What kind of holders?

[iceholes19 0]

Can anybody enlighten me as to what kind of holders are on Andrew Ladd's skates?

[JBarrera 0]

Lookin like the holders off of the MLX skates

[iceholes19 0]

That was my initial thought, too but upon closer inspection...

[reddog 0]

That was my initial thought, too but upon closer inspection...

these might be the holders that were on an nhl.com video... an equipment manager was talking about them and you can pop in and out the steel easily so if you lose an edge in a game they can change the steel instead of sharpening

[Wolfpack_1986 146]

quikblade. wally tatomir of the hurricanes was involved with these at some level (how involved i dont know). good concept if you have multiples of steel... (like travelling refs)

brandon sutter and tom kostopoulus used them last year... LS2 drill pattern IIRC... we had a few in the shop

http://www.quikblade.com/

[cptjeff 0]

quikblade. wally tatomir of the hurricanes was involved with these at some level (how involved i dont know). good concept if you have multiples of steel... (like travelling refs)

brandon sutter and tom kostopoulus used them last year... LS2 drill pattern IIRC... we had a few in the shop

http://www.quikblade.com/

Wally invented them. And yes, the idea is to replace the steel rather then trying a stone or something along those lines. That way, the manager can get a fresh edge on there quickly without worrying about an imperfect job with a stone or a longer period of time playing on it, and allows the blade to be sharpened at the EM's convenience.

It does make me wonder how many pieces of gear have been invented and kept in house for a competitive advantage. There have to be a few out there.

[interpathway 9]

these might be the holders that were on an nhl.com video... an equipment manager was talking about them and you can pop in and out the steel easily so if you lose an edge in a game they can change the steel instead of sharpening

T-blades without the benefit of less weight?

[Fisticuffs 0]

It does make me wonder how many pieces of gear have been invented and kept in house for a competitive advantage. There have to be a few out there.

I would guess its probably less than you think. Players move too much to keep things under wraps if you have something that provides even a relatively minor improvement over what is available in the market. Plus, for something like this, if there is a chance a major company would buy the technology and use it in their skates, the club would have to be paying you big bucks to keep it in house.

While I think this is a neat and innovative product, it would be more attractive if you could use stock steel. It also only seems marginally easier to swap these out than it would to swap out the steel on an E-pro holder on the bench.

[JR Boucicaut 3760]

Says Rick Hampton invented them.

Wally didn't invent EVERYTHING. But he'll tell you he did.

[IniNew 51]

Marginally? Two bolts VS one trigger pull is not marginally. Although it's not currently, but if you were to change out say 15 pieces of steel you could easily save 20 minutes. An entire intermission.

[Fisticuffs 0]

Marginally? Two bolts VS one trigger pull is not marginally. Although it's not currently, but if you were to change out say 15 pieces of steel you could easily save 20 minutes. An entire intermission.

With the QuickBlade, there would be no reason for a trainer to swap out a player's steel, surely they could handle that themselves.

On the spectrum as a whole the Tuuk, because you have to take off the skate, takes much more time to replace. I'm quite sure I could swap the steel on an E-Pro in less than a minute. The QuickBlade would take seconds, but the chasm from Tuuk to E-Pro is much wider than that from E-Pro to QuickBlade. Plus, how often do you really need to swap out the steel on your skates?

[interpathway 9]

Plus, how often do you really need to swap out the steel on your skates?

Us, seldom. NHL players striving for every conceivable competitive advantage?, often.

[Fisticuffs 0]

Us, seldom. NHL players striving for every conceivable competitive advantage?, often.

How often though? I've seen guys on the bench while an equipment manager re-sharpens a skate, but I can't imagine you have any substantial number of players who need fresh edges every period. If it was really that common, you'd think Bauer would have found a way to tweak the design of the Tuuk to make swapping steel quicker and easier, especially considering how often the Tuuk is used on non-bauer skates (with no hole to access the screw securing the runners to the holder).

[interpathway 9]

I've seen guys on the bench while an equipment manager re-sharpens a skate,

(with no hole to access the screw securing the runners to the holder).

If the guy is on the bench while his EM is resharpening his skate, that means he had to untie the skate, remove it, get it schlepped down to the Blackstone, and by the time it is back on his foot the period is half over.

And any EM (or LHS employee) with half a brain drills access holes in the boots of Graf/Reebok/CCM skates whenever they mount TUUK holders.

edit: Unless they really like riveting, ha.

[Fisticuffs 0]

If the guy is on the bench while his EM is resharpening his skate, that means he had to untie the skate, remove it, get it schlepped down to the Blackstone, and by the time it is back on his foot the period is half over.

I guess that's where I don't see the point. If it would save even 4 or 5 minutes running back to the sharpener to fix an edge, why wouldn't teams be keeping extra runners sharpened to a players specs behind the bench, so they can grab the skate, and pop in a new blade? I'm pretty confident that I could swap the runner on a Tuuk in less than 90 seconds, surely that would be faster than going back to sharpen it again. While the QuickBlade would be even faster, it seems the teams aren't using the most time efficient process as it is. It would be interesting to know why.

And any EM (or LHS employee) with half a brain drills access holes in the boots of Graf/Reebok/CCM skates whenever they mount TUUK holders.

edit: Unless they really like riveting, ha.

Psh. Riveting is for suckers. A guy on my men's league team used epoxy to attach his holders. Which worked way longer than I expected actually (though, in fairness, I didn't expect him to make it through the first period).

[Leb_CRX 0]

I guess that's where I don't see the point. If it would save even 4 or 5 minutes running back to the sharpener to fix an edge, why wouldn't teams be keeping extra runners sharpened to a players specs behind the bench, so they can grab the skate, and pop in a new blade? I'm pretty confident that I could swap the runner on a Tuuk in less than 90 seconds, surely that would be faster than going back to sharpen it again. While the QuickBlade would be even faster, it seems the teams aren't using the most time efficient process as it is. It would be interesting to know why.

Psh. Riveting is for suckers. A guy on my men's league team used epoxy to attach his holders. Which worked way longer than I expected actually (though, in fairness, I didn't expect him to make it through the first period).

you gotta take off the skate to swap the steel on the tukk's

these, you don't

but I agree, cobra's, and other holders can easily swap steel, but this just makes it that much easier

[Fisticuffs 0]

you gotta take off the skate to swap the steel on the tukk's

these, you don't

but I agree, cobra's, and other holders can easily swap steel, but this just makes it that much easier

Right, but you also need to take the skate off to sharpen it, wouldn't it be quicker to pop the blade off right at the bench and replace it with one that you know has been painstakingly sharpened to the players exact specifications than running back to the BladeMaster and sharpening the skate again?

I'm not knocking the idea, I think its great, and it obviously speeds the process of swapping runners, but I don't understand why they're not currently swapping runners out on the bench. Maybe the idea hasn't caught on? It seems it would be much faster than sharpening, and with the QuickBlade, it would take almost no time.

[wetwilly17 6]

T-blades without the benefit of less weight?

no. they are a full blade that you can sharpen or profile. t-blades are a disposable, thin strip of metal.

[Wolfpack_1986 146]

the holders feel similar to LS2 in terms of rigidity (note: unmounted, in my hands, never skated on these)... the mechanism used to be pretty weak, but they firmed the spring up... we had a few in the shop in raleigh. never sold any though.

I cant think of any disadvantages to the holders, but i dont know really know what the durability is like. they are heavier, though, but not by significant amounts.

Like i said earlier, if i were a ref that traveled to games i worked, i'd use them. Get my favorite EQMs to do my blades, take them with me... There was one official on them in the NHL, that I know of, toward the end of last year.

[cptjeff 0]

Says Rick Hampton invented them.

Wally didn't invent EVERYTHING. But he'll tell you he did.

I believe he flat out says he did in a video on the quickblade site, but I only saw it once a few months ago, so I can't be sure.

I guess that's where I don't see the point. If it would save even 4 or 5 minutes running back to the sharpener to fix an edge, why wouldn't teams be keeping extra runners sharpened to a players specs behind the bench, so they can grab the skate, and pop in a new blade? I'm pretty confident that I could swap the runner on a Tuuk in less than 90 seconds, surely that would be faster than going back to sharpen it again. While the QuickBlade would be even faster, it seems the teams aren't using the most time efficient process as it is. It would be interesting to know why.

Perhaps some don't see the need for it and just carry a stone to touch things up and then do it between periods. The Magic stick is often used for that.

As for changing blades, for most players, that still requires taking the skate off with tuuks, so it still takes up a lot of time. Take it off and just do the skate, or just touch it up, good enough 'till the end of the period. This lets you get that perfect edge much faster if the blade is really dinged and lets you get a better edge in the same time if it's something you would normally use a stone for.

Really not something geared towards beer league.

[JR Boucicaut 3760]

Oh, I'm sure he would. He invented everything.

[Jarick 5]

Seems like a pretty smart product. They actually hold pretty tight? I have no use for it, but I could see a lot of pros using it, as well as high level players at tourneys far away from their sharpener.

[adam14 182]

but say you're using one set of steel for a couple weeks/months, and suddenly you need the quick change on the bench, wouldn't you need to change out both blades so that they are even?

[Neal 41]

but say you're using one set of steel for a couple weeks/months, and suddenly you need the quick change on the bench, wouldn't you need to change out both blades so that they are even?

True, if there was more than a really, slight difference in height, you'd want to change both.

[interpathway 9]

no. they are a full blade that you can sharpen or profile. t-blades are a disposable, thin strip of metal.

Oh, you don't say..

Clearly T-Blades and their holders are created with nearly every available radius and ROH available, making a quick-replaceable runner that can be (that needs to be) profiled and sharpened obsolete, at least in the retail market.