Ice skates are metal blades attached underfoot and used to propel the wearer across a sheet of ice while ice skating. The first ice skates were made from leg bones of horse, ox or deer, and were attached to feet with leather straps. These skates required a pole with a sharp metal spike that was used for pushing the skater forward, unlike modern bladed skates. Modern skates come in many different varieties, each suited to specific conditions or activities. People across the globe wear skates recreationally in ice rinks or on frozen bodies of water, and skates are the standard footwear in many sports, including figure skating, bandy, ice hockey, ringette, rink bandy, rinkball, speed skating and tour skating.
History
According to a study done by Federico Formenti, University of Oxford, and Alberto Minetti, University of Milan, Finns were the first to develop ice skates some 5,000 years ago from animal bones. This was important for the Finnish populations to save energy in harsh winter conditions when hunting in Finnish Lakeland. Finland has about 187,888 lakes, which separated villages from each other. To travel between villages, the Finnish people had two options: to take a longer route around the lake, or to find a way across the frozen surface of the lake. The earliest known skate to use a metal blade was found in Fennoscandia, and was dated to 200 AD. It was fitted with a thin strip of copper folded and attached to the underside of a leather shoe. Starting in 1976, during excavations of the city of York, UK, 42 pairs of Viking-era ice skates were found at Coppergate; the majority are made from horse leg bones, although cattle leg bones were also used. The bones were cut flat and polished on one side and drilled with a hole at one end. A leather thong, held in place by a wooden peg, was inserted into the hole to attach the skate to the wearer’s ankle. The Viking invasion of York took place on November 1, 866. This would suggest that bone ice skates were being used in England from the ninth century. William Fitzstephen, writing in the 12th century, described the use of bone skates in London. The following seems to be an Early Modern English translation of the Latin original:
when the great fenne or moore (which watereth the walles of the citie on the North side) is frozen, many young men play upon the ice, some striding as wide as they may, doe slide swiftly... some tye bones to their feete, and under their heeles, and shoving themselves by a little picked staffe, doe slide as swiftly as birde flyeth in the aire, or an arrow out of a crossbow. In the 13th century, the Dutch revolutionized ice skating by sharpening the blades of ice skates, which were made of steel at the time.
Types of ice skates There are five main types of ice skates: the figure skate, the ice hockey skate, the bandy skate, the racing skate, and the touring skate.
Figure skates
Figure skates are used in the sport of figure skating. Unlike hockey skates, they have saw-toothed toe picks, also known as toe-rakes, on the front of the blade. The blades are usually made out of stainless steel or aluminium with a steel runner. The toe pick has a variety of uses, but is most commonly used for certain jumps in figure skating, such as the Lutz jump and toe loop, or starting a backspin. Figure skating boots are typically made of several layers of leather and the leather is very stiff to provide ankle support. In addition, the figure skate's blade is curved, allowing for minute adjustments in balance and weight distribution. The base of the figure-skate blade is slightly concave, or "hollow ground". The hollow, which runs the length of the blade, creates two edges, which come in contact with the ice.
Ice hockey skates
Ice hockey skates are used for playing the games of ice hockey and ringette but are occasionally used for recreational ice skating alone. Each individual skate consists of a boot, laces, blade, and a blade holder. The boot is generally made of molded plastic, leather (often synthetic), ballistic nylon, or a thermoformed composite material. Each skate blade has two edges. Skates used in competitive ice hockey and ringette rarely use molded plastic for the upper boot, as this results in limited mobility.
Ice hockey goalie skates
The skates used by goaltenders are cut lower in the ankle than a normal hockey skate and the boot sits closer to the ice for a lower center of gravity. The boot itself is encased in hardened plastic, called a "cowling", protecting the toe, ankle and heel from the force of the shot puck. The blade is usually longer and has less rocker (curvature to the blade) to make it easier for the goalie to move side to side in the crease. Goalie skates lack a tendon guard. Unlike regular hockey skates, goalie skates are usually protected by a synthetic material covering the toe-part of the skate. This is to prevent damage from the puck. The blade of the goalie skate is not as useful in turning as regular hockey skates, because the blade is rockered less, thus making turns slightly inconvenient. The material used to make the boot of the goalie skate historically was a harder synthetic material than regular hockey boots.
Sharpening ice hockey skates plays a key factor in a player's ability to skate and players will sharpen their skates hundreds of times throughout their career. Similar to figure skates, the blade is hollow ground in cross section, creating two edges that contact and cut into the ice, allowing increased maneuverability. The blades are sharpened with round-edged grinding wheels that create the two edges. The wheels grind out a hollow semi-circle along the length of the underside of the blade, forming the sharp edge on each side. Skate blade sharpness is measured by the thickness of the round-edged grinding wheel being used, the smaller the radius, the sharper the edge will be. The sharpness chosen by a player is based completely upon preference, not player size or level of play. While a one-half-inch (13 mm) radius of hollow is the most common and standard sharpening for most players, the standard radius of hollow for goalies is three-quarters inch (19 mm).
Bandy skates
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