Good skating starts with properly cared for skates, and contoured skates help you skate better and easier. Contouring can repair most damage to blades caused by poor skate sharpening. Custom Radius is a contouring system of shaping sharpening and balancing skates to provide increased performance for all skaters, both professional and recreational. Skates made today are the product of years of development, and now represent state of the art technology. Even so, manufacturers cannot economically provide a matched pair of blades "ice ready" to the individual specifications of each skater. Blade edging is usually done free-hand, and may cause problems for skaters, with their performance being lower than their expectations. Contouring is blade shaping, not sharpening. Skate contouring is a precision system of shaping skates to the individual specifications of each skater. Accurate positioning of the balance point on the blade provides maximum stability and maneuverability. The concept of contouring is to center a skate for the proper Lie and Radius. Once or twice a year skates should be contoured to give them the proper Lie and Radius. After they have been contoured, they are sharpened as before. Skates direct from the factory are inconsistent, and in a majority of cases have the incorrect lie for the individual skater.