Skate blades: drying, guards and how often to sharpen

A blade has two edges, and that is the whole subject

Look at the bottom of a skate blade end-on and it is not flat. It is ground with a concave channel down the middle, called the hollow, which leaves two sharp edges - an inside edge and an outside edge. Those two edges are what bite the ice, and everything about skating is choosing which one to stand on.

Sharpening is not making the blade pointy. It is regrinding that hollow so the two edges come back to a defined shape. When people say a blade is dull, what they usually mean is that the edges have rounded and the blade now slides sideways instead of holding a line.

Rust is the actual enemy

Steel plus water plus a closed bag equals rust, and rust on an edge is the same problem as rust on a ski edge: it pits the surface, and a pitted edge does not hold. Skates spend their entire working life on water, so this is not an occasional risk, it is the default outcome of doing nothing.

1. Step off the ice and wipe the blades immediately. A cloth or a towel, both sides, all the way along, including the mount.
2. Put soft guards on - the fabric ones designed to absorb moisture.
3. At home, take the guards off and let the blades air fully. This is the step that gets skipped, and it is the one that matters.
4. Then store with soft guards on and the boots open.

Surface rust that has already appeared can be taken off gently with a fine abrasive and a light hand, but the edge underneath may already be compromised. Prevention here is genuinely cheaper than the cure.

Guards: the mistake almost everyone makes

Storing skates in hard guards is the single most common way good blades get ruined between sessions. The guard holds a film of water against the steel in a sealed space, which is close to ideal conditions for rust. Hard guards come off the moment you sit down; soft guards go on for everything else.

And walk in the hard guards rather than on the blades. A few steps on concrete does visible damage to an edge, and a rink’s rubber matting is kinder but not neutral.

How often to sharpen

Far less often than the internet suggests, for a recreational skater. Sharpening removes metal, and a blade has a finite amount of it, so unnecessary sharpening shortens the life of the skate.

• A family skating a few times a winter: once at the start of the season, and again only if it stops holding.
• Weekly skating: roughly every 20 to 30 hours on the ice, or once or twice a season.
• New skates: most come unsharpened or with a factory edge that is not skate-ready. Ask the shop before the first session.
• After any contact with concrete or a stone, regardless of the schedule.

The test is simpler than a schedule: run a thumbnail lightly across the edge, not along it. A sharp edge catches the nail and shaves a sliver; a dull one slides across. Do it on both edges of both skates, because they wear unevenly.

What a hollow is, and why you should not ask for the deepest

When a shop sharpens skates, it grinds the hollow to a radius, described in inches - a smaller number is a deeper hollow with more aggressive edges.

The instinct is to ask for the deepest available, and it is usually wrong. A deeper hollow bites harder, which means it also grips harder when you did not want it to, is harder to glide on, and is more tiring. A shallower hollow slides more and is easier for a beginner to control.

For a recreational skater, take the shop’s standard recommendation for your weight and skate type and leave it alone. This is a preference for people who skate several times a week, and a distraction for everyone else.

Adjustable skates and soft boots

The adjustable shells that make sense for a growing child - the ones in this ledger publish about four shoe sizes each - carry the same steel as any other recreational skate and need exactly the same care. Wipe, air, soft guards.

Two extra checks on an adjustable pair. Confirm the lever or button that sets the length is fully engaged before every session, because a shell that shifts mid-stride is unpleasant. And check the blade mount screws occasionally; there are more moving parts in these than in a fixed skate, and vibration backs screws out. The kids skate roundup compares the published shells and adjustment ranges.

The boot needs care too

• Loosen the laces fully before storing. Leaving a skate laced compresses the tongue and padding and makes it harder to get into next time.
• Open the boot and let the inside dry, at room temperature and away from any heat source. Same rule as ski boot liners: heat hardens and shrinks foam.
• Pull the footbed out if it comes out. It holds more moisture than anything else in the boot.
• One thin sock, always. Two pairs fills space that should be filled by your foot and makes feet colder. The same argument as ski boots.

Summer storage

Blades clean, completely dry, soft guards on, boots unlaced and open, stored somewhere dry and not hot. A pair of skates put away in a bag in April with a film of water on the steel comes out in November with an edge that needs regrinding, and possibly with pitting that no grind fixes.

That is the same principle as everything else in this section, and the end-of-season page has the full routine for the rest of the gear. The rule is the same across all of it: nothing goes away wet.