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Z-Channel Sharpening

 As always, we at No-Icing Sports strive to offer the latest technological advances in skate sharpening techniques to our customers. We are constantly looking for new, innovative, performance enhancements that can be applied to a skater's blade to allow that skater to skate stronger, faster, and to give them every little edge over their opponent. We did that with custom skate sharpening, we did that with unique combination radius's, and we did that with the FBV.  We were proud to be the first pro shop in North America to offer the Swedish Z-Channel Sharpening.  Many ask, why do we do this? Yes, it is harder to offer custom sharpenings, yes, we have to spend many hours testing and documenting performance, yes, it takes us more time and labor, and yes it costs us more money to offer a full range of custom performance options. But, that's what sets us apart from others. We are a true pro shop. As a comparison, some competitors say they are a pro shop (because they sell a lot of pro-stock sticks), yet these so-called "pro's" sharpen every customers skates at the same "house cut" setting. Those of you who know us know our goal is to make you skate better, and we do! The Z-Channel is just one option that may be right for you!.

What is a ZC

The ZC is a method of sharpening skates invented in Sweden. Unlike conventional hollows or FBV's, the ZC is a combination of hollow edges with a channel in the middle of the blade (think tire treads). The width and depth of this channel is adjustable to give different levels of grip.  The benefits of the ZC are:

* Double edges for increased bite which allows better edge control.

* Skater will be able to have a lower left/right body angle for improved turns and agility. This will allow complex skating maneuvers to be conducted with TOTAL confidence that the edges will hold when needed.

* Less friction, better glide, which equals more speed and endurance.

What will we do to your blades

If you look at the picture of the magnified blade, you can see the Z-Channel down the center of the blade. We offer various Z-Channels of different widths and depths to match the profile of the individual skater. The Z channel does not take off a lot of steel when sharpening, actually less steel than a typical hollow ground. Also, it can be changed back and forth from a regular sharpening with little effort by any competent sharpener.

We are currently offering 5 different ZC cuts, all have great speed but each have different levels of bite. If you want something different than below, we can do that as well, just contact us and tell us what you want.:

ZC1 (equivalent of 3/8" hollow type bite)

ZC2 (equivalent of 7/16" hollow type bite)

ZC3 (equivalent of 1/2" hollow type bite)

ZC4 (equivalent of 9/16" hollow type bite)

ZC5 (equivalent of 5/8" hollow type bite)

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ZC6 (equivelant of 3/4" bite

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Others by request
 

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