HOW I ENDED UP BEING A PROFESSIONAL SKATE BLADE SHARPENER

THIS IS ME 

When I was young I played some ice hockey but eventually I realized it was a game for people weighing more than 70kg.

Because of my employment I ended up in a town named Lidköping in the southern part of Sweden. The town has an ice hockey team and Rasmus Dahlin (Buffalo Sabres) started his career here. The town also has a bandy team called Villa Lidköping BK. Bandy is the main sport here so in Lidköping, hockey is the younger brother. Bandy is a unique sport played on a huge ice, large as a football field. The sport is faster but somewhat less maneuverable than ice hockey. Some players reach a speed of up to 50km/h (30 mph) so the skate blades are configured differently from ice hockey.

My daughter played bandy and one day the coach asked if I could help out. My wife and I started helping out in all kind of ways and eventually I ended up as a skate sharpener. Since I played myself (for fun) during the weekends I started to experiment with my skates. I tried different shapes of the blades and started to understand how much of an impact the skate blade profile actually had. Eventually I started mixing different radii and could optimize the blade for the entire range of play. 

Quickly I added some standard setups on the players and continued experimenting with my blades. I bought different types of skates, different types of skate blades and added different skate blade profiles. One day I was asked to join the Women Elite Team and that inspired me to develop my skills even more. Now I saw that my skills actually mattered and that of course was a boost. We won the Swedish Cup as well as the Swedish Championship several times. One day I was asked to help the Men's Elite Team and from that day I was stuck with them. I got to work with the best bandy players in the world, both men and women, and by this I have learned a lot. Pre season we test a lot, trying to optimize the profile for each player so when the season starts they have the best skate blade profiles money can buy. I try to be on the ice during practice because it is much easier to study the players live as well as communicating on the ice. When you ask a player about the feel and the feedback relating to a stride or maneuver they just did, you get instant feedback. By doing so I can translate the player's "language" to my "technical language" and I usually know exactly how to correct the profile and then we are off to testing again.

Profiling a bandy skate blade differs from profiling a hockey blade. The ice hockey blade has pre-manufactured curve at the front and rear but the bandy blade has a rectangular shape. The bandy blade needs a complete re-design from the start while a hockey blade "only" needs a profile added on approx. 60-70% of the skate blade.

Hockey uses standard templates provided by the manufacturer of the profiling machine while in bandy most of the skate blades are 100% custom made for each player. This is how I learned my skills, being able to study the player's skating techniques and then adjusting the skate blade profile. Today I have tried my skills on professional ice hockey players and it seems to be working really well. 

COMPANY DETAILS

CoreKnowledge AB
Lantmätarevägen 7
53159 Lidköping
Sweden

info@cksweden.com

ORG. 559494-5247
VAT. SE559494524701