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
Author: Bev
IJlst, city of skate-makers
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
The bone skates from Novgorod
I've finally gotten hold of Oleg Oleynikov's paper on the bone skates from medieval Novgorod. It came out last year, but only recently appeared in the online archive of Russian Archaeology (2021, issue 4, pages 102–118). It's in Russian, and I don't know Russian, so I have been looking at the pictures and references and… Continue reading The bone skates from Novgorod
Why cross-grinding is (not always) bad
Cross-grinding refers to sharpening skates with a grinding stone whose axis of rotation is parallel to the skate blade. This means that if you hold the skate sideways (blade parallel to the floor), the grinding wheel rotates down. This is how the ordinary bench grinders from the hardware store are set up. A bench grinder.… Continue reading Why cross-grinding is (not always) bad
The first crossover
I think I just found the first reference to forward crossovers in the skating literature. In 1788, Gerhard Ulrich Anton Vieth gave a lecture to a group of (what he called) friends. That lecture was published in Neue Litteratur und Völkerkunde and, in 1790, reprinted as a book with the title Über das Schrittschuhlaufen. It's… Continue reading The first crossover
James Plimpton’s swan skates
I saw this skate in a cabinet at the National Museum of Roller Skating: Plimpton's "improved parlor skate" at the National Museum of Roller Skating. The tag on it says: The improved James L. Plimpton parlor skate introduced in 1866 combines rollers and an ice blade. The silver brass swans attached at the front show… Continue reading James Plimpton’s swan skates
End of the Compulsories
James Hines, author of the great big skating history book, has come out with another book. This one is billed as focusing on figures and has been made much of by US Figure Skating: Sarah Brannen reviewed it on the USFSA site and the August 2022 issue of Skating mentioned it. It's a self-published limited… Continue reading End of the Compulsories
National Museum of Roller Skating
On July 14 and 15, I visited the roller skating museum in Lincoln, Nebraska. It is a relatively small museum housed at the headquarters of USA Roller Sports, but it is packed of amazing stuff. There are many miscellaneous old skates in display cases without labels) on the entryway. Signs lead through the Hall of… Continue reading National Museum of Roller Skating
250 years of Robert Jones
A caricature of Jones? Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Today marks the 250th anniversary of Robert Jones's conviction. On this blog, Jones is best known for his Treatise on Skating—the oldest known book about ice skating—and his skates, which I tried to reproduce. Jones is also known for child molestation. Today day in 1772, he was… Continue reading 250 years of Robert Jones
Skates and skatemakers in the 19th and 20th centuries
Today's book report is on Schaatsen en schaatsenmakers in de 19e en 20e eeuw [Skates and skatemakers in the 19th and 20th centuries] by A. C. Broere. I have the 1988 edition (dark blue cover); there's also a version with a white cover. I don't know what the difference is. It's only 80 pages long… Continue reading Skates and skatemakers in the 19th and 20th centuries