Essentially the lino blades that you use regardless of brand etc are a metal blade or knife designed as gouges. Continual use of the carving linoblocks will make them blunt and like any knife they need to be maintained and sharpened. this can be a delicate process and has taken me a good while to develop the skill of honing the blade to achieve a good cutting edge for my blades.
One of the additional new tutorials over at my Linocut and Art Tutorials Blog - Carving Linocuts - some ideas on keeping the linocut tools & blades sharp...
