Article on blade and skate history and manufacture (PSA 5/2014)

[Query]

The PSA Professional Skater Magazine has been running a series of articles entitled "The evolution of the Figure Skate" with subtitle "The history of boots and ice skates".

Search for one of those phrases in

page 25 of http://issuu.com/professionalskatersassociation/docs/septoct2013

page 22 of http://issuu.com/professionalskatersassociation/docs/2013novdec/22

page 22 of http://issuu.com/professionalskatersassociation/docs/janfeb2014/22

page 24 of http://issuu.com/professionalskatersassociation/docs/marchapril14_dig_713bbfed2ad61c

and page 25 of http://issuu.com/professionalskatersassociation/docs/mayjune2014 .

On My PC the article displays with tiny characters, even if I magnify it. If you can't read it, try looking for those phrases a search engine, click on the cache, and look for one of those phrases again. I guess they want you to buy the paper magazine.

Looks like a good read.

[Casey]

I'm using a Mac, but when I cilck on the page, it zooms in and everything gets bigger and nicely readable, then I can use the mouse to pan around.

[Query]

Yes, I tried that, but my screen was small, and the website doesn't let me zoom further. I just got my computer with the bigger screen working again, and it's fine there - maybe the PSA web site designer doesn't realize that many people use little screens.

[Casey]

This is fascinating reading that fills in a lot of gaps I had in my limited knowledge - thanks for sharing!

"Then the blades were put through a secret hardening process involving heat that Strauss had learned while working in an arsenal in Naples, Italy.  He shared the process with no one but his family.  This process made Strauss skates unusually flexible for their hardness, something that was very desirable to serious skaters."

Aha, so I'm not just crazy for thinking a bit of flexibility of steel is a good thing versus these newer lightweight designs with rigid aluminum frames!  Interesting that it says the newer SkateScience blades have a different profile that's similar the old Strauss blades, by moving the "sweet spot" backwards towards the arch.

[Casey]

Hey Query - I figured out by accident that if you press 'F' while viewing those pages that it enters full-screen mode.  I don't know if that will help on your smaller screen or not, but maybe it's worth a shot?

[Query]

I figured out by accident that if you press 'F' while viewing those pages that it enters full-screen mode.

Wonderful! You are brilliant. I'll have to try that on other "smart pages".

The bibliography for the articles looks to point out great resources too.

I must look at other articles in PSA's magazine. If they are all this good, it's a great resource.