How is a skate sharpened?
A – The skate is sharpened with a rotating grinding wheel. Prior to sharpening, the wheel is “dressed” (using a special diamond-tipped tool) in such a way that it has a circular cross-section (whose radius is the Radius of Hollow). The skate blade is clamped into a holder, which holds its bottom surface perpendicular to the grinding wheel. Your friendly skate sharpener moves the clamped blade along the rotating grinding wheel to refresh the hollow in the bottom of the skate. The sharpening machine has a special guide to keep the blade perfectly aligned with the grinding wheel. The goal of the sharpening job is to remove just enough metal from the bottom of the blade to renew the edges. A steady hand is required, so that no part of the blade is ground more than another.
