Adventures in skating historiography
In 1852, George Anderson, a member of the Glasgow Skating Club, published the following advice on skate sharpening under the pseudonym Cyclos: The edges should ... be kept sharp by occasional grinding, perhaps once in a season, or even less; and in doing it, the iron should be held across the face of the grindstone,… Continue reading Skate sharpening in 1852
The radius of hollow is very important to skaters because it determines how the blades feel on the ice. It's set during sharpening. When you get your skates sharpened, you can request a particular radius of hollow. What if you don't know what hollow your blades have? Or if you want to check that the… Continue reading Blade gauges
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
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