Sharpening ice hockey skates plays a key factor in a player’s ability to skate and players will sharpen their skates hundreds of times throughout their career. Similar to figure skates, the blade is hollow ground in cross section, creating two edges that contact and cut into the ice, allowing increased maneuverability. The blades are sharpened with round-edged grinding wheels that create the two edges. The wheels grind out a hollow semi-circle along the length of the underside of the blade, forming the sharp edge on each side. Skate blade sharpness is measured by the thickness of the round-edged grinding wheel being used, the smaller the radius, the sharper the edge will be. The sharpness chosen by a player is based completely upon preference, not player size or level of play. While a radius of hollow is the most common and standard sharpening for most players, the standard radius of hollow for goalies is .