Many customers ask what shaving the toe and heel is. so here is the quick explanation. New steel on skates and new replacement steel has never been sharpened. So when you skate on it the first few times it is going to feel a lot different than your old steel, especially if that steel has been sharpened many times or for years and the tips have been rounded by inexperienced or poor sharpeners. A lot of metal has been taken away over time, but a just a little each sharpening so you never really notice it. However when you get new skates or steel, all that metal is back on instantly. For some skaters, it can have a very clumsy feeling. Some trip over the blue line, others find they can't skate because the feeling is bad. This is normal. But, this feeling usually goes away as your body mechanics adjust, usually by 6 outings. Keep in mind that a custom radius does not extend to the toe and heel areas, it's in the middle 2/3rds of the runner, so even if you get a radius, the toe and heel areas are not altered by that.  Some people who order a radius on new steel confuse that bad feeling with the custom radius, but it's not radius related at all, it's your body mechanics that haven't adjusted to the bulky steel. Like I said, that feeling goes away but some people don't want the hassle of having to adjust, and that's where shaving comes into play. Shaving is simply removing some of that bulk. It is done by hand and is not part of a radius. We do not recommend shaving because when you remove metal it removes performance. We recommend you fight thru that feeling for a few skates, it does go away and in the end, you'll be skating better. When we shave, we remove about 10 skate sharpenings worth of metal, it's not dramatic but it's enough to take away that uneasy feeling. All customers do not get this uneasy feeling, most youths never do, it's usually older skaters with very worn down runners or skaters who are on one version of steel, like LS2 which does not have bulky tips, then switches to LS3 or LS4 or STEP brand which are very bulky.  Also, don't confuse shaving with blending the radius into the tips, we do that as part of every radius. Blending is just smoothing out where the custom radius ends with the rest of the blade.  Also, don't go crazy about what you read on hockey blogs, most of the people don't really know what they are talking about and they confuse people into thinking they need to shave to blend. We blend as part of the radius, you don't need to order or do anything else. But if you've skated at least 6 times on new steel and are catching your toes or heels, a shaving might be the next step.