Adventures in skating historiography
The Catalogue of the Collection of London Antiquities in the Guildhall Museum lists 16 bone skates. The first, #134, is "said to have been found with two Roman sandals" at London Wall. A few of these skates, including #134, were drawn by Charles H. Whymper; his drawing is preserved in the British Museum. "Five skates… Continue reading Bone skates in the Guildhall Museum
Ryan Stevens, who writes the Skate Guard blog, has taken on the gargantuan task of making sense of all the books on figure skating published in the last century and a quarter by continuing F. W. Foster’s 1898 Bibliography of Skating. It's a job worth doing and Stevens is to be commended for taking it… Continue reading Stevens’ Bibliography of Figure Skating
I have completed my translation of the first German book on skating, Gerhard Ulrich Anton Vieth's Ueber das Schrittschuhlaufen. It was originally a lecture given in Dessau in 1788, then published as a journal article in 1789, and finally published in book form with some additions by an anonymous editor in 1790. Vieth's book is… Continue reading Vieth, On Skating
The cover of the Home Farm Books reprint. Note the misused comma! Young men planning to spend the winter at an Alpine resort (which lots of rich English people did back in the day) and get involved in winter sports while there are the intended audience of this book, which was published in 1927. The… Continue reading Lunn’s Letters to Young Winter Sportsmen
The cover of my edition of Frostiana. Frostiana is a book about various ice activities that was allegedly (but probably not literally) published on the ice during the last London Frost Fair in 1814. I put together an edition of it a few years ago. The whole book is a collection of previous works, generally… Continue reading Frostiana’s chapter on skating
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. Popular Mechanics Magazine, vol. 48, no. 4 (October, 1927), p. 160. The advertisement says it's good for "Lengthwise and Cross"… Continue reading The Ferodowill skate holder
The Berghman Skate Sharpener This little handheld sharpening device was patented in 1920 by George H. Berghman of Chicago, IL. You squeeze the handles together at the top to open it. When you release the pressure, it clamps onto the sides of the blade. Then you slide it back and forth and the grinding stone… Continue reading The Berghman Skate Sharpener
McFarland, my publisher, is offering 40% off when you shop with code HOLIDAY22 through November 28. That means you can get my bone skates book for $27 instead of the usual $45. After that, the code will get you 25% off for the rest of the holiday season. The code is good storewide. They have… Continue reading Skates Made of Bone is on sale
Back in the days when all serious skaters did both figures and freestyle, everyone had two pairs of skates, one for figures (called "patch skates") and one for freestyle. But having two pairs wasn't a requirement to begin skating. Everyone started out with only one pair. A second pair wasn't considered necessary until second test… Continue reading Combination grind
IJlst, stad van schaatsenmakers by Edsko Hekman. IJlst: Visser, 2002. Today's book report is on IJlst, stad van schaatsenmakers by Edsko Hekman. IJlst is a a city in Friesland where lots of skates were made in the nineteenth century. This short book (only 64 pages long) is about the 24 IJlst skate-makers. Several of these… Continue reading IJlst, city of skate-makers