How long should blades last?
A – If I have previously sharpened a blade, I find that each sharpening removes only about 0.001″ of metal (a typical piece of paper is about 0.004″ thick) on a resharpening. If there is 0.1″ of sharpenable depth on the blade when new, this means that you might get as many as 100 sharpenings out of a blade. With monthly sharpenings, this would give a blade life of up to 8 years. Sharpenings to restore edge level will take off much more metal. So will sharpenings to change radius of hollow. I believe that skaters typically get much shorter blade life, for various reasons. Still, a careful sharpener can do much to prolong blade life, and protect the skater’s investment. Larry Commerford wrote saying that he believes that my 0.001″ is optimistic, and that 0.004″ or 0.005″ is more realistic, in his experience. He says that he sharpens mainly skates from precision team members, and that they are typically pretty chewed up. I would have to agree that my 0.001″ is a “best case” number, coming
