Blade Noise

Have you ever had the following happen? You get your blades sharpened and as you stroke across the ice your blades scrape no matter how you skate?

Before the knee went 'kablooey', I had my blades sharpened by a highly recommended sharpener. When I skated in them it sounded like a tiny, little chain saw.

I am badly sharpened skate, hear me scrape

What it actually sounds like is machining chatter, so I call it 'blade chatter'.  After that sharpening, even when I was skating well back on my rockers, and on two feet, I would get this horrible sound.

So, I posted the problem on www.skatingforums.com and one of the coaches there suggested that my edges weren't  even. That is, even when I was supposedly on the flat, one edge was slightly higher off the ice, leading to the scraping sound.  When I was on an edge, the side with the edge that was slightly longer, could brush against the ice, causing scraping.

You can see the edges here, they're supposed to be even

I don't know if this is actually the cause of my blade chatter. It's certainly a reasonable solution. All I know is that after I skated a few times, it went away. Maybe I just had a small area of unevenness and it was worn down by skating, or maybe it was something else.

I guess I'll query the Amazing Coach and find out what her 40 years skating experience says. It's an interesting technical problem. There has to be some vibration in the blade somewhere, because you can hear it all across the rink. Over.The.Music!

Everyone hears my blades....the shame, the shame.