How often do I sharpen my skates?

An average of 18hrs of skating time.

If the ice is very rough, a foreign object nicked your blades, it could be a lot less. If you left your hard guards on over night and now have rust marks, you’ll need to have that removed.

A competitive skater doing 2-3hrs a day, 6 days a week equals 18hrs in one week. I personally had that schedule in my competitive years and sharpened my skates every two weeks.

Consider this:

As your skates become less sharp, a skater must adjust everything to compensate. They practice day in and day out to create a movement pattern to become consistent at everything they do. That movement pattern simply cannot be the same when your skaters are too dull. That would be like perfecting the perfect golf swing, and every other day your you randomly add or subtract a few ounces of weight to your clubs.