Wilson Blade Caution

Hi All,

We bought a brand new pair of Wilson Coronation Ace blades last Saturday. They were mounted on my daughters' boots and nothing seemed amiss when she skated on them for a few days. I was drying them off after a practice session and for some reason I was looking closely at them and something seemed off on one of the teeth on the toe pick. I compared the two blades, and sure enough one of the drag picks was really misshapen. (I was hoping to post a pic, but I'm technically illiterate about such things) It wasn't broken, or damaged in any way, just looked like it had been milled incorrectly. It didn't bother her, but when a company takes pride in their precision blades, well they should be held accountable to their own standard. I sent a photo to the shop where I bought them and they were puzzled as well. At first they thought two different blades were mounted from the photo! Long story short, took them back this morning they were exchanged for a brand new perfect pair and off we went. Absolutely first rate service by the shop.

So, the moral is look at your blades very carefully when you buy them. Even the best of shops can get a little complacent and trust the mfg's too much I suppose. Our other tech had warned us about Wilson QC lately, so I should have been more on my toes about it, but you know how it goes, I trust them, they trust the mfg...

Still, great blades for her, she loves them. Although she was drooling over the P99 and Phantom this morning, loves the thought of those big teeth digging in for her jumps. They are a way off though.

Glad your shop made good on those blades!
And you're right - you should check new blades very carefully. My skate tech - who has been sharpening blades forever - also says the quality of Wilson blades is not what it once was.

It's disappointing that Wilson slipped up on its outgoing inspection. It's even more disappointing though that the skate tech slipped up on the incoming inspection: paying higher prices at a local pro shop instead of buying online is supposed to alleviate such grief.

tstop4me said:

It's disappointing that Wilson slipped up on its outgoing inspection. It's even more disappointing though that the skate tech slipped up on the incoming inspection: paying higher prices at a local pro shop instead of buying online is supposed to alleviate such grief.

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Honestly, I'm not going to fault the shop too much. It was very hard to see unless you placed them side by side up close. I just thought if Wilson claims the monicker "World's Best Blades", well they should be. I do think from now on we'll get our blades from our old tech, since she is so down on Wilson quality that she'd make 100% sure they'd be perfect.

They are hand made; not made with a precision machine. They have errors occasionally just like any hand made product. Usually if they don’t catch it, the shop does. If you never want to have this issue you can buy the less prestigious Eclipse blades which are made by machine rather than hands. But they aren’t quite as good. Irregularities are part of the art of handmade items. The person mounting them should have noticed. I don’t know how they missed it. Anyway it’s a known thing so shops that sell them are used to replacing them if there’s an irregularity.

Nimyue said:

They are hand made; not made with a precision machine. They have errors occasionally just like any hand made product. Usually if they don’t catch it, the shop does. If you never want to have this issue you can buy the less prestigious Eclipse blades which are made by machine rather than hands. But they aren’t quite as good. Irregularities are part of the art of handmade items. The person mounting them should have noticed. I don’t know how they missed it. Anyway it’s a known thing so shops that sell them are used to replacing them if there’s an irregularity.

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She was using an Eclipse blade, and she says these are so much better. This is her first Wilson blade, and we were just caught a bit off guard that it slipped both Wilson and the shop's QC, it's been rectified and going forward I'll probably get the blades from our other tech, who is much more critical of Wilson and MK. She prefers Eclipse and Ultima, but from a retailer stand point of fewer returns for her. She's more than happy to get any blade for us, she just suggests a long lead time for her to order and if needed reorder a pair of Wilson or MK blades. So, when it's the Gold Seal, Pattern 99 or Phantom we'll order from her and wait for the perfect (well, as much as a hand made blade can be) pair.