Gösta Berg (1903--1993) was a Swedish ethnologist who worked on skating, skiing, and other winter activities. His writings include three papers on bone skates, written in three different languages over a period of nearly thirty years.
Category: Metal skates
Reconstructing the Amsterdam skate, part 1
One of the oldest metal-bladed skates found to date was found in Amsterdam. I'm working on reconstructing it. This post is about making the blade.
Skate sharpening 100 years ago
I recently ran across an explanation of how to sharpen skates from March, 1919---just over 100 years ago. Don't try to draw file at first, ... Cut right across the runner first, filing in the usual manner and watching closely the file marks, see that they do not cut down over the corner of the… Continue reading Skate sharpening 100 years ago
Skate sharpening basics
This is the anchor for a series of posts about skate sharpening. When you get your skates sharpened, the skate technician passes your blade across a grinding wheel in a sharpening machine. In most machines, the grinding wheel is parallel to the skate blade, like it is in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoxoZK8sfyY The video mentions dressing… Continue reading Skate sharpening basics
Medieval toe picks
The writers of skating history have awarded Jackson Haines credit for inventing the toe pick in the nineteenth century. They must not have known about the prikschaats (prick-skate). This type of skate features an iron blade with a spike at the toe. It's not quite like a modern toe pick, being a single spike rather… Continue reading Medieval toe picks
The first picture of metal-bladed skates
It's not the famous woodcut of Lydwina's accident from 1498. Check out this image from Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 5. (I can't post the image here because of copyright restrictions.) This picture is from a Flemish manuscript that's around 170 years older than the famous woodcut. It's a calendar, and the February page shows… Continue reading The first picture of metal-bladed skates
AD 200
Many books and articles on skating history (I won't name names) state that metal-bladed skates first appeared in Scandinavia in about AD 200 without citing any evidence, except maybe the claim that Old Norse literature mentions them. I haven't been able to find anything to support this statement. There wasn't any Old Norse literature at… Continue reading AD 200