Ask any short track skater what separates a good session from a frustrating one, and sooner or later the conversation lands on edges. You can have the best boot, the best bend and the best legs in the pack, but if your blades will not hold through the apex of a corner, none of it matters. Sharpening is the one piece of maintenance that every short track skater has to own personally. Nobody can feel your edges for you.
This guide walks through the whole process: what sharpening actually does to your steel, why a proper jig matters more than the stone you buy, how to work through the stones, how to check your work, and how to build a routine that keeps your blades honest all season. It is written for skaters in India in particular, where humidity and long travel to rinks add problems that European guides never mention.
What Sharpening Actually Does
A short track blade is not sharpened the way a knife is. You are not trying to create a point. You are trying to create two clean, square, parallel edges running the full length of the blade, with a flat surface between them. Those two edges are what bite the ice. The blade rolls onto one edge or the other as you lean, and the sharpness of that edge determines how much sideways force you can apply before the blade lets go and slides out from under you.
When you sharpen, you are removing a small amount of steel from the flat bottom surface of the blade until the corners where that flat meets the side of the blade become crisp again. That is it. Everything else in the process exists to make sure you remove that steel evenly, squarely and without wrecking the geometry that the blade came with.
Why Edges Go Dull
Edges do not usually go dull from ice contact alone. Ice is soft. What actually rounds your edges is everything else: walking on concrete or rubber matting without guards, contact with other skaters' blades in a pile up, grit carried onto the ice, and above all microscopic rust. In a humid climate, a blade left wet in a bag will lose its edge sitting still in a cupboard faster than it will from a hard training session.
Why the Jig Matters More Than the Stone
New skaters obsess over stone grit. Experienced skaters obsess over how the blade is held. The reason is simple: a stone can only follow the surface it is given. If your blade is clamped even slightly twisted, or if the clamping bench flexes under hand pressure, you will grind a subtle taper into the blade. You will not see it. You will feel it as a blade that grips at the front and washes out at the back, or one that feels sharp on one side and vague on the other.
This is why a purpose built bench is worth the money. The EHS Short Track and Long Track Sharpening Jig is built around exactly this problem. Its stated purpose is to hold blades perfectly straight through a solid aluminium build with precise mounting points. All parts are CNC machined in the Netherlands for precision, the essential parts are anodized for durability, and material has been removed where possible to keep the weight down.
That last point matters more than it sounds. The jig uses a take apart design and disassembles and reassembles in about five minutes using four central screw knobs. Low weight and easy transport are part of the design brief, which means the thing that keeps your edges honest can actually travel with you to a competition rather than living permanently on a bench at home. One important habit: firmly tighten those four screw knobs before every use. A jig that is quick to assemble is also quick to assemble carelessly.
Setting Up on a Stable Surface
Put the jig on a table that does not rock. A firm, stable construction is one of the jig's advantages, but no bench can compensate for a wobbly hotel room desk. If you are sharpening at a competition venue, take thirty seconds to find a solid surface. Sit down. Get your eye line roughly level with the blade so you can actually see what you are doing rather than guessing from above.
Working Through the Stones
Once the blade is clamped straight, the actual sharpening is calm, boring and repetitive. That is the goal. Drama in sharpening means something has gone wrong.
Coarse Work Only When You Need It
A coarse stone removes steel quickly. That is useful when you have a nick, a rust pit or a genuinely rounded edge to bring back. It is not useful as a weekly habit. Every pass with a coarse stone is steel you never get back, and a short track blade has a finite life measured in how much steel sits above the mounting cups. Reach for coarse only when you can see or feel actual damage, then move on.
The Working Stone
Most sessions should live on a medium stone. Lay the stone flat across the blade, keep it in full contact with the whole width of the flat, and take long, even, unhurried passes down the length of the blade. Consistent pressure is the whole game. Skaters tend to unconsciously press harder at the middle of a stroke and lighter at the ends, which slowly grinds a curve into a blade that should be flat. Counter it by consciously keeping pressure constant and letting the stone do the cutting.
Finishing and Deburring
Sharpening pushes a thin lip of steel over the far corner of the blade. This is the burr. A burr feels sharp to a nervous thumb and then folds over the first time it meets ice, leaving you with an edge that felt brilliant in the changing room and vanished in the warm up. A fine stone, run lightly along the sides of the blade, is what removes it. Do not skip this step just because the blade already feels sharp. The burr is exactly why it feels sharp.
How to Check Your Work
Forget the thumbnail test people use on kitchen knives. Two better checks: run a fingernail gently across the edge (not along it) and feel whether it catches consistently from front to back, and hold the blade under a light and look straight down at the edge. A dull edge reflects light as a visible bright line because a rounded corner has surface area to reflect from. A properly sharp edge is invisible. Any bright spot along the length is a flat you have not reached yet.
How Often Should You Sharpen?
There is no universal number, and anyone who gives you one is selling something. The honest answer is that it depends on your ice, your mileage and how well you look after your steel between sessions. What is more useful is knowing the signs.
Sharpen when the blade starts sliding out at a lean angle it used to hold, when you find yourself unconsciously skating a wider line through the corner, when you can see bright reflection along the edge, or when you can feel or see rust pitting. Do not sharpen because a week has passed. Skaters who sharpen on a calendar rather than on feel burn through expensive steel for no benefit.
One practical note for competition: do not sharpen for the first time on the morning of a race. Fresh edges feel different, and finding that out during your first heat is a bad plan. Sharpen a session or two beforehand so you have ridden the edges before they matter.
Rust, Humidity and Indian Conditions
This is the part most imported guides ignore, and it is the part that costs Indian skaters the most steel. Rink air is cold and damp, outside air is warm and wet, and a blade that goes straight from one to the other collects condensation instantly. That water then sits in a closed bag for hours.
The routine that saves blades is short and non negotiable. Wipe the blades dry the moment you step off the ice, using a cloth that lives in your bag for that job alone. Let them come up to room temperature before they go into a soaker, not after. Never store blades in a wet soaker. Never leave hard guards on for storage, since they trap moisture against the steel beautifully. If your blades are going to sit unused for weeks, they should be dry, bare and in open air.
Do this and you will sharpen less often, keep steel on your blades for longer, and spend your money on racing rather than on replacing rusted out equipment.
Sharpening and Your Blade Choice
Sharpening habits and blade choice are linked. A blade you are still learning to trust deserves more attention to edge condition, not less, because you will otherwise blame your technique for what is actually a dull edge. Whether you are riding a StayBent JaeBee, a StayBent QCS or a StayBent XC Flex Weapon, the sharpening process is the same. What changes is how quickly you notice a dull edge, since a blade you know well tells you sooner. You can see the full range in the short track blades collection.
Safety Is Not Optional
A freshly sharpened short track blade is a genuinely dangerous object, and the moment of greatest risk is not while you are stoning. It is while you are unclamping, wiping, or reaching across the bench for something. Your guard is down and the edge is at its sharpest it will ever be.
The EHS jig's own guidance is explicit on this point: always take precautions when sharpening blades, wear cut resistant gloves, and understand that without protection you may incur cuts. That is not a legal disclaimer to skim past. A pair of StayBent Cut Resistant Gloves costs a fraction of what a hand injury costs you in missed training. Wear them for the whole process, including the tidying up.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sharpen short track blades without a jig?
You can remove steel without a jig. You cannot reliably keep the blade square and straight while doing it, which is the entire point. Freehand sharpening tends to produce a blade that is subtly tapered or rounded, and the damage accumulates invisibly over months. If you are going to sharpen your own blades regularly, a proper bench pays for itself in steel you do not waste.
How do I know if I have removed the burr properly?
Run a fingertip lightly along the flat side of the blade near the edge. A remaining burr feels like a faint catching lip. It should feel completely smooth. If in doubt, one or two more light passes with a fine stone along the side will not hurt anything.
Should I sharpen before or after a competition?
Before, but not on the day. Give yourself at least one session on the fresh edges so you know how they feel. Carry your jig to the venue for touching up a nick if something happens in a heat, which is exactly what a take apart, low weight design is for.
My blades are rusty. Is it too late?
Light surface rust usually comes off with normal stone work. Pitting that you can feel with a fingernail means the corrosion has eaten into the steel, and you will need to remove material down past the pit to get a clean edge back. That is real steel gone. Prevention costs a dry cloth and thirty seconds.
Can the EHS jig be used for long track blades too?
Yes. It is designed as a portable bench for sharpening both short track and long track speed skating blades, which is useful if you or a training partner skate both disciplines.
The Habit, Not the Event
The skaters with the best edges are almost never the ones with the most expensive setup. They are the ones who wipe their blades every single time, who check their edges under a light before they pack up, and who sharpen when the blade tells them to rather than when the calendar does. Sharpening well is not a skill you acquire once. It is a habit you keep.
Set up your jig properly, tighten the knobs, put your gloves on, take your time, and let the stone do the work. Your corners will thank you.
