What do you do with old skates, boots and blades?

[FigureSpins]

After 30 years of skating, I have a few pair of old blades that aren't in great shape, so I wouldn't pass them on or sell them to anyone.  I could just toss them in the recycling bin, but what else could I do with them?

[retired]

I've seen this done with ice skates with the blades stuck into the ground.  The construction boot planter is *really* popular around here, yeah, um, ok.

I mount my old blades onto the garage wall  picks down and hang stuff from them. 

[FigureSpins]

Do the blades get rusty?

[SillyAdultSkater]

After 30 years of skating, I have a few pair of old blades that aren't in great shape, so I wouldn't pass them on or sell them to anyone.  I could just toss them in the recycling bin, but what else could I do with them?

Did you try selling them to beginners for like 5 dollar? What doesn't hold up jumps and deep edges might still be fine for someone just learning how to skate forward.

[FigureSpins]

No, the blades are shot for skating, but have big honkin' toepicks that would kill a beginner.
I couldn't resell them in good conscience.  Thanks anyway.


I liked the wall hook idea.  Maybe I could put hot glue over the edges to prevent rust?

[Sk8tmum]

You could do what my kid does: leaves them balanced precariously and strategically at the top of his closet so that, if I go checking to see if he's tidied his room, they fall out squarely on some portion of my anatomy, usually my feet or my head.

Or, more practical: my DD kept hers to teach LTS in, as she didn't care for the damage being done to her good skates; or, for use in public skate, so that the rutted public skate ice didn't trash the grind on her good pair.

[SillyAdultSkater]

You could try painting them over with hammerite I guess

[katz in boots]

Well you could list them on ebay, making it clear they are trashed. People buy the most amazing things.
I have an old pair of boots that no-one else could use, plus about 4 sets of blades.
Hmmm.  What could you do with them, other than amateur dentistry (Castaway movie)?
Use them for weeding the garden? 

[icefrog]

I saw something similar to this http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hfVfcXTfH4Q/SxHQp5HosTI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/LZGCkLPG_-0/s1600/009.JPG
on esty.com a month or two ago, but I can't find it now so someone must have bought it. It was an old rec skate filled with Christmasy greens and red bead things it looked really really nice. Maybe you could decorate your house with them?? I was thinking about it, but since all of my old skates are in ok condition since I advanced in levels when I needed new skates friends and family borrow them at Christmas time when we go skating or when the pond in my area freeze I always have an older pair to bring with me.

[retired]

I put vaseline or WD-40 on the skate blades when I use them as hooks.  I don't care if they rust.  Otherwise, some silver rust paint would do it.   FYI I put vaseline on my blades when I'm storing them for a while.     

Also, if you mount a blade to the ceiling, it makes a nice hanger hook through the middle.  I have one where I hang my skating dresses.

[Query]

If you skate in Maryland, so I could easily pick them up from you, I have a possible use for worthless skates and blades, to use for practice sharpening and modification. But I can't afford to pay for them, so if you want a planter, have fun.

[AgnesNitt]

If you skate in Maryland, so I could easily pick them up from you, I have a possible use for worthless skates and blades, to use for practice sharpening and modification. But I can't afford to pay for them, so if you want a planter, have fun.

Going to use them for the 'Learn to sharpen your own blades' class?

[Sierra]

Anyone ever take the blade off and use the boot as a walking boot, perhaps with some modifications to the sole? Obviously don't wear it in public but I think it'd work nicely as a riding boot or paddock boot for the horse crowd, if the boot is softened up enough. Or maybe practice spirals, sit positions etc in de-bladed old skates. I wouldn't recommend jumping in them though, lol.

My first pair of skates were given to my mom, and I'm still using my second pair. A pair of fairly new blades are currently sitting in a box in my closet with lots of those DO NOT EAT packets. I plan to use them for my mom when she's a bit more advanced- they're low freestyle. I don't know what I'll do with my current pair of skates once they're broken down, because they are too big to sell to anybody for their kids (Women's 9.5.) Can't keep them as public/teaching skates cause I plan to take the blades off of them. I bet my dad will find a creative use for any old blades I have. He once took some old horse-shoes and made a toilet paper holder out of them by welding a bar onto them and nailing the horseshoe to the wall.

That scene from Castaway makes me shudder.

[Mr. Fan]

Our daughter's first set of skates became the autograph skates for all the famous guest skaters that came to do ice shows.

One of our coaches managed to round up a bunch of old skates, spray-painted them with gold glitter, and used them as centerpieces at a skating banquet.

[tazsk8s]

Wow, I like the idea of a planter.  I work in the office of the local fire department, and one of my co-workers has an old pair of firefighter's boots that she made into planters. 

For myself, I have an old pair of boots and blades that I use strictly for teaching and outdoor skating.  Nothing kills a good sharpening faster than demonstrating snowplow stops.  Both the boots and blades are too far shot for much of anything beyond that, and it helps make my sharpening on my "regular" skates last longer.

[Kat]

People buy the most amazing things.

Seriously, people think the weirdest things are decorative.  I find it's strange, for example, that people decorate with spinning wheels (*I* use them to spin yarn!).  It especially makes me sad if it's a wheel that's functional or wouldn't take much to make it functional--it could be out there with someone USING it!  I can't imagine having a big old spinning wheel just sitting around my house for any purpose but to use it...for heaven's sake, they're just not that small (but I guess maybe if you had a big house rather than a small apartment, it might be different?)!  And I wouldn't consider it any more strange for a non-spinner to decorate with a spinning wheel than I would, well, a non-skater to decorate with skates, or a non-golfer to decorate with golf clubs.  Seems like false advertising to me (not quite akin to me putting a fake Ph.D certificate on the wall because I think it's decorative, but close!).  For that matter, since it's a tool used to achieve an end, I don't find it any more strange than it would be to decorate with monkey wrenches or frying pans!

[blue111moon]

A friend of mine took my late mother's skates, painted chrisanthemums (her birth moth flower) on them and put similarly-colored silk flowers in them.  I hang them on the front door as a decoration.  The same friend made a set from flea-market skates as a Christimas decoration for me as well, but I like my mother's ones better.

My old boots generally get second-hand blades and end up sitting in a closet in case someone asks me to go pond skating or one of my friends with similarly sized feet wants to borrow them.

[isakswings]

After 30 years of skating, I have a few pair of old blades that aren't in great shape, so I wouldn't pass them on or sell them to anyone.  I could just toss them in the recycling bin, but what else could I do with them?

We tend to resell dd's old skates. I donated one pair that was given to us since I did not feel right reselling those after they didn't work for us. They needed a new blades(rocker was shot) but would work for a beginner. I gave them to the rink and hopefully they will find someone who can use them!

Dd's current boots however, will likely be too hammered for us to re-sell. I am hoping her blades will work on her next pair of boots. If they don't, I will re-sell the blades. Anyway... good luck.