when tracing your foot by yourself, which is how most of us would do it, you're bending over and holding your leg in a different way than normal, thus putting pressure on your foot causing it to change shape a smidge.
That makes sense. Especially if you try to do it standing on one foot. Mike generally does tracings seated.
But - couldn't you put your feet inside the tracings after you make them, and see how to adjust them?
Is
the ruler on this page "the Reidell stick"?
The diagrams on that page
and this one seem wrong, because they are only scaling the forward part of the shape of the foot... Also, it says it is for Speed skates; I'd like to see something similar for figure skates.
(One of the boot companies [maybe it was Riedell?] used to sell something like those diagrams you could stand on at a rink to estimate your foot size.
>There's also the question of whether or not to hold the pencil perfectly vertically around the foot, or to angle in slightly to compensate for the diameter of the pencil.
Also, whether the pencil should be at the base of the foot, or slightly above that at the widest extent... I think the latter makes sense, but might not be obvious to everyone.
>You go to Mike, for your skates, right? You've seen the Riedell measuring stick for sure then. Probably even had it used on you!
I wish. I bought the Klingbeils I am back to using (because I haven't fixed the Grafs I got free yet) about 13 years ago, from someone whose major accomplishment was creating a lot of business for a local podiatrist. The dubious fitter did foam impressions of my feet, which should have been better than tracings, but managed to mess even that up completely, creating years of pain.
But I am very much a fan of how Mike works. He said I should have gone to the factory for Klingbeils.
I watched Mike work 1 day/week for a few months, though I paid more attention to sharpening than fitting. He often used a Brannock Device - I think he may have had different ones for different boot brands.
For custom boots, he traced feet, while the person was sitting down, then added a bunch of extra measurements that he marked on the tracings.
If you sit down while you take the measurement, maybe bending over changes foot shape less than if you stand?