Test the sharpness of your skates by lightly running an edge over your thumb nail, my dad used to say. If it shaves the top layer of the nail, it’s sharp enough. When I tested my skates as I kid, I never thought, “You know, this is sharp enough to cut someone’s throat” but it was always in the back my mind like a bad dream.

Last week the Florida Panthers Richard Zednik suffered every hockey player’s worst nightmare. Teammate Olli Jokinen’s skate sliced Zednik’s throat severing a carotid artery, the supplier of oxygenated blood to the head and neck. A trainer raced him off the ice and to a Buffalo, N.Y. area hospital, where a doctor performed surgery. He lost nearly half of his blood, but it appears he’ll make a full recovery.

While some believe death was averted by swift action on behalf of the Panthers staff, Bob Allen, who owns Maximum Edge in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, thinks it may have had something to do with how Jokinen’s skates were sharpened.
 

"When Bob Allen wants to assure potential customers about the safety of his ice-skate sharpening system, he takes a freshly honed skate blade and runs it across his throat.

No nicks, no cuts, no blood.

However, Rob McLean, the Florida Panthers equipment manager, believes Allen's sharpening system might be a reason Richard Zednik is alive after a teammate's skate all but severed the veteran forward's carotid artery in a Feb. 10 National Hockey League game at Buffalo.

Allen's Maximum Edge system promises to make blades sharp enough for high-speed skating, but not dangerous enough to slice through skin, under most circumstances. Zednik's circumstance was an extreme case.

McLean said the blade of Panthers center Olli Jokinen, whose skate struck Zednik when Jokinen lost his balance and his leg kicked back into the air, made a clean, easy-to-repair slice in Zednik's artery.

"I've seen other injuries where people are cut with skates in which the cut is very jagged, irregular and brutal to repair,'' Allen said Wednesday from his shop in Windsor, Ontario. "With our system, when cuts are made, they tend to be very clean and precise and go back together very easily."

-"Did cutting technology save Zednik?" - Palm Beach Post.