UKC

There's is an easy solution if you go to Cogne and want to have some nice sharp ice screws.

Nowadays Bar Licone has one of new Grivel ice screw sharpening machines. Price was 5 euros last week.

In reply to Juki:
If You toss in several screws (>5 i think) the price drops quite drastic (don't remember exactly how much but down to 2-3 €/screw I think) so it's worth collecting all the blunt stuff U can muster whils't there.

In reply to Juki:
Anywhere doing it in Cham at the moment?

In reply to Dean:
Snell can handle it but they don't have the machine. So they will take the screws somewhere. I can't remember how much it was but it was more than five euros.

In reply to Juki:
Ok thanks for that. Will e-mail Grivel and see if I can take them to the factory.

In reply to Juki: Is it really worth the money? What's the point of paying when sharpening a screw is a two minute job with a handfile?

In reply to TobyA: My understanding of it (and i stand to be correct) is that the screw sharpening machine does the whole shebang eg repoints threads & polishes inside of the barrel. Thus making it considerably better than just taking a file to the teeth.

In reply to Frank4short:

That should say corrected by the by

In reply to Frank4short: Fair enough. I've actually though that on some of my older BD screws that they seem a bit more sticky due to superficial corrosion on the outside of the tube... I keep meaning to buff them up with some wire wool or such, but then forget again until pumped halfway up some steepish ice and getting annoyed with them!

In reply to TobyA:
Yep, they will polish the screws too.

Biggest problem for me with the handfile is the height of the tooth . It seems to be very difficult (at least for me) to get all the teeth at the same level. And this small but very important thing makes a big difference in real use.

Thousand words are useless compared to one picture. It's very difficult to reach this result with a handfile and an old screw:

http://photos.rockclimbing.com/photos//475/47549.jpg

In reply to Juki:

Are you sure its not just psychological? Personally I've never worried about getting them all exactly the same length and it doesn't seem to matter at all. As long as the teeth are sharp they bite as good as new...

In reply to TobyA:

I've few times tried to place a brand new BD screw and an old self sharpened similar screw. Like just bouldering and placing those two screws side by side. Is it psychological or not but I noticed a big difference. Of course I did it few times in different order so I didn't place that sharpened screw when I was already tired

Or maybe I just don't know how to sharpen screws properly. That's a very possible reason Or maybe it's just the fact that people will get used to their screws and they won't notice the difference anymore.

Go and get a brand new BD somewhere and compare it to your old ones after sharpening. If I remember right most of your screws were BD's.

Any plans to visit Alps this summer...

In reply to TobyA:

I would have thought so too. After all the ice isn't ever smooth like a mirror.

In reply to Juki: Toni L got like 8 new BD screws for Christmas from his girlfriend (what a cool girlfriend eh?), next time I'm out with him I'll try one of my old ones against one of his new ones.

No plans for summer yet. Hopefully Lyngen at Easter though.

Are you also becoming one of Jussi's models? I've got to sign something which makes me a model but gives him the money!

In reply to TobyA:
I did the same great deal ))) It seems that we are not going to be millionaires with these business skills.

My wife buys me some food too