A well designed and well build machine!!! I've sharpened my own skates and many other people's skates and it gives consistent sharpens every time.

Moderate mechanical skills required to set up, operate and maintain, but that's expected with a high precision metal working machine. With that being said, it's way easier to setup, operate and maintain that a regular manual skate sharpener. Instructional videos can help you work through most, if not all setup and adjustment issues you may encounter.

After ordering directly from the Sparx website, I received fast secure shipping to my door. After spending 15-20 minutes reading the instructions and 10 minutes watching setup instruction videos, I was able to setup the machine in my first attempt. After confirming the initial ring alignment (i.e. centred on the skate blade), the rings have stayed on centre, providing level edges on all the skate blades I've sharpened so far. I can confirm it's on centre, based on measurements I take on the blade using the high precision Sparx Edge Checker. (It's great piece of mind having the ability to check and adjust the ring alignment using a highly precise gauge with a magnifying eye piece and a tool.)

The ability to quickly and easily adjust where the ring makes contact with the toe of the skate blade is invaluable when sharpening many different skates.

The best part of this machine, is the ability to set the number of cycles. If I need to sharpen skates with regular use (4-6 hours)…