see a very small area of space under the straight edge, this means that the skates have been sharpened to some degree. If the straight edge makes contact with the blade along its entire surface, you have a skate that has not been sharpened.
Look at the Color of the Blade
When a hockey skate is sharpened, steel is shaved off from the bottom of the skate blade. Unless your blade is brand new, the part of the skate that has been sharpened will expose the new steel underneath making it seem to shine a little brighter than the metal on other parts of the blade.
This method is most noticeable when the skate has been sharpened very recently. As the skate is used, the shimmer on the sharpened portion will dull.