The Complete Handbook of Ice Skate Parts & Accessories

This is a dense, technical reference, and I'll admit I skimmed some of the earlier stuff on blade metallurgy. But the chapters on maintenance and troubleshooting alone were worth the purchase. I've been running a sharpening shop for six years and I still found the sections on holder diagnosis and aligning mounts genuinely useful. It's not a light read, and the writing is a bit dry in places, but the information is solid. I docked a star because it lacks specific torque specs for popular skate models, which I was hoping to find in one place.

Finally, a book that treats skate equipment with the seriousness it deserves. I'm a hockey coach and I've spent years relying on whatever my local pro shop told me. This handbook gave me the vocabulary and the actual technical details to make my own choices. The explanation of how the blade radius and profile interact with different skating styles was a game-changer for me, and the chapter on installation cleared up a lot of 'crossing my fingers' moments when mounting new blades. It's an incredibly thorough, well-structured reference. I keep it in my office at the rink.

The book is comprehensive, I'll give it that. But I felt it was a little light on the 'accessories' side. The focus is overwhelmingly on hockey skate blades and holders, with very little on figure skate parts. As someone who primarily works on figure skates, I found a lot of the specific troubleshooting advice didn't apply directly to my work. The maintenance and business chapters are good, but I wish it had a better balance. It's a good resource, just not the universal handbook the title suggests.

I bought this before opening my own skate repair business, and I genuinely consider it the most valuable resource I own. The chapter on choosing the right parts, specifically the part about matching holder pitch and blade hollow to a skater's weight, has saved me from making costly mistakes. The business chapter is also superb; it gave me a realistic picture of the market and how to source parts from suppliers. It reads like a manual written by a senior technician, not a marketer. Absolutely essential for anyone serious about this industry.

It's useful, sure, but I found the tone to be a bit too academic for what I needed. I'm a serious hobbyist, and a lot of the information on boot construction and rivet types felt like overkill. I was looking for more practical advice on how to fix my own skates, and yes there's plenty of that, but it's buried under so much commercial and business analysis. I got the info I needed, but I skimmed a significant portion. A more focused 'handbook' would have been better for my level.