On January 23, 1917, Joseph Henry Ferodowill of St. Paul, MN, was granted a patent for his skate holder. It’s basically two C clamps on a metal base, with some screws that make it adjustable.
The advertisement says it’s good for “Lengthwise and Cross” grinding. The picture in the advertisement above looks like the wheel is set up for cross grinding.
I got one of these skate holders and used it to sharpen my Robert Jones skates. Once I’ve skated on them, I’ll post the results. I also sharpened a new pair of blades I’ve been working on. Here is a video of how I did it:
First, I used witness marks and adjusted the holder to align the blade.
Second, I used long, steady strokes to sharpen the blade.
This bench grinder has a 6″ wheel, which means I put a 3″ radius of hollow on the blades. Do not use this hollow for regular skating, it will not be satisfactory. But I’m interested in seeing whether it performs better than the totally-flat sharpening Robert Jones recommends.
[…] the cross-grinding wheel is too coarse (like the one I used with my Ferodowill skate holder), these can keep the blades from gliding nicely or worse, catch the ice and cause a fall. I […]