Ice skate
The first ice skates were made from leg bones of horse, ox or deer, and were attached to feet with leather straps.
[5] 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.
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 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 addition, the figure skate's blade is curved, allowing for minute adjustments in balance and weight distribution.
The hollow, which runs the length of the blade, creates two edges, which come in contact with the ice.
The boot is generally made of molded plastic, leather (often synthetic), ballistic nylon, or a thermoformed composite material.
Skates used in competitive ice hockey and ringette rarely use molded plastic for the upper boot, as this results in limited mobility.
The boot itself is encased in hardened plastic, called a "cowling", protecting the toe, ankle and heel from the force of the shot puck.
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 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 boot style for bandy skates is lower than the ice hockey version and often doesn't cover the ankles.
The bandy skate is designed with the intention of preventing them from causing injury to an opponent due to its long, and relatively sharp angled blades.
[12] The Russian bandy skates have an even longer blade and a very low cut shoe.
Short track racing skates have a longer overall height to the blade to allow for deep edge turns without the boot contacting the ice.
[15] With most modern models of skates, the blades are bonded to the bottom of an aluminum foot-plate.
[19] Even earlier, in the years 1870 to 1900, there were very similar models made in North America, like the Donaghue from the U.S.[20] In 1875, the Friese doorloper, a design in which the blade extended several inches behind the heel, was introduced in the Netherlands.
In the non-American English-speaking world, they are sometimes called 'death wellies' by skaters who own their own equipment because of their appearance and their reputation for giving the wearer blisters.
