We had our first demo in March of 2015 at the Let’s Play Hockey Expo in Minnesota, at the same time we launched our Kickstarter campaign. We reached our goal in less than 5 days. Now, with over 1000 sharpeners in the hands of our loyal and faithful customers, we are poised to take the 2016-2017 hockey season by storm. Over th past 18 months, there have been a handful of questions that almost everyone asks when we are out demoing the sharpener so we figured we’d lay them all out for you in a short little blog.
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1. When does it ship?
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If you placed your order today, your Sparx Sharpener will arrive at our office in Acton in March and will be shipped out asap.
UPDATED 5/18: Current orders (September 2016) will ship at the beginning of October 2016.
UPDATED October 2016: Current ship times are about 6 weeks.
UPDATED (again): Unless otherwise noted during the checkout process, your sharpener will ship in 1-2 business days.
2. HOW MUCH DOEs it cost?
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$899.00 USD and you can order yours here.
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3. Do you ship outside of the US and Canada?
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Not at this moment. While we are eager to ship around the world, for the initial launch we will be shipping only within the U.S. and to Canada. This will help us deliver top-notch customer service as we prepare to expand globally. Please do keep in touch as we will certainly be communicating our plans for expansion as they begin to take form.
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4. How do you dress the stone?
Our Grinding Rings are Superabrasive coated metal and are NOT like the traditional grinding stones used with traditional sharpening machines. They require no maintenance and will last for 40 sharpenings, providing an extremely accurate hollow depth and super smooth finish.
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5. What is the maintenance?
There are three parts of the sharpener that need to be maintained: the Air Filter, Dust Tray and Grinding Ring.
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The Air Filter needs to be replaced every 200 sharpenings
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The Dust tray can be emptied whenever significant skate steel dust accumulates and before travel to keep the dust from bouncing around inside of the machine.
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The Grinding Rings will need to be replaced every 40 sharpenings. Each ring comes with a micro-chip inside that is read by the sharpener and its life is updated on the top keypad with the life status bars.
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6. What hollows are available? Do you have a flat bottom sharpening?
We have 12 current hollow variations. traditional Hollows: 3/8", 7/16", 1/2", 9/16", 5/8", 3/4", 7/8", 1". Flat bottom FIRE Hollows: 3/8, 1/2, 5/8 and 3/4.
A general rule of thumb is, if you drop your skates off at the local shop and don't specify your hollow, chances are you're getting a 1/2" or 5/8" hollow. For more info on our Grinding Rings go here.
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7. How long does a Grinding Ring last for?
40 Sharpenings on average. That said, if you wait 10 hours in between each sharpening (4-5 is recommended), you'll have to remove more steel (more cycles) and may fall below 40. The opposite is true if you're just freshening up your edges before every skate with a pass or two. In this case you'll get more than 40.
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8. Does the Sparx Sharpener profile skates?
The Sparx Sharpener will not have the ability to profile your skate steel. It will, however, maintain your skate's current profile throughout the life of the steel. This is because the Sparx Grinding Ring applies consistent pressure to the skate blade throughout the entire sharpening process.
We recommend seeing your local pro shop professional for skate profiling.
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9. Does it sharpen Goalie Skates?
Yes! Every Sparx Sharpener will come with Goalie Skate Riser adapters to help accommodate the taller steel found on most goalie skates.
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10. Can i order additional grinding rings?
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UPDATED 5/18: Yes! If you're looking for Radius Rings go here and for FIRE Rings visit here.
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Currently, we are finalizing the packaging and shipping details for Grinding Rings and other accessories. Stay tuned here or subscribe for email updates and you'll be among the first to know when orders can be placed for these items.
If we missed anything you can check out our FAQ pages here. Of course, feel free to leave a question in the comments below.