Looking after skates

A blade's edges are a fraction of a millimetre of hardened steel. Most of looking after skates is keeping those edges away from anything harder than ice, and keeping them dry.

Guards and soakers

Hard guards are for walking. Put them on as you step off the ice and take them off as you step back on. Rubber matting is kind to edges; metal, concrete and tiles are not, and one step on any of them can take an edge off. Watch for metal edging and thresholds at temporary rinks, and metal steps in the seating round any rink.

Take the guards off before the first step onto the ice, every time. Stepping on with them still on is one of the commonest falls in skating, and it happens to experienced skaters too.

Soakers are cloth covers for storage. A hard guard holds water against the steel, so a blade left in one rusts. Once the blades are dry, soakers go on and the hard guards stay off.

Drying

Wipe the blades with a towel as soon as you come off the ice, along the whole length and over the edges, and again later, when the steel has warmed up and fogged with condensation. At home, take the skates out of the bag and leave them open to dry, with the tongues pulled forward. A boot left damp in a closed bag stays damp, and so do the screws that hold the blade on.

Sharpening

Blades dull with skating. The figures usually given run from about 20 to 35 hours on the ice between sharpenings, less for a skater who jumps a lot, but the better sign is the skating itself: edges that held last week start to slip, or the blade skids sideways in a stop it used to bite in. A nick from a hard surface needs attention sooner.

Have figure blades sharpened by someone who sharpens figure blades. The pick, the rocker and the hollow all need care that a machine set up for hockey skates does not give, and a careless sharpening can flatten the rocker or shorten the pick. Tell the sharpener the hollow you skate on, and keep it the same unless you mean to change it. The blade page shows what a hollow is.

The sharpening range is the span of the figures given by a skating club, a blade technician who coaches and a boot maker, as of 04/10/2026.