Hockey Sharpening, Please Stop
All, I want to tell you a little story about how a guy (me) bought a pair of nice skates (CCM RBZ 90) and has since not had to sharpen skates for at least 6 months if not more. While I know sharpening is a way of life in the hockey world and personally I don't pay for them, I would say I have some very solid proof (Unless the metal came from an alien world...) that good skates need less sharpening and I agree.
While I am a single person with magic metal under my boots. I have purchased the "cheap" skates, the "ok" skates and now the "Nice!..." skates and so far I am overly impressed with the quality. While I like a softer boot, the CCM RBZ 90 did not feel like bricks, it just took much longer to break in even after I baked them (In my own oven, kudos to me).
In the end, I have a small child that plays, his growth is amazing and so far hasn't tried to use an edge on purpose which means I am ok with the cheap skates for him. He isn't a large man playing competitive hockey, and that is the big difference. Horrible analyogy coming... don't buy cheap tires if you drive a race car because it means you may crash into a wall (See pretty bad). The point being, buy for your usage, your not NHL and you aren't 5.