Adventures in skating historiography
I previously wrote about what cross-grinding is and why it's not always bad. Here is a photo of one of my skates showing the distinctive marks left by cross-grinding. Cross-grinding leaves many small lines perpendicular to the length of the blade. If the cross-grinding wheel is too coarse (like the one I used with my… Continue reading Cross-grinding example
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
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
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
Early skating authors had a lot of bad things to say about deep hollows on ice skates. I have said nothing of those skates whose surfaces are grooved, and are commonly called fluted skates, because I think their construction is so bad, that they are not fit to be used; in fact, they are so… Continue reading Fluted skates
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