1. Always dry you blades after skating. Dry the steel as much as you can with a towel and put them in terrycloth blade guards. Terrycloth guards are the most effective way of keeping you blades dry, as they will wick the moisture away from the steel. Once blades start to rust, there is often no prevention and it will make little difference how many times you sharpen a blade penetrated by rust. 2. Dry the inside of the boots after using them and wear socks as socks will absorb some of the moisture from your feet and keep it from entering your boots. Moisture is the number one enemy of skates. It is good practice to wipe the outside of the boot after each skate. And especially important for figure skates and non-synthetic leather hockey skates, this ensures that the moisture on the outside does not penetrate the boots. Leather that remains wet will eventually harden and even crack. Leather soles on figure skates should always be snow sealed to keep moisture out. 3. It is very important to find a good blade technician to sharpen you blades. If you do get rust on your blades, you will need to have them sharpened and the sides of the blades stoned as soon as you can, you may be able to grind the rust off before it penetrates deep into the blades. Do not use automatic sharpeners, as they will ruin the contour by making it progressively smaller. Always sharpen you blades manually as this will increase their longevity. Don’t over-sharpen your skates. As a rule of thumb, you don’t want to even think about sharpening until you have skated for five hours. 4. Do not put you blades in the plastic blade covers as they are for walking in only and not for storage. Moisture left on the blade will get trapped by the plastic guards and will further increase the level rust. Please remember plastic blade covers are highly recommended for walking in however they should never be used for storing skates. Make sure you keep your steel tight on hockey skates, but don’t over tighten it. Almost all types of hockey carriers are prone to stripping out if over-tightened. If the screw turns inside the carrier, you will need to replace the entire holder. 5. Always Maintain Your Mountings as loose rivets on hockey skates and loose screws on figure skates can cause detrimental damage to the rest of the boot and blade. Even one or two loose rivets will cause problems as the forces that one loose rivet normally takes have to be redistributed throughout the entire carrier and boot. Where there is one loose rivet, more will follow. With each successive loose one, the force on the others increases. James Earwin - http://www.hockeyskates4u.com
Source: http://www.ArticlePros.com/author.php?James Earwin
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