Tracking abrasive life on multiple generations of abrasive tools

The method of any of claims 10 to 13, wherein the secure memory further includes one or more user setting locations for storing user-specific default settings for parameters of a sharpening operation, and wherein the control unit is operative to apply the user-specific default settings to control a sharpening operation.

The method of any of claims 1 to 14, wherein the grinding wheel is one of a set of grinding wheels used in the skate blade sharpening system over an operating period, each grinding wheel including a respective identification tag, the identification tag of each grinding wheel storing a respective tag-specific unique identifier, and the control unit is operative to (i) record the tag-specific unique identifiers in association with respective usage tracking values from the identification tags, (ii) perform a first comparison to determine whether the tag specific unique identifiers of a current grinding wheel matches one of the stored tag-specific unique identifiers, and if so then perform a second comparison to determine whether the first usage value or the second usage value of the current grinding wheel indicates less usage than stored usage tracking value stored in association with the matching tag-specific unique identifier, and (iii) selectively allow or prevent use of the current grinding wheel in a new sharpening operation depending on the result of the second comparison.