I recall seeing a blog entry on this subject but I can't seem to find it. Regardless, what are peoples' feelings on the hand held sharpeners such as the profiler and the blade doctor. After having a bad edge suddenly appear on me for the second time this year, I think I want to invest. Any recomendations?

http://northernfreezehockey.blogspot.co ... -tool.html

I know a few people that use these and pretty much swear by them to get rid of little nicks, fix edges, etc during the game or until they can get their skates sharpened again.

A similar item to the sweet stick that I've used for a couple of years in between sharpenings. I love them.

http://www.sweet-stick.com/

The Profiler was invented and is sold by a guy in Alexandria and works very well. 2 girls on our u10 team have them and actually use them in place of regular sharpening. It costs like 60 bucks and is well worth the money. If Bruce, the inventor of the thing, hadn't offered to bench sharpen my daughters skates for free while Im out of state for the rest of the season, I would own one myself. I BELIEVE you basically never have to replace anything. You adjust it to give you the depth you want and then just run it over the blade in a smooth motion and after about 25 swipes you are set. You then have a second little smoothing stone to take off burrs that form on the sides every now and then.

I have two of them and used them before each skating to put an edge back on the skates. However, my new skates have rocket runners and I can not get either hand held to fit on them. And it seems to be just as well. I have not noticed any diminished performance from these skates.

http://rspuck.com/

This is the one I use. A few teammates borrow it on a regular basis and one has bought one. It works well for me (as a goalie) just to give a little extra grab on the toe and heel, and I'm guessing it works well for my skater teammates since they keep asking for it. =)