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MilWorking: Bob Beyer, Skates & The Man Who Sharpens Them

By the time the Winter Olympics end, tens of millions of Americans will have watched figure skating events- from the drama of a remarkably close pairs competition to the potential dramas to come.  We'll watch successes, failures, axels, salchows, twizzles, and - in Milwaukeean Bob Beyer's case - the skates themselves.

"You see people struggling so much," Beyer says, "and you can tell, just by watching them skate when they do a good jump and they should have landed this, and they fell, through no fault of their own.  And most most of the time, it falls to the sharpening."

Credit Michelle Maternowski

Beyer is the guy that thousands of Milwaukee area figure skaters have turned to over the past 20 years to ensure their blades are ready to hit the ice.  It started when Beyer himself was a figure skater - specializing in ice dance.

"My instructor was my skate sharpener," he recalled recently from his basement workshop, "so he was all I ever knew for skate sharpening."

But after a few years, Beyer's coach left the area to skate in an ice show, and in his absence, Beyer's skating suffered, due largely to poorly sharpened skates, he says.

Credit Michelle Maternowski
Beyer sharpening an ice skate.

"When he was gone, I took [my skates] to the local shop.  I didn't really think much about it," Beyer says.  "And my skating actually started deteriorating, and I quit skating for a few years."  Fortunately for him, his coach - and his sharpening jig - eventually came back to the area, and Beyer returned to the sport.

When his coach retired from the sharpening business, Beyer bought his equipment and talked him into teaching him the skill.  But the deal also came with the realization that he would soon be sharpening blades for other skaters.

"As time went on, I kept getting better and more proficient.  Where you see me know, it takes me maybe five to ten minutes to sharpen a pair of skates, in those days it took me 45 minutes to do one pair."

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Almost a quarter-century later, Beyer realizes that someday, he will have to pass the skill on to someone else.  But Beyer, who turns 70 this year, doesn't have any plans to quit.  "I definitely want to pass it on to somebody," he says, "so at least the skaters in this area will always have somebody that - if they choose to get their skates done - they can go to someone who knows what they're doing and get the job done well."

Beyer says he watches skaters in this area, knowing he's played a role in helping them succeed.  "All I want to know is that I'm giving them the best opportunity that I can in order to attain their goals," he says.  "They're like my family."

Credit Michelle Maternowski

When you're watching skaters compete, whether it's at the Winter Games or at this weekend's Snow Crystal Invitational at the Pettit National Ice Center, you can impress your friends and relatives by knowing a few aspects to a skate blades that can make a difference between a great jump and a big fall:

The hollow. You might think a skate blade is flat on the bottom.  You'd be wrong.  In between the inside edge and outside edge is what's known as the "radius of hollow."  Bob Beyer's job, when he sharpens a blade, is to make sure that hollow is right down the center of the blade. "It's very important that it is down the middle, not off to one side.  If it's off to one side, it creates more of a 'bite angle' [the angle in which the edge digs into the ice] on one side and you have problems skating."

The rocker. Skate blades are also curved, like a rocking chair, from the toe pick at the front, back to the heel. "If you think about it, it's so you can go around tight circles; so that you can go in different directions so you won't get stuck.  If the blade sinks in too far, you actually would get stuck in your own rut as you went around in a circle.

Beyer says there are other good skate sharpeners out there.  The key to finding one, he says, is noticing some details.  "The first thing you should look for," Beyer recommends, "is whether they ask you anything."

"[They] definitely need to know what the skater is working on, what their ability level is, and what they're looking for."