Period 1850-1880

skate

In the period 1850-1880, developments in the field of skating followed each other faster and faster, especially in the cities. This also held true for the Nordic countries. Not only were innovations blowing over from abroad, the Scandinavians themselves also came up with smart finds.

Effective designs

We already saw that in 1858 a translation into Swedish appeared of The Art of Skating from 1852. In it, George Anderson of the Glasgow Skating Club under the pseudonym Cyclos settles with the traditional skate with short heel. He is a proponent of the club skate, a model figure skate with rounded ends and a hollowed foot stock that closely matches the sole of the shoe.

Two young Engineering students from Uppsala did not need Cyclos' booklet. In 1856 they had a local blacksmith make them pairs of all-metal skates, both for figure skating and touring. The runners of their designs ended slightly behind the heel plate, which, like the foot plate, was equipped with clamps. A year later, they covered the eighty kilometers on the touring model from their hometown to Stockholm, something that was seen as a real feat at the time and is known as the earliest documented distance trip in the history of Swedish skating. Since 1999, the Vikingarännet for distance skaters has been held on roughly the same route.

Skating frenzy

In America, the first harbingers of the skating mania, the great skating craze, had already announced themselves before 1862. Europe soon followed. Thanks to the rise of, among other things, the international railways and the illustrated magazines, readers were quickly informed about new developments elsewhere. For example, in the Danish Illustreret Tidende of February 10, 1861 an atmospheric report of a skating party in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris was published. Under the influence of the Russian count and countess Morny, both excellent skaters, Emperor Louis Napoleon - and with him his entire entourage - had gotten a taste for it. From the text it became clear that even Empress Eugénie, a Spanish who had never skated before and was therefore taught by a talented Belgian painter, had a great time on her skates.

The example was picked up in Scandinavia: in January 1862, the Kungliga Skridskoklubben was founded in Stockholm with King Karl XV as patron. Access to the rink in a sheltered bay between Kastell- en Skeppsholmen was reserved for the royal court and for a limited number of soldiers and civilians from the highest circles.

The common man continued to skate on Riddarholmsfjärden or on the inner parts of Nybroviken, a beautifully situated bay that in snowy winters was divided into a whole labyrinth of small rinks, separated by snow banks. When a thaw set in meltwater covered the surface and the fun was soon over. Each rink was managed by a so-called 'polar bear', a dock worker or something, who wielded a strict regime with his broom to make everyone who entered his territory a five-öring piece lighter. Changing rinks for free was therefore not possible. On weekdays it was never very busy and you saw more youth than elderly skaters. If there were any girls and women from the upper classes at all, it was during the day. In the evening you definitely needed male protection against the advanced boys from the lower classes for whom it was a sport to bully the 'snobs' off the ice. Those same guys often made the rinks unsafe on Sunday afternoons by trapping other skaters and working them to the ground with a long rope, which they were all attached to.¹ Strangely enough, this kind of scene did not initially lead to the creation of an ice club for the middle classes in Stockholm. Such an initiative was postponed until 1884 and with that the city was lagging quite a bit behind the rest of Scandinavia.

Back to 1862. Also in Copenhagen, ladies and gentlemen from the better circles appeared on the ice of Castelsgraven (moat). A local reporter seized his opportunity to poke fun at the development that had been set in motion:

So much for the writer of På Isen (On the ice) from Copenhagen, whose bantering undertones do seem to have a grain of truth.

Skate maker senses the spirit of the time

In Rosenfors, not far outside Eskilstuna, the brothers Bernhard and Oscar Liberg founded a factory in 1861. A year later they started producing chisels, planes and skates. In one way or another, Bernhard in particular sensed the spirit of the time and the growing popularity of the sport, without being blind for the fact that skates could only be sold in one season of the year. Liberg would become Scandinavia's largest manufacturer of skates and acquired an international reputation.

Odalers take home the prizes

In Christiania, later Oslo, the gymnastics club organized a skating race in 1863. Not only townsmen took part, but also skaters from Odalen, a rural region northeast of the capital. From Eidsvoll, the event was fairly easy to reach for them via Norway's first railway line.

The Odalers caught a lot of attention with their long, low and in fact still traditional skates, on which they won the best prices. No less than 10,000 spectators came to see those races, no less than a fifth of all inhabitants of the city!

The event was contagious: sellers in Christiania had bought large stocks of - presumably foreign - skates for the 1863-64 season. It was not in vain: the winter passed practically without snowfall and the sport flourished, as evidenced, for example, by the establishment of the Kristiania Skøiteklub in 1864. In other cities as well, ice clubs shot like cracks in thin ice. Göteborg's Skridskoklubb (1863) had already preceded, Drammen and Fredrikshald (1865) followed the following year.³

Contemporary Falck Ytter, who was undoubtedly often present on the ice rink at the foot of Åkershus fortress, pointed out a possible explanation for the increased popularity:

We see a substantial improvement in some of the skates that have been introduced in recent years. At the London Ice Club skates were made a few years ago, of which the runner extends the heel screw. This can be seen as very effective, since it allows one to rest more on the heel. In addition, the runner at the back was rounded off and the long and useless bow at the front was removed.⁴

Every age and every class had delegated its representatives. Adult ladies and little girls, judges and lawyers, students and street boys, trade clerks and cadets, craftsmen and office managers swarm - apart from a single involuntary clash - in great harmony and seem to enjoy themselves exquisitely. For the ladies who did not participate yet, there was uplifting news:

It's not as hard to learn as one thinks, and it can be so pleasurable that even the most touchy woman can have anything against it.⁵

And then came Haines!

Jackson Haines, the American ice artist, who was already on the front page of the Norsk Skytter- og Jagt-Tidende on the occasion of a performance in Berlin on March 30, 1865, could not have timed his visit to Europe better. Skating was alive and kicking, the elite was back on the ice, the first clubs had just been founded or were under construction. No wonder that the man who shook off the stiffness of his contemporaries - in no time - got half of Europe at his feet and could add a new dimension to the sport of skating. Haines went all out for grace and style. His program was not hung up on force-devouring acrobatics – the sit spin was the most spectacular – but based on a light-footedness unknown to the time, with which he combined fairly simple patterns into smooth potpourris. With a great sense of show, he kept pace with the cheerful sounds of a string-band, which he probably hired on the spot. This was - in contrast to America, where around 1860 the first skaters’ waltzes were published - a new phenomenon for Europe. Haines eventually had a polka, a mazurka, a waltz and a march in his repertoire and owed his success not least to his skates, which were screwed to his shoes. The runners also had much more radius than was usual until then.

In the winter of 1865-66 he visited Stockholm for the first time and had a rink built on the ice of Nybroviken at his own expense. Haines would often return and also was a welcome guest at the royal ice rink under Kastellholmen. In addition, he gave skating lessons and outside the winter season he showed his skills in various theaters on parlor skates, of which the four wheels were lined up in one row, just like with the modern in-lines.

It wasn't long before some skaters’ waltzes that bore his name appeared in Stockholm. On the cover of the Haines Skating Waltz, the great master seems to show a whole host of followers on traditional models the way on his characteristic shoe skates. The print is certainly symbolic of the change he brought about. The steps, or rather strokes, of this waltz can be found in skating literature around 1880.

Remarkable feats in Kristiania

Nevertheless, the sport would probably have undergone a turbulent development even without his influence, at least in Kristiania. In those years (1865-1870) figure skating was the most practiced sport and competitions were held with sometimes more than a hundred participants.⁶

Soon it became so busy at the rink that the old pointed skates were banned. They were too dangerous. The tip was bent in a spiral inwards, so that the skates could no longer hook into each other. Huitfeldt even thought he remembered later that someone who still dared to appear on the sea ice in Christiania with 'Tanger' protruding far forward, was immediately stopped by the rink supervisor, who then bent those tips back with heavy pliers, so that they could no longer hook into someone else's skates.

For a long time we all skated with different leather straps, but one day Olav Gjerdrum suddenly came up with skates screwed to his boots and so began the experiments of that nature. With the skates, the figures also got better. Everyone had their specialty. Gjerdrum managed to combine different 'snakes' with some discreet jump into a continuous performance. If there was music between two and three at the rink, the rest of the skaters would look at him respectfully.⁷ 

When Haines finally honoured Christiania with a visit in 1869 and 1870 - an earlier performance was cancelled due to thaw - the skating frenzy raged there in such intensity that the Norwegians, who loved a lot of speed and ferocious jumps, were not even particularly impressed by his performance.

Skøitemanien i København

In Copenhagen, Haines' performances were received with more enthusiasm – 'he showed what skating actually is'. Because of the great passive and active interest among the Copenhagers, some notable gentlemen founded an ice club in 1869. When during the very first ice days of the following winter the number of visitors on the track of Sortedamssøen turned out to be rather disappointing, the board found out that they had failed to grasp the spirit of the times: women could not become members and as a result, many men also stayed away. After only a few days it was decided that the ladies, although not a member, could visit the rink anyway to boost the interest. That helped and a reporter from a local newspaper remarked: 'Who would have dared to ask a lady to the ice rink ten years ago? Who would have dared to say that the women would even take the lead in this hitherto typical men's sport? The following winter, when they were admitted as full members, no fewer than 875 women signed up. In the minutes of Københavns Skøjteløberforening they were given all the credit afterwards: 'even under the harshest weather conditions they still showed up and with their presence they brought liveliness and elegance that made the rink a pleasant meeting place.'

The same year an album was released, specially dedicated to the ladies of the club, with four skaters’ waltzes, in which the repertoire of Jackson Haines could be recognized. The atmosphere must have been great in those days. Entertainment on ice tingled! Within the fences of the rink, behind which a freezing crowd of spectators stood admiring the skaters for their courage, everything was new: the men knelt in front of the ladies and tied their skates. Or screwed them on for them, since the first clamp skates also appeared in Europe now. More experienced skaters and their wives showed their skills around the bandstand. Blushing youngsters, who came to flirt rather than skate, with some luck found their life partner on Lake Sortedam.

In 1876 skating-mad Copenhagen even came up with a board game. Although the name Haines is not mentioned, he is easily recognizable in the torchbearer on the cover for his fur-lined clothing and the medals pinned on his chest. The board game seems to have been designed in honor and memory of the American skating king, who had died a year earlier from the effects of tuberculosis, contracted during a trip from St. Petersburg to Stockholm. The rules explain that the winner of the game may call himself Skøiteløberkonge. The king is dead, long live the king!

The loss of Haines was by no means the death blow for skating in Copenhagen. Although there were two other ice clubs at the time, Københavns Skøiteløberforening, which had since moved to the cozier Stadsgraven near Tivoli, had no less than about 3000 members around 1880.

Helsinki

Possibly under the influence of Haines, a number of schoolboys founded an ice club in Helsingfors, present-day Helsinki, in 1875, from which the Helsingfors Skridskoklubb was born the following year. From the start, the track was set out on the sea ice of Norra Hamnen, where in good weather one could also skate to music.

Evolution in type of skates 1850-1880

In this period, a transition took place from traditional skates to new designs. Models were adapted more and more to the intentions of the skater. More radius and a runner that extended under the heel with figure skates, longer and flatter blades for speed and touring skates and if you came on the ice to keep up appearances, the promenade skate, often with comfortable and luxury bindings, was an option.¹

With that, the old types – although sometimes subject to change – were of course not out of the picture from one day to the next. Especially the poor rural population could not afford relatively expensive import skates: 'Our skates consisted of a piece of wood in which a steel runner was caught and we tied them with belts or rope', a Norwegian recalled in 1875.² 

On the ice the mix of modern and old-fashioned skates resulted in a wide variety of models .

Skates with low medium length toes

Apart from the touring skates with long wooden toes from Bjurtjärn, also skates with somewhat shorter wooden toes were in circulation in Sweden. With NM.0041588 from Älvdalen, the elaborated curl has been replaced by a round nose, which may have been attached to the foot stock with a rivet.¹ It is unclear whether the shorter toe was regional or a result of development over time.

Nordiska Museet dates this model, which is also referred to as skenor (touring skates), circa 1850-1860.² The pair was acquired in 1881.

Features NM.0041588
Length foot stock: 28 cm (without wooden toe)
Marked: W (left) en H (right) in the foot stock
Binding holes at the back go through and over the stock
Toe of right skate is lined with tin

A second pair whose half-long toes are clad with wood comes from the Lima area, famous for centuries for its scythes, and only about 50 kilometers from Älvdalen as the crow flies. In the footbed of NM.0098665 from Ungärde we clearly recognize the extremely long skates (see period 1750-1800). The binding 'through and above' and the iron footrests on a long, straight stock betray their origin. The thickness of the runners also corresponds with the long skates. The transition from stock to toe has been beautifully carved. Unlike their predecessors, however, the bow is not adorned with a high-rising naked curl, but with a low, rounded nose, which is incorporated into the foot stock. 

Features NM.0098665
	Primitively folded runner at the back, fastened with a nail
	Rivet throuth the low and round toe
	Rope binding ‘through and above’
	Iron footrests and heel spike (13 mm high)
	Decoratively carved transition from stock to toe

The Hälsinglands Museum in Hudiksvall, Gävleborg county, has a pair of medium-length toes from Nianfors, which is located about 150 kilometers west of Älvdalen. The town was known for its ironworking at the time.

Between the find spots of the above pairs we can draw an imaginary line from Lima in an east-northeast direction via Älvdalen to Nianfors of about 200 kilometers in length.

Erwin Daniel's medium-length toes probably also come from the vicinity of this fictional axis. They do not form a pair, because they differ considerably in length. The skate with the mark 'W' (for wenster or vänster = left) in the foot stock has a sunk heel.

Curl skate with medium-length wooden toe

The pair of semi-long wooden toe skates from Odalen, collection Oslo Skating Museum, with its upright and forged snude (curl) differs rom the low medium-length wooden toes above. Because of that curl and the primitively folded runner at the heel, this pair is reminiscent of the long toes from Sweden, about two hundred kilometers east at the same latitude (see period 1800-1850). The ratio between the wooden toe and the footbed in this case is 1: 2.5. This pair in the Oslo Skøytemuseet is undated, but due to its external features it can be placed in the middle of the 19th century.

Features medium-length toe from Oslo Skating Museum:
	Primitively folded runner at the heel joined with a cramp iron
	Widely forged scrolled curl
	Slight and irregular radius in the bottom of the runner
	Marked ‘H’ in the right stock
	From Odalen, north-west of Oslo

Spring skates

Briton Edward Hill, between 1840 and 1862 head of the fine forge of Fiskars (Pohja, Finland), introduced an extremely revolutionary skate, which, however, was not his own invention.

As early as 1831, his compatriot Rodgers had obtained a patent on a skate with an all-metal foot plate, which was not attached to the heel, but could spring up from behind. That is why users quickly came up with the name spring skate for it. Rodgers' intention actually was to ease off the pinching skate belts. In order to prevent the heel of the shoe from sliding off the metal foot plate, a spring blade with heel pin had to press permanently against the sole of the shoe. With leather heel straps that were tied very loosely over the instep, the degree of action could be regulated.

The skate was relatively light, the shoe did not have to be turned onto the heel screw, the runner continued under the heel and the spring foot blade, which ensured an extended push off, resulted in a clap skate avant la lettre. In short, it seemed like a marvellous invention, especially for that time.

Unfortunately, in practice it was a different story: the spring turned out to be unstable and sometimes broke off. In addition, figure skaters in England now preferred the round heel, a curved back of the runner.¹

Edward Hill of Fiskars did not care about that at all. With a few minor changes, he applied Rodgers' principle to a skate with a high flat curl.

After Hill's departure, Fiskars continued the production of spring skates. They even had two different versions. 

Around 1880 B. & O. Liberg from Rosenfors near Eskilstuna (Sweden) developed a fairly low hook-toed skate after Rodgers' design. They simply christened it Engelsk modell (no. 39) and placed a heel cup on the spring blade.

Flat curl (club toe)

All metal figure and touring skates by Cederblom and Theorell

Two young engineering students from Uppsala, Axel Gabriel Theorell and Johan Erik Cederblom, both born in 1834, hired the local blacksmith Barthelson in 1856 to make two types of skates of their own design. The pairs had to differ substantially from each other: one model had to be equipped with short blades with curve (radius) for figure skating and the other with longer and almost flat runners for making trips.¹

With both types, not only the hollow gutter was omitted, the wooden foot stock was also done with! It was replaced by an iron foot plate and a brass heel plate, which could be adjusted to the foot. How it worked is not entirely clear. The mechanism is described as rörlig, which means movable. I conclude that the heel plate could be set longitudinally to the size of the shoe. The leather binding consisted of a foot cap, which could be put on with a lace that did not pinch the foot, and furthermore of a heel cap (kappa).²

Their designs were not the first metal skates made in Scandinavia, but whether Cederblom and Theorell knew about the rännskridskor from Järvsö, which originated in the early 1830s, I dare to doubt.

Both designers skated with their touring model from Uppsala to Stockholm in 1857. This was a trip of about 80 kilometers, which at the time was seen as a true feat and is known as the earliest documented distance tour in the history of Swedish skating.³ Since 1999, the Vikingarännet has been held on roughly the same route.

Since Barthelson still worked traditionally and had virtually no assistance, the new models were never manufactured on a large scale.⁴ I have not  been able to find  images or specimens of the revolutionary skates from 1856, but from the description of Cederblom himself we know that the runner in both models ended under the heel and in the touring skate probably even further back. So it seems that Cederblom and Theorell were a year ahead of the Canadian Whelpley with his extended heel.

After P.H.S. (see note in popover 2) had made a strong plea for the models of Cederblom/Barthelson in the 1884 Christmas issue of Tidning för Idrott and appealed to the skate makers from Eskilstuna to involve experts in the production, Cederblom himself came up with adjustments to his designs, from which eventually Liberg's models 51 to 53 and the so-called 'Balcken' or military skate would arise. These developments will be dealt with in Cederblom-2 (LINK).

Wooden figure skates

British influences

Following in the footsteps of figure skater Henry Boswell, around 1840 skates began to be shortened and rounded in England. The runner was allowed to continue under the heel.¹

With the efficient skate screw this was a piece of cake in terms of technique. The sturdy screw penetrated deep into the heel of the shoe, which was pre-drilled with a gimlet. The shoe was then literally turned on the screw. Although this was a tedious job in cold weather and the hole soon became too wide due to the jerks of the shoe on the skate, English skaters stuck to this system for quite a long time.

An overview in the catalogue of Hunter & Son, Sheffield from around 1868 gives a fairly representative picture of the developments that had taken place in the previous period in addition to the ancient Common Square Heel and the Hook Toe.

Most suited for figure skating were the No Toe, Club Toe and Curled Toe in combination with the Round Heel or Rocker Heel.

From the 1860s onwards, English skates made their appearance in Scandinavia on a somewhat larger scale. It is striking that a round heel or rocker heel was not manufactured by Scandinavian makers until around 1880 and hardly occurs in Scandinavian museums.

The child's skate from Torvikbukt near Gjemnes in Møre, Norway, is only 16.7 cm long. The footcap reveals that it was intended for a girl's foot.

The skate is limping on two thoughts. The round nose (no toe) perfectly meets the requirements of a figure skater. That in itself also applies to the high runner, but for a young girl this height is rather too much. The back of the runner is far too short and not sufficiently rounded off.

Although they do not have any marks to prove it, the figure skates of the skating museum in Oslo in all likelihood come from abroad. Furnished with club toe and rocker heel, their roots could lie in England or the United States.

The runners are 6.5 mm wide in the middle, but taper to the ends and upwards. The flat curl is 52 mm high. At the front, the hook is captured in the wood, at the back a bolt that is riveted on the runner falls in the skating screw that is fitted in the foot stock. The heel spike and heel supports underline how important it was to have the skates steady at the foot.

AAM.03123 from Arendal, south of Oslo, is a wood-topped figure skate that meets all the requirements of the time with its round nose (no toe) and heel. However, the chance that it is a Scandinavian product is small, since the foot stock is made of mahogany. With the small pins on the slightly hollowed foot stock, this could be a British product from Sheffield.

The skates belonged to shipowner O. A. Olsen, who was born in 1834.

B. & O. Liberg from Rosenfors and L.H. Hagen from Christiania (Oslo) took little notice of the needs of figure skaters. The heels of their skates were actually unsuitable for making figures backwards. The chance of getting stuck in an unevenness on the ice was great. See the overview of their skates in the chapter Skate makers 1850-1880.

Odal skates

Odal skates owe their name to the old district name Odal in the former province of Oppland, which has been merged with Hedmark to form the new province of Innlandet since 2020. Odal skates were mainly used around the Storsjø north of Skarnes.

The Odal skate is regional, but does not stand for a clearly defined model. For this, the sletskøiter¹ differ too much from each other in the shape of the usually birch foot stocks, but especially because of their unclad toes that occur in all kinds of forms: slim, full, with forged curl, diamond-shaped or with a flat curl (club toe). The skates were used by both men and women. The most beautiful skates were equipped with brass fittings, either with a simple design or artfully cut patterns.

Most Odal skates in Norwegian museums are undated. It is therefore difficult to determine whether and how sletskøiter changed over time, all the more so because it is plausible that various blacksmiths had their own interpretation of its shape.

When in Christiania in front of 10,000 spectators for the first time a match was held over 1500 el (about 940 meters) in 1863, it were not the home skaters who won the best prizes. They cut too deep into the ice with their short randskøiter (guttered skates) and were defeated by skaters from Odal, an area northwest of Kongsvinger, in the vicinity of Glommen and Storsjøen.² From the surprised reactions of the skating enthusiasts in Christiania (Oslo) at the time, we can conclude that they were totally unfamiliar with such long and flat runners, that were still clumsily folded at the heel. More than 80 years of German and later also British imports apparently had completely alienated the townspeople from this old custom, if they had ever known such primitive runners in Oslo at all.

Contemporary Falck-Ytter described the Oplandskøiter as very long with narrow, low, strongly hardened runners without gutter, and with a protruding or slightly upwardly curved hook (Snude).³ The blades, which usually ran all the way to the end of the heel, fit into a time-honored Scandinavian tradition and, because they had hardly any curve (radius), were also extremely suitable for racing. In later competitions the Odal skaters won many prizes as well, although in 1870 they were beaten once by Olaf Gjerdrum from Oslo on a pair of randskøyter (skates with gutter).

Odal skates were of course not specially made for the first competitions in Christiania. In particular some skilled gårdssmedene (peasant blacksmiths) from Smedviken and Slåstadseter, in the vicinity of Lake Storsjøen, would have supported their development in the mid-19th century. Around 1850 there were many snow-poor winters and the ice sometimes lay like a mirror for months before the snow came. Compared to the traffic on the bad country roads, you could get much faster to the other side of the village or the lake by crossing the ice.⁴

Odal models

With many Odal skates, the unclad toe is equipped with a tiny curl. Another striking feature is the rivet that connects the wood of the nose with the runner as an extra reinforcement of the hook as the above skate shows. The runners of this pair from the Skating Museum in Oslo end at the back in a square protrusion at the top of the runner. A square cramp driven into the wood just below the protrusion connects both runner and stock. The length of the blade, which has virtually no curve (radius), is 42 cm, which is quite similar to the modern racing skate. 'H A strup' has been carved in the foot stock. Both Astrup and Hastrup appear as surnames.

Even more primitive look Odal skates OT.00758 from the Odalstunet Museum in Skarnes. Here too, the unclad toe ends in a small curlet. With the upper skate, the protrusion at the back is visible; it is linked to the foot stock with a cramp.

A connection without cramps was also possible, as we see with Odal skates GH.07230 from the Gamle Hvam Museum. The runner is folded over at the back and driven directly into the wide wooden foot stock. The skates are equipped with both nose and heel protection.

Odalers met ruitvormige spits

The skate with the remarkable diamond-shaped hook from the Skating Museum in Oslo is dated circa 1860. The runner is short at the heel and the binding 'through and over the stock’ also differs from other Odal skates. The type is somewhat similar to Swedish touring skates with unclad hook, which we will cover later.

Erwin Daniel owns a similar skate, however with a 'straightforward' binding. The initials ECS are stamped in the diamond. Unfortunately the exact origin of this Norwegian skate is not known, but given the similarity with the pair of the Oslo Skating Museum, they could also come from Odal. The foot stock is marked with the letters AH and with a year that sadly is not completely decipherable: 18 _7.

Odal rune

The diamond-shaped end of the toe is somewhat similar to the rune othal. According to Wikipedia, Othala (also called Othalan, Odal or Odhil) is the twenty-fourth and final rune of the Elder Futhark. The sound is 'O'. The rune means property and symbolizes the status quo of property, family and (role in) the community.

It is possible that the diamond-shaped hook was not applied as a random decoration, but because of the similarity with the rune as a purposeful reference to the area of origin of the skate.

The rune Othal is a loaded and touchy subject because it was used by the Nazis and the Dutch People's Union. In Germany the sign is prohibited.

The Odalsskøyta was in use until well into the 20th century.⁵ That is also the reason why so many Odal skates have been preserved in private and museum collections. Therefore the story of the Odal skates will be continued in the period 1880-1920.

Hurtigløpsskøyter (racing skates) with medium-length low toe

From 1863, speed races were held in Oslo. Probably under the influence of the skates of the Odals, a model was developed, which was much more efficient than the old hook-toed skate with gutter.

According to the Norsk Teknisk Museum, the pair NTM 06090 was used between 1860 and 1865 by Ole Tobias Olsen during his studies in Chrisitiania (Oslo). However, I have not been able to find his name in the results lists from that time.

Helleskøiter (skates with forward slope)

With the Whittlesea runner, a skate that originated in the Fens near Cambridge, the skate slopes forward. Although the English apparently saw merit in this construction, its usefulness in touring and racing must be seriously doubted. The weight of the rider is placed more on the tip of the skate, causing the runner to cut into the ice and slow down.

Nevertheless, the principle seems to have been adopted with the helleskøiter¹ from the Skating Museum in Oslo. Influences from Sheffield can also be seen in the three belt holes, in the somewhat curved back of the runner and in the skate screw. With this connection - the head of the screw falls into a recess in the runner - it became possible to extend the blade under the heel. At the front, this screw connection has not yet been applied; instead a traditional hook pierces into the wood stock.

Unlike the Whittlesea runner, the hollow-cut (guttered) skates from the museum in Oslo were used for figure skating, as the curve (radius) reveals. The low hook (43 mm) protrudes very little (16 mm) from the front of the foot stock and with that this rink skate is fully adapted to the requirements of the time.

Helleskøiter were also used in Trondheim in the years 1850-1880.

Among the images of old skates from Trondjhems Skøitelubs Museum a pair of skates with a low curl and short runner can be seen.² This pair from 1850-1860 is not shown here.

Skates FTT.15235 from the Sverresborg Trøndelag Folkemuseum in Trondheim also seem to be sloping.

They were called hornskøyter when they were brought in, because of the protruding hooks.

The skates were used in the Trondheim area.

Hookless skate with floating foot stock

From around 1866 the Liberg company allowed the front of the foot stock to float freely above the runner with some wood-topped skates. A skate screw that was sunk into the foot stock locked a bolt that had been forged or riveted on the runner and protruded through the foot stock.

Because of this technique, the skates look a lot less clumsy than the models with a hook.

Liberg's floating foot stock was probably derived from the skates with stanchions (supports), of which the earliest models came from the United States. Sanford's patents (1852 and 1855) were equipped with it.

However, Liberg was the first to make a hookless skate without stanchions.

In addition the flat curl (club toe) rose a bit higher than with their traditional models, possibly under the influence of the skates of Jackson Haines, who first performed in Stockholm in 1866.

Liberg's numbers 6, 7, 9 (with foot cap and heel cup), 12 (with hollowed foot stock and with heel cup) and 15 were all manufactured according to this principle, but probably not in large numbers. Only in a few museums have I been able to trace a copy.

Features EM 30739
	Length foot stock: 236 mm, ladies' size	Width runner: 6 mm Partly hollow-ground
	Three binding holes	Hookless foot stock
	Available in elm, ash and birch wood

Features UM23450
Stamp: B & O LIBERG, ROSENFORS
Length 290 mm
Width 90 mm

According to tradition the skates from the Uppland Museum (UM23450) were adapted by Johannes Sandén, who was a vicar in Skokloster in the Uppland. He may have provided the original Liberg foot stock with a foot cap and a sunk heel. The skates were used by his daughters between 1900 and 1910.

LAM004895, a hook-toed skate with floating foot stock and heel cup from the Landskrona Museum, differs from Liberg's models.

Missed opportunity

The connection with skate screw and bolt in or on top of the runner was applied to the front but not at the back of the hookless skate. Remarkably, Liberg initially thus missed the opportunity to extend the runner further under the heel. Not much later, this 'mistake' was corrected.

Skates with stanchions

Pretty soon after Liberg released the hookless skate, they introduced skates on stanchions. The foot stock does not rest directly on the runner, but on supports (stanchions) on top of the runner.

The principle was already applied to  Dutch skates with metal foot plates in the second half of the 17th century, although it is more likely that Liberg was inspired by a patent from Sanford (United States, 1852) or by early French examples.

With the stanchions it was possible to give the toe of the foot plate a 'floating' appearance and to extend the runner under the heel. Remarkably enough, that last option was immediately abandoned with a second version of no. 8!

Later Liberg's ladies’ skates were all equipped with runners that extend under the heel.

Promenade skates

The word 'promenade skates' actually indicates more the usage than a certain skate model. The beau monde took pleasure in strolling a bit on the ice, quietly skating back and forth to en passant have a pleasant chat with acquaintances. Elegantly dressed and with skates with which you could win glances of admiration.

Royal model

A winding snake with split tongue and two lying deer surrounded by branches and leaves, which they feast on. Beautiful craftsmanship by G. Forsberg from Stockholm incorporated into a unique figure skate. The snake forms the brass foot plate and is scaled at the bottom. The deer are worked out in what might be a nysilfver (an alloy of nickel and copper alloy) edge of the heel cup. By shifting the heel plate - with deer and all - on the steel runner, the skate can be adjusted to the length of the shoe. The length of the entire skate is 330 mm.

According to the records from Nordiska Museum, this skate was originally intended as a model for the Kongliga Skridskoklubben in Copenhagen. Since there was no royal ice club in Copenhagen as far as we know, perhaps the one in Stockholm was meant?

Swan skates

Beautiful swan skates were also seen on the ice, at least in Sweden and Norway, but whether they were indigenous remains to be seen. The beautifully executed specimens from the Nordiska Museum (NM.0111625) would certainly have fit into Liberg's range, but as far as is known, they never made any swan skates in Rosenfors. That is why these skates were probably imported from England or Germany, although I would not know which manufacturer could have signed for this model.

Swan skates made of steel and brownish yellow stained oak. The foot cap and heel cup as well as the instep straps are made of brown shagreen (Turkish leather) and lined with red flannel. The swan-shaped bow is gilded. Length 31 cm. Dated circa 1850-1870. The pair was purchased at an auction in Vendel near Örbyhus north of Uppsala in the 1870s and donated to the museum in 1908.

The Gamle Bergen Museum in Norway has a pair of simpler swan skates in its collection (GB05253).

Liberg's ladies' skates

As if ladies’ skate Liberg no. 17 of around 1870 was not beautiful enough by itself, in the course of the 1870s the Rosenfors factory near Eskilstuna came on the market with increasingly beautifully made fruntimmerskridskor. We can certainly reckon them among the most striking promenade skates!

Brass skates

Brass skates seem to be excellent examples of promenade skates. Blades made of this relatively soft metal are impossible to keep sharp and therefore the skates were unsuitable for pushing off hard. At first glance, you would even consider them to be ornamental skates.

Fred de Vegt's fairly simple pair comes from the ancient estate of residents of a large country house in the Gudbrandsdal near Lillehammer. The skates with brass runners can certainly be considered to be promenade skates.

Quite a lot of brass skates have been preserved, especially the Dalane Folkemuseum in Norway possesses quite a few. They also appear fairly often in collections of private collectors. Although almost all skates with brass runners are undated, the relatively large number of specimens indicates that they were also used in later times. Besides we may draw the conclusion that their use was not as exclusive as would be expected.

Boot-topped model Jackson Haines

The skates of the American skating king Jackson Haines stood out because of the gracefully rising flat curl and the fact that the shoe was screwed directly onto the foot and heel plate of the skate.

Neither aspect was new. The shape of the curl was derived from the Philadelphia club skate and a boot-topped skate was already patented in 1819 to one William Millward from Eton, as far as known the oldest patent in the history of skating.¹ From a marketing point of view it was of course a clever find for a shoemaker. Yet the invention would not have brought the Englishman a fortune, because he was too far ahead of his time. In those days only few people could afford the luxury of an extra pair of shoes just for a seasonal winter sport.

Even when Jackson Haines introduced such a model to Europe nearly half a century later, few followed his lead and screwed their expensive shoes to their skates. Such a thing was only reserved for fanatical figure skaters. The pleasure skater often turned to a screw or clamp skate as an affordable alternative.

The consumer's wallet also determined the range of B. & O. Liberg from Rosenfors. Although they released an extensive series of skates that all bear the 'signature' of Haines, around 1870 their stock contained only one boot-topped skate (no. 16). In those days, however, you yet had to buy the shoes separately and screw them on.

It is significant that Liberg's no. 16 does not appear in any museum or private collection. Apparently few of them were sold. Therefore I cannot say whether the Scandinavian specimen corresponded in detail to Haines’ original model with rather wide runners - narrower at the back - and a small gutter, which did not quite follow the full length of the blade. With a radius of about 210 cm Haines’ skates were quite considerably curved.²

L.H. Hagen & Co. from Kristiania (Oslo) only came much later with a 'Jackson Haines' boot-topped skate. The reason can be guessed easily: for years most skaters have preferred the less comfortable, but much cheaper halbkunstskøiter, models that had to be bound to the boots, which had the advantage that you did not have to change your footwear.

Halbeisenschlittschuh (with mechanic heel fastening)

In the northern hemisphere, the ideal connection of the shoe with the metal runner has been tinkered with for at least a century since around 1820. In addition to the wooden and sometimes metal models that had to be tied to the feet, all kinds of skates with a clamping mechanism appeared on the market. The expensive boot-topped skate simply asked for a cheaper alternative, provided it secured the skates as tight to the feet as possible.

In 1850 Eduard Engels from Remscheid, Germany came up with a mechanism that was built into the heel of a typical British wooden figure skate, which had to clamp the heel of the boot. The model was soon called the Halbeisenschlittschuh (litterally: half iron skate). Perhaps Engels doubted his own construction, because for security’s sake he added a slot in the runner, so that one could still strap a leather belt over the instep.

Eduard Engels' heel mechanism most certainly served as a model for the ladies’ skates of Norsk Folkemuseum (NF.1963-0342AB), but with the high snabel (hook toe), the foot cap and the short heel, it remained a traditional skate in most respects.

Around 1920 Trondhjems Skøiteklub’s collection contained a similar model.¹

Skates with clamp mechanism

Around 1860, after the invention of the heel mechanism by Eduard Engels, patents on lateral screw mechanisms for all-metal skates sprang up like mushrooms in America. In 1861, the American P.J. Clark combined the new technique in one skate for both foot and heel plate: each was equipped with its own mechanism, which could be tightened with a separate key.¹

A boom in 'changes', 'improvements' and 'adjustments' followed. One find was even more ingenious than the other and soon skates could also be clamped to the shoe with a lever. Numerous inventions were recorded in a patent. Also for Scandinavia, where between 1850 and 1880 more and more foreign skates came into circulation. Later, Ekerot expressed the development as follows:

Around 1870 Scandinavia was flooded with new models of clamp skates from Germany and America. They were a great success. Over time, foreign competitors tried to get rid of their production surpluses at minimum prices, and were helped by the Swedish people's innate preference for all things foreign. However, the quality was often very poor. Liberg did not want to lower themselves to participate in this and thus lose their good name.²

Therefore the Liberg company from Rosenfors counterattacked around 1870 with four of its own B. & O. Liberg patents, which I have not been able to trace however. It concerns their numbers 18 to 21 from the Priskurant of circa 1880. All their patent skates were model Jackson Haines and equipped with a clamp mechanism on the foot plate. The heel connections made the difference.

In the mid-1870s, Liberg introduced a skate with heel mechanism. The Malmö model was an all-metal skate cast from brass. By tightening the wing nut, the sharp pins were pressed into the heel of the boot.

Around 1880 Day's patent on a clamp mechanism expired. Liberg almost immediately came up with a simpler version of their own. The mechanism worked by means of a swivel screw with which both the foot and heel clamps could be tightened at the same time.

All these clamp skates are described in more detail in Liberg's model overview.

Skates with lever mechanism

In 1866 John Forbes, an employee of the Starr Manufacturing Company in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, came up  with a particularly ingenious yet stunningly simple construction: a clamp skate with lever mechanism.

With one simple movement, the Acme, soon to be called Halifax, could be clamped against the boot sole in three (actually five) places. Belts were superfluous. Partly due to the convenience of the Halifax, the interest in skating would increase enormously from that time on.¹ The original skate bore the stamps 'Starr Manfg. Co. Halifax N.S.' and 'Forbes Patent'.

From 1867 the Halifax has also been very popular in Scandinavia for some time, especially in Sweden, where they were commonly  called amerikanska skridskor.²

From 1875 the cheaper and rather unreliable Halifax-Patent³ gwas made in Remscheid (Germany), which sold well in Finland⁴ around 1885 and will undoubtedly have found its way to Scandinavia too.

Shortly before or after 1880 B. & O. Liberg from Rosenfors also introduced their own Amerikansk modell with Forbes' lever mechanism and – of course – the Haines curl.

It didn't stop there. Apparently skaters asked for the real thing and Liberg came up with model 41C, which was very similar to the real Halifax.

Bondeskøiter / Allmogeskridskor (Peasants' skates)

Farmers in remote places in the countryside have traditionally been forced by circumstances to make or repair their own tools with limited resources. Of course, that also applied to their skates, the so-called bondeskøiter (Norwegian) or allmogeskridskor (Swedish). Even though a good farmer-blacksmith did not have to be inferior to a mediocre village blacksmith, in practice peasants’ skates often stand out for some primitive characteristics. The peasants’ ingenuity was great, but as far as quality is concerned their skates form anything but a unity. Good forging in the form of a beautiful curlet was often accompanied by an inferior heel connection: the single-folded runner was attached to the back end of the foot stock with a simple nail or cramp. You had to make the best of it if certain materials, such as screws for example, were missing. The name peasants’ skate does not stand for a certain model of skate, but rather for the maker of the product in combination with a somewhat primitive appearance of the skate.

Dating

As a necessary utensil for farmers, fishermen and hunters, the peasants’ skate was actually the successor of the bone skate. That presupposes a considerable age, although it is difficult to indicate when they were first made. Old techniques and customs were probably passed on from father to son, often without much regard for innovation.

The contradictory combination of a certain degree of craftsmanship and primitive techniques makes it difficult to date peasants’ skates. The impression is that they often appear to be older than they really are. This opinion is supported by the large numbers of primitive skates that appear in museums and in private collections. There are too many of them to assume that they all date from the first half of the19^th century or even before that, although we are inclined to think so on ground of their appearance.

Really antique specimens must be rare, because they were usually used until they completely fell apart. After that, the stocks often disappeared into the stove and the runners, like other discarded tools, were forged again.

For the above reasons I am reluctant to date them early if there is no hard evidence for this. The period between 1850 and 1880 does certainly not apply to all peasants’ skates.

Fortunately, a number of skates are dated, or can be assumed to belong to a certain period on the basis of external characteristics. For example, before 1850 we already dealt with skates, which could certainly be reckoned among peasants’ skates. Since there were few factory-made skates in circulation in those days, they then were not out of place and can be considered as typical exponents of their time.

After 1850 the situation changed. Also the craft industry gradually threw itself into the manufacture of skates, which were increasingly in demand, even though we find relatively few of them in museums and private collections. The explanation for this may lie partly in the fact that they are not recognized, because skaters could buy loose runners from the factory to provide them with their own footstocks. Also, worn factory stocks will at some point have been replaced by homemade ones.

In any case, it is striking that the quality of the foot stocks often lags behind that of the runner. Strictly speaking, skates with runners from factories cannot be considered peasants’ skates, although they often look similar to them. Fortunately, skates with stocks made by a handy woodcarver who could not handle hammer and anvil very well, are easier to recognize. The same applies to skates from someone who avoided the forging process altogether and turned an old saw or file into a runner.

Ljåspik-skejser (skates made from scythes)

In the west of Norway so-called ljåspik-skejser¹, were made, which may have been used some time into the 19th century. The ordinary shape of a skate was cut out of a block of wood and provided with a runner made out of a worn scythe.² It was a typical product of home crafts in circles where one could not afford anything else. How old this custom is can only be guessed. Urdahl wrote in 1891: 'You would expect these skates to be virtually unusable, but by sharpening the Norwegian quality steel in a clever way one could get very good runners. The owner usually was not interested in making rapid progress anyway.' ³ In 1844, however, Ole Syvertsen thought otherwise. At the time, he skated his first race as a boy - back and forth on a straight track with a man with a flag as a turning point - on a pair of skates made by Johan Skjølli from Ulviksjøen (Aurskog region east of Oslo, Norway) from a discarded scythe. "My skates weren’t the best, but they didn't do so badly" old Syvertsen said with a cunning smile almost 75 years later.⁴

It seems obvious that scythes or sickles were used for the runners of skates. This application only really became meaningful however, after scythes with a steeled edge came on the market, which were hard enough to serve as a skate runner.⁵ Examples of this technique can be found in the Nordiska Museum in Stockholm.

All in all, in this category we are dealing with a varied collection of skates; we certainly cannot say that every primitive-looking skate was made by a peasants’ blacksmith, or vice versa, that every peasants’ blacksmith was an inept skate maker. 

Skate makers 1850-1880

In this period we deal for the first time with factories that partly specialized in making skates. The number of small skate makers known by name is also increasing.

Johan Skjølli, Ulviksjøen, Aurskog, Norway (circa 1844)

Ole Syvertsen skated his first race as a boy in 1844 - back and forth on a straight track with a man with a flag as a turning point - on a pair of skates made from a discarded scythe by Johan Skjølli from Ulviksjøen (Aurskog region east of Oslo).¹

Guttorm Larsson Straumsnes near Vefsn in Nordland, Norway (1850)

With the pair of stokkskøyter (block skates) VBH. G.003064 from the collection of the Helgeland Museum it is mentioned that they were made in 1850 as a heimsmidd (home-forged product) by Guttorm Straumsness.

In Vefsn Bygdebok, Knut Skorpen mentions that Guttorm Larsson was born in 1823 at Straum, a farm near the Drevja River, north of Vefsn in the Nordland in Norway. His father was a farmer and Guttorm worked at his father's farm. He was already over fifty when he built his own house on Neset or Straumsneset, on the territory of the farm. He married in 1877; his wife died a year later at the birth of their first child. Guttorm Larsson died in 1896.¹

Guttorm Larsson Straumsnes was known as a 'day labourer', 'farmhand' and as 'husman med jord', someone with his own house who farms on leased land, for which he pays in kind by working for the tenant farmer.

It is not known whether Guttorm Larsson worked as a blacksmith, but according to Knut Skorpen, anyone with a little experience could make this kind of skates.

The skates were probably used on the frozen Drevjo (Drevja) in autumn.² 

In the vicinity of Kvalfors, south of Vefsn, in the second half of the 19th century skates were used that somewhat resemble the block skates of Guttorm Larsson Straumsness.³ Guttorm may have made a regional model.

Lars Andersen Gjennestad, Gloppen, Nordfjord, Norway (circa 1850)

Features stokkskøiter by Lars Andersen Gjennestad
Total length: 310 mm	Width runner: 10 mm
Height of toe: 51 mm	Heel connection with a nail
A nail behind the hook that goes through the stock
Two round strapholes for rope binding

This pair of stokkskøiter (block skates) from the Skating Museum in Oslo are from Nordfjord, the area in Sogn og Fjordane between Bergen and Trondheim on the Norwegian west coast. The skates were forged around 1850 by bonde (farmer) Lars Andersen Gjennestad from Gloppen.¹ Therefore the skates can be considered as authentic bondeskøiter or peasants’ skates, in this case equipped with extremely wide runners (1 cm).

Barthelson, Uppsala, Sweden (circa 1850-1860)

In the mid-19th century, blacksmith Barthelson was known in Uppsala as a skate maker who understood his craft. No wonder the young students Theorell and Cederblom knocked on his door in 1856 with their designs for two different all-metal skates, one for figure skating and one for touring.

Since Barthelson still worked traditionally and had virtually no assistance, the models of Theorell and Cederblom were never manufactured on a large scale.¹ Nevertheless, in 1884 - Barthelson had died by then - the quality of his product was cited in an article submitted to a national sports magazine. According to the writer - a certain P.H.S. who had been using his skates fanatically for 22 years and had never had to repair them - the blacksmith used the best material for the runners, which were hardened with great care and polished until they were as smooth as a razor blade. Barthelson's craftsmanship, together with the instructions of the two outstanding skaters, formed the explanation for the success of his skates.²

The production at a small scale by Barthelson is in stark contrast to the approach of the Liberg company, which in a short time would grow into the largest skate maker in Scandinavia.

Fiskars, Pohja, Finland (circa 1855-1880)

The history of Fiskars, which still exists, goes all the way back to 1649, when ironworks were erected on both sides of Fiskars river near Pohja in southern Finland. Initially, they focused exclusively on the coarser work, such as melting raw iron ore.

It was not until the early 1830s that the production of knives, forks and scissors was started¹ and probably from the middle of the 19th century skates as well.² In the vicinity of Turku (Åbo), skates with steel runners were called fiskarsskridskor at that time³, but it is not certain whether this name referred to the maker (Fiskars) or the users (fiskars are fishermen).

The production of skates in Fiskars took on a new dimension under the influence of the Englishman Hill.

Edward Hill from Sheffield had been recruited in 1840 as head of the fine forge in Fiskars and in his wake a number of skilled English metalworkers followed. Under the leadership of Hill - who, incidentally, was not a cheap guy and was entitled to half of the net profit⁴ - the steel goods became finer in quality and could nevertheless be produced cheaper. The output mainly involved all kinds of knives and scissors, but in addition, surgical instruments, nutcrackers and key rings were also made. Under Edward Hill brassware like mortars, candlesticks and bells, were poured into lead crucibles (melting pots).

His own designs were stamped with 'HILL', then 'FISKARS' and finally with a type number.⁵

The Nordiska Museum in Stockholm owns an all-metal figure skate with the stamp 'HILL FISKARS'.

It was not his own design, however, but an adaptation of the ingenious spring skate by Rodgers from 1831.

This skate is from before 1862, the year that Hill switched to Herlin's new ironworks in Helsingfors, present-day Helsinki.

Also after Hill's departure, Fiskars continued the production of this model, as evidenced by similar skates in the Fiskars museum, which only bear the stamp 'FISKARS'.

In addition to the 'spring skate', wood-iron skates were also made.

The traditional hook-toed skate seems to be the oldest. These children's or ladies' skates are marked FISKARS. The foot stock is approximately 225 mm long and the runner 5.5 mm wide.

Figure skate no. 327 from the museum collection of Fiskars has typical British features, such as the brass heel and foot plate. The back of the extended runner, on the other hand, strongly resembles an early skate by L.H. Hagen from Norway. The screw, the head of which is incorporated in the runner, goes through the foot stock and protrudes above it as a heel pin. Stamp: FISKARS. Circa 1860-1880? 

The long skates with extended runners were probably also made by Fiskars. I have not come across the particularly characteristic bow with other makers. These touring or racing skates have a violin-shaped foot stock and two morticed strap holes. These skates also have a screw incorporated in the runner. Unstamped? Circa 1870-1900?

Presumably Fiskars also made racing skates in later times [LINK!].

Anders Rönnbäck (Olofsson), Ryssbält, Nederkalix, Sweden (active circa 1855-1890?)

Anders Rönnbäck from Ryssbält in Kalix, on the northernmost shores of the Gulf of Bothnia, was the maker of skates NM.0076904 from the Nordiska Museum.

Anders was born in Ryssbält in 1835 and combined the professions of blacksmith and farmer. He died in 1921 at the age of 85.¹

These peasants’ skates stand out because of the high (55 mm) foot stocks that are very narrow towards the bottom. The strap holes for the leatherwork are located at the very top of the stock. This construction seems very suitable for snowy conditions.

At the back, the runner is folded and attached to the stock with a screw.

Both skates are marked with the letters JARB. The meaning of the letter J is not clear to me. ARB could stand for Anders Rönnbäck, although RB could also refer to Ryssbält.

When the skates were handed over to the Nordiska Museum in 1893, they were called Skrillskor.²

‘Sme-Kalle’, Hjulsta, near Stockholm, Sweden (circa 1860-1870)

According to V. Ulfwi, 'Sme-Kalle' (Kalle is a common nick name for Karl; the surname of this Karl is unknown) from Hjulsta near Stockholm made skates to order. He also delivered outside his district, even to people from other provinces.

Wood-iron skate around 1860-70 made by Sme-Kalle from Hjulsta. The length of the skate is 290 mm. The runners are 5 mm. wide.

Executed with an elegant, but dangerous hook toe. No heel pin. The front straps are so long that, after crossing the front part of the foot, they can still be tied around the instep.¹

At present the skates from the former collection of Ulfwi are probably in the clubhouse collection of S.S.S.K. in Saltsjöbaden.

L.H. Hagen, Christiania (Oslo), Norway - part 1 (circa 1860-1880)

Lars M. or H. Hagen, who had started around 1840 as apprentice of a riflemaker¹, , founded his own company on November 4, 1851. Gjørtler (coppersmith) Hagen supplied small utensils of good and solid quality within the actual field², which presumably refers to the rifle production. Numerous and often beautiful advertisements from the early 1880s show that the making of bøsse (shotguns) has long remained the core activity.

In addition, products such as fishing gear and skates  were made. For years this was mainly done manually. It was only under Hannibal Hagen, who joined his father's firm in 1879, that the company gradually began to produce on an increasingly larger scale.

The name L.H. Hagen & Co. may have been used from that moment on, but first appears in an advertisement in the Norsk Idrætsblad of March 11, 1881.

The company was located at 19 Kirkegaden in Kristiania at the time.

Roughly speaking, it can be said that all skates with the stamp 'L.H. HAGEN' are from before 1880 and those with the stamp 'L.H. HAGEN & CO.' are from after 1880.

Lars M. Hagen left the company in 1889 and died in 1897.

The wood-iron figure skates from the Skating Museum in Oslo with club toe and high runners, that almost go to the back of the heel, are probably made after an English example. They have slightly violin-shaped foot stocks with three strap holes and a pin on the heel screw. The stamp on the left runner reads: 'L.H. HAGEN / CHRISTIANIA'. The letters in this stamp 'dance' somewhat. Moreover, the C and H of CHRISTIANIA are quite far apart. It gives the impression that the letters have been stamped separately, which is not the case with other stamps. In addition, 'L.H. HAGEN' is not italicized. I therefore believe that we are dealing here with an early Hagen model, which also shows from the deep gutter in the bottom of the runner.

As a second stamp on the same pair shows, Hagen apparently used home made steel at first. 'AALL & SON / STØRE STAAL' refers to the firm of Jacob Aall & Son, which from 1852 consisted of two ironworks in Næs and Egeland, where an impressive range of products were manufactured, from skate steel to cannons for whaling. That could not prevent the company from going bankrupt in 1885 however.³

Hagen did not sufficiently meet the figure skaters with their models of which the heel of the runner was actually unsuitable for skating figures backwards. The chance of getting stuck in an unevenness on the ice was great.

Skate with club toe and nearly full heel runner
Width runner: 7.5 mm
Height club toe: 61 mm
Deep gutter in runners with quite a lot of curve (radius)

Another possibility is that the skates were produced by Aall or another maker and that Hagen put a cold seller's stamp in them.

That thought also comes to mind with a pair of battered skates from Erwin Daniël's collection. They are double stamped and bear both the mark 'L.H. HAGEN / CHRISTIANIA' and the logo of Eduard Engels from Remscheid: a curl skate with an acorn-shaped finial. Did this large and renowned factory deliver their skate maker's steel with their own stamp to its smaller Norwegian colleague, or was Hagen the importer and wholesaler or seller of a ready-made product? The club toe has been beautifully designed and the heel of the runner also stands out. They probably date from 1870 to 1880.

The pair figure skates without toe from my own collection also bears the stamps of both Hagen and Engels.

L.H. Hagen’s skates from this period in many ways resemble models from Sheffield (England) and Remscheid (Germany). Based on Hagen's stamp, we can conclude that all three are from before 1880. Since they all have a second stamp from another factory and we do not know any skates from Hagen without someone else's stamp for this period, we must wonder whether Hagen is rightly included here as a skate maker. Possibly they were only sellers of other people's products. In the period 1880-1920 we will see that the Hagen company distinguished itself with its own designs.

B. & O. Liberg, Rosenfors, Skogstorp, Sweden - part 1 (1862-1880)

In 1861 Bernhard and Oscar Liberg, sons of scissor-manufacturer Lars Liberg from Eskilstuna, bought the rights to water and a piece of land with an old workshop on an island in Hyndevad river, about five kilometers south of the city. Not far from the place where a gunsmith had been working around 1600 and where an ironworks was located for hundreds of years.¹ The factory they founded there, initially a modest complex consisting of a number of business premises and a house, was named by the brothers after that old järnbruk and called Rosenfors.²

The location on the islet of Bruksholmen in the Hyndevad, as the Eskilstuna River is called here, was essential, because like almost all factories at that time, the Liberg brothers depended on hydropower for the propulsion of their machines. In downtown Eskilstuna , Gevärsfaktoriet (the gun factory) had the oldest and first right to water and in times of scarcity other companies had to wait for their turn.³ Their father's scissor factory must also have been confronted with this from time to time. Due to its favorable location outside the city, Rosenfors did not suffer from this type of competition and unlimited water could be channeled into the factory.

The young brothers (Bernhard was 25) had chosen a good moment for the start of their activities. The year before, a navigable branch of the Eskilstuna River had been realized at Torshälla and steamships could now finally reach Lake Mälaren from Eskilstuna to maintain a regular connection with Stockholm, which was so important for sales.⁴

Chisels, planes and skates were the first products of the company in 1862. Later, balances (weighing hooks), irons, scissors and axes were added, as well as various types of swords, sabers and bayonets. The company's products soon became world famous for their high quality. Liberg's skates in particular aroused great interest.⁵

In one way or another, Bernhard in particular sensed the spirit of the times and the growing popularity of skating as a sport, without being blind for the fact that sales of skates were only seasonal. The wide range of products ensured the necessary spreading of risk.⁶

With the help of a rare catalogue, in the possession of the Kungliga Biblioteket (Royal Library) in Stockholm, it is possible to give a complete overview of their skates for the period 1862 to about 1880.⁷ 

Possibly this ‘pattern book' was once used by a Liberg salesman. It contains only images and no description of the models. That will not have been necessary, because as a traveling salesman you obviously knew them by heart.

Thanks to another Liberg price list – without illustrations however - from the same period (so also around 1880) we nevertheless have brief information about the skates.

In the captions to the skates in the overview below, I have stuck to the original text from the price sheet as much as possible. I only added a characterization of the skates. Prices are in Swedish crowns (per pair).

In between the overview of the skates, the development of the factory and the living conditions of the workers are outlined.

The first skates delivered from 1862 onwards were traditional (Swedish?) models.

Liberg No. 1 - Traditional hook-toed skate
Simple skates, steel, red stocks
1880c: 1,40 Kr.
Between 1893 and 1902 the hook-toed no. 1 was replaced by a club toe8

No. 2 - Traditional skate with club toe
	Common skates, steel, gutter, yellow stocks
	1880c: 2,00 Kr.
	1891: 2,00 Kr. / always in stock;
	1902: taken out of production

No. 3 - Traditional skate with club toe
Fine steel skates, gutter, redpolished birch (björkträn)
1880c: 2,50 Kr
1891: 2,60 Kr. / always in stock
1902: taken out of production

No. 4 - Traditional skate with club toe
	Extra fine skates, gutter, of polished elm (alm), oak (ek) or ash (askträn)
	1880c: 2,90 Kr
	1891: 3,00 Kr. / always in stock (elm)
	1902: taken out of production

From a pair of club-toed skates in my own collection - presumably this is model no. 4. - it can be deduced that production was not yet mechanical. The foot stocks are not of equal thickness and the runners also differ from each other at a number of aspects. The runner of the left skate is slightly higher and not completely straight, while the gutter from the heel runs a little longer to the front. The club toe is a fraction larger than that of the right skate.

No. 5 - Traditional skate with club toe
Extra fine steel skate, gutter, polished elm (alm), oak (ek) or ash (askträn) and brass heel cups, complete with fastenings (snörtyg)
1880c: 5,00 Kr.
1891: 4,75 Kr. / always in stock (elm)
1902: taken out of production
Later this model was made as no. 30 from cheaper birch

After the simple and conservative models of the first few years, No. 5 is already a bit more luxurious with brass heel cup and leather foot cap. This improvement might be related to participation in the Stockholm trade fair in 1866, where Liberg won a silver medal. I do not know however, whether this prize was awarded for skates or for other products.

Skate EM 30735 from the collection of the Eskilstuna City Museum is a Liberg no. 5, which is executed as a hook-toed skate! Possibly an early model, which was later replaced by the club toe skate.

It is not inconceivable that other early models were also made as hook-toed skates at first.

Model 6 and 7 are the first without a hook connection, creating the impression that the nose of the foot stock partly floats above the runner. In the high club toe Jackson Haines’ influence is visible. He first performed in Stockholm in 1866. The runner still ends half-way under the middle of the heel.

No. 6 - Hookless skate with club toe
Extra fine steel skate, gutter, at the front the runner is connected to the foot stock with nut and bolt, redpolished birch with 3 strap holes
1880c: 2,90 Kr.
1891: 3,00 Kr.
1902: available
1907: taken out of production

No. 7 - Hookless skate with club toe
	As no. 6, but with elm or ash foot stocks
	1880c: 3,50 Kr.
	1891: 3,50 Kr. (elm)
	1902: available?
	1907: taken out of production

The following models are more difficult to place in time. It could be that both executions of no. 8 were already on display at the aforementioned exhibition in Stockholm (1866). Although Liberg was about ten years behind Barthelson with his all-metal figure skates, they still represent a radical break with the past. From this moment on, the company starts to distinguish itself from the ordinary (skatemaking) blacksmith and to reap the benefits of a well-thought-out production process.

No. 8 - Metal figure skate with 2 stanchions and a sunk heel
Steel skates with iron foot plates and sunk heel, complete with fastenings
1880c: 5,50 Kr.
1891: 5,00 Kr. / always in stock
1902: taken out of production

No. 8 - Metal figure skates with 2 stanchions and a flat foot plate
	Skates with flat iron foot plates, complete with fastenings
	1880c: 5,50 Kr.
	1891: 5,00 Kr. / always in stock
	1902: taken out of production

Separation

In 1867 Bernhard and Oscar Liberg separated. Oscar set up a new factory in the vicinity under his own name for the production of chisels and planes. It was the first factory in Sweden to specialize in this. Bernhard continued the production in the Rosenfors factory. The company name remained unchanged B. & O. Liberg.⁹

No. 9 - Hookless skate with club toe
Runners as no. 6,  with thin, vaulted elm, ash or birch foot stocks, complete with heel pieces of brass and leather together with fastenings
1880c: 6,50 Kr.
1891: 6,50 Kr. (elm)
1902: taken out of production

No. 10 - Wood figure skate with 2 stanchions
	Ladies' skate, foot and heel caps clad with white leather; complete
	1880c: 7,00 Kr.
	1891: 7,00 Kr. / always in stock
	1902: only available on order
	1907: taken out of production

No. 11 - Wooden figure skate with 3 stanchions
Ladies' skate, the runners are connected to the stock by means of brass nuts and bolts, foot and heel cap of white leather
1880c: 7,00 Kr.
1891: 7,00 Kr. / always in stock
1902: only available on order
1907: taken out of production

Ladies' skate no. 11 has all the looks of a promenade skate.

No. 12 - Hookless skate with club toe and sunk heel
	Runners as no. 6, with vaulted stocks and sunk heel, brass heel cups and leather fastenings, complete
	1880c: 6,30 Kr.
	1891: 6,30 Kr.
	1902: taken out of production

Sole owner

In 1870 Oscar Liberg died and his brother Bernhard became sole owner of both workshops, the activities of which were merged.

In the same year, the workers were given their own health insurance fund.¹⁰ With the unhealthy work on the grinding stones – dust lungs! – that was certainly not a superfluous luxury.

In 1871 the plane factory was expanded considerably, but there was little blessing on it. A large fire completely destroyed the building shortly afterwards. The following year, the factory was resurrected on an even larger scale.¹¹

Skating was a popular sport on the rise and every year thousands of wood-iron skates, which were still dominant, found their way across Scandinavia, although the demand for metal skates gradually increased. Number 13, which was made in two versions, was meant to respond to this.

No. 13 - All-metal figure skate with 2 stanchions and without heel cup
Student skate, small iron foot plate, small brass heel plate with leather fastenings
1880c: 8,00 Kr.
1891: 8,00 Kr.
1902: taken out of production

No. 13 JK - All-metal figure skate with 2 stanchions and heel cup
	Student skate with sunk iron heel plate (J.K. = jernkappor = iron heel cup), with leather bindings
	1880c: 8,00 Kr.
	1891: not listed separately
	1902: taken out of production

No. 14 - Hookless skate with low hook toe and runner that ends under the heel
Simple iron skate with unpainted wooden stock
1880c: 0,95 Kr.
1891: 1,00 Kr. / always in stock
1902: taken out of production

No. 15 - Hookless skate with club toe
	Steel skate with gutter and yellow foot stock, new model
	1880c: 2,10 Kr.
	1891: 2,25 Kr. / always in stock
	1902: taken out of production

No. 16 - All-metal figure skate with stanchions; skate for permanent boot
Model Jackson Haines, for attachment with rivets to the soles of the shoes
1880c: 5,00 Kr.
1891: 5,00 Kr. / only available on order
1902: only available on order

In 1871 the total production was 75,000 Riksdaler.

At exhibitions in Copenhagen (1872) and Vienna (1873), Liberg again won prizes. In Vienna they received an honorary diploma - not a medal - for scissors, skates, irons and implements.

The sales area was mainly Sweden and Norway.

At that time the Rosenfors factory was powered by three water turbines of 25 HP each. For the entire range of products - so not only for skates - many tons of raw materials were used every year:

No. 17 - Figure skate on stanchions
	Extra fine ladies' skate, finely polished runners, vaulted footstocks with sunk heel, padded, belt and foot caps of white leather, lined with red cloth.
	1880c: 11,00 Kr.
	1891: 11,00 Kr.
	1902: available
	1907: taken out of production

This skate is counted among the promenade skates.

In the 1870s Liberg came with a series of four clamp skates on which they had apparently obtained a patent. All patent skates were supplied with a key to screw the skate on the boot.

No. 18 - Metal figure skate with stanchions; clamp skate
Patent skate for use without straps, attachment at the front by means of supports that grip into the shoe soles, at the back with a screw that is turned into the heel of the shoe
1880c: 9,00 Kr.
1891: 9,00 Kr. / B. & O. Libergs patent only available on order
1902: only available on order
1907: taken out of production

In his book Skøjteløberkunsten (1881), the Danish skater Thorvald Groth describes Liberg’s skate no. 18 or 19:

In general, the better figure skaters prefer the Swedish Eskilstuna-Skøjter. These are made of exquisite steel after a model by Jackson Haines. They are attached to the heel with a large screw and at the front they are equipped with a clamping screw, which grips around the sole. The shape of these skates is much nicer than that of the Halifax, but it takes a bit more time to tie them on and off. The only inconvenience is caused by the fact that the screw hole in the heel wears out over time, so that the skate (Groth means the shoe, nm) has to be fitted with a new heel. Or one has to tie the skate with a belt around the instep, which in turn seriously impedes the free movement of the foot.

...

The Eskilstuna-Skøjter are wider in the middle than at the heel. On the one hand, the runner does not bend when placing the skate on the ice, as often happens with the Halifax skate for example, on the other hand, the skate grips better in the ice, which increases the certainty of execution.¹³

No. 19 - Metal figure skate on stanchions; clamp skate
Patent skate, at the front as no. 18, fastening at the heel with a spike into the heel of the boot and a strap across the instep
	1880c: 10,00 Kr.
	1891: 10,00 Kr. / B. & O. Libergs patent only available on order
	1902: only available on order
	1907: taken out of production

No. 20 - Metal figure skate on stanchions; clamp skate with a kind of bayonet catch at the heel plate
Patent skate, fastening without straps, quickest to put on and off, at the front as no. 18, heel fastening by means of turning the skate a quarter turn, causing a nut to grip into a catch that is applied to the heel of the shoe.
1880c: 11,00 Kr.
1891: 11,00 Kr. / B. & O. Libergs patent only available on order
1902: only available on order
1907: taken out of production

No. 21 - Metal figure skate on stanchions; clamp skate
Patent skate, fastening without straps, at the front as no. 18, at the heel with brass clamps who when screwed grip into the heel of the boot
	1880c: 13,00 Kr.
	1891: 13,00 Kr. / B. & O. Libergs patent only available on order
	1902: taken out of production

The all-metal patent skates differed greatly from the series of wooden skates that followed: all of them so-called Norwegian models, in which the spherical heel screw was riveted to the runner, so that it could go all the way to the back of the heel. It seems that Liberg, who obviously wanted to increase sales in the neighboring country, was forced to compete with skates from their Norwegian competitor L.H. Hagen. This was probably why they were labeled as Norsk modell. A somewhat dubious name, since Hagen's skates looked a lot like contemporary English models.

No. 22 - Club toe with runner ending at the back of the heel
Iron skate with unpainted birch stock, Norwegian model.
1880c: 1,30 Kr.
1891: 1,30 Kr. / only available on order
1902: only available on order
1907: taken out of production

No. 23 - Club toe with runner ending at the back of the heel
Steel skate with redpolished stock, Norwegian model
	1880c: 2,40 Kr.
	1891: 2,50 Kr. / only available on order
	1902: only available on order
	1907: taken out of production

No. 24 - Club toe with runner ending at the back of the heel
Steel skate with vaulted and lightly polished birch stock, 3 strap holes and brass heel cup, Norwegian model
1880c: 6,00 Kr.
1891: 6,50 Kr. / only available on order
1902: only available on order
1907: taken out of production

No. 25 - Club toe with runner ending at the back of the heel
	Steel skate, lighly polished birch stock with foot cap and brass heel cup, Norwegian model
	1880c: 4,75 Kr.
	1891: 5,00 Kr. / only available on order
	1902: taken out of production

No. 26 - Hookless skate with club toe and short heel
Steel skate, flat polished elm stock with brass heel cup, Norwegian model with traditional short heel
1880c: 6,25 Kr.
1891: 6,50 Kr. / only available on order
1902: only available on order
1907: taken out of production

No. 27 - Hookless skate with club toe and runner that ends under the heel
	Cast steel skate, polished alm stock with wide strap hole at the front and brass heel cup, Norwegian model
	1880c: 5,75 Kr.
	1891: 7,00 Kr. / only available on order
	1902: taken out of production

No. 28 - Ladies' figure skate on stanchions
Cast steel skate with three brass stanchions, polished alm stock, fitted as no. 10, Norwegian model	​ ​
1880c: 7,00 Kr.
1891: 7,00 Kr. Ladies' skate
1902: taken out of production

Pair of skates XLM.13021 from the collection of Länsmuseum Gävleborg has a sunk heel and two brass stanchions in stead of three. Nevertheless with stamp B. & O. Liberg 28 in the wood stock. 

It seems that Liberg no. 28 was altered between 1870 and circa 1900.

No. 29 - Metal figure skate with two stanchions
Skate with runner model Jackson Haines, fastened at the front as no. 13, at the back as no. 18.
1880c: 7,00 Kr. without description
1891: 7,00 Kr.
1902: taken out of production

No. 30 - Traditional short heeled skate with club toe
	Skates of redpolished beech with foot cap and heel cup; ladies' skate?
	1880c: not described separately
	1891: 4,50 Kr. / always in stock
	1902: taken out of production

Prolonged due to continued success? No. 30 is identical to no. 5, but was executed in cheaper beech.

No. 31 - Ladies' figure skate on three stanchions; with sunk heel
Extra fine ladies' skate
1880c: not separately described!
1891: 14,00 Kr. / only available on order
1902: taken out of production

This skate can be considered a topper among promenade skates.

No. 32 - Metal figure skate with clamp mechanism
	Malmö model
	1880c: not separately described
	1891: 15,00 Kr. / only available on order
	1902: only available on order
	1907: taken out of production

No. 32 is a bit of a stranger. Probably cast in brass bronze. It is a skate with contrasts: the design of the runner is very confessional (hook toe; short heel), while the foot stock and the adjustable heel seem very modern. It is not known why the model is called Malmö. In America, a similar cast iron model was patented by Hawkins (1865) and Shirley (for the connection at the heel in 1861).¹³

No. 33, the most expensive skate in the entire range (prices 1891), is also shown on the front of the Priskurant and is probably made for a major exhibition. This exclusive skate fits perfectly in the category of promenade skates.

No. 33 - Metal figure skate with two stanchions; metal foot plate with sunk heel
Ladies' skate with brass foot plates, extra fine
1880c: not described separately
1891: 20,00 Kr. / only available on order
1902: only available on order
1907: taken out of production

No. 34 - Traditional hook-toed skate
	Iron skates with yellow stocks
	1880c: not described separately
	1891: 1,20 Kr. / always in stock
	1902: taken out of production

Around 1875 Liberg came up with another Norwegian model, a low ladies’ skate in which the club toe turns all the way back to the foot stock. There was apparently not much demand for such a closed curl, because it was only available to order.

No. 35 - Ladies' skate with closed curl and runner that almost goes to the back of the heel
Norwegian model
1880c: not described separately
1891: 5,50 Kr. / only available on order
1902: only available on order
1907: taken out of production

Black page

Liberg's shiny skates stood in stark contrast to the dull misery of the workers. Because of the unhealthy work, there were many illnesses and deaths at Rosenfors, especially among the grinders, almost all of whom suffered from dust lungs.
Anders Lindecrantz, who joined Liberg in 1876, was appointed foreman in 1902 and kept a diary for six years from then on. In a retrospective he wrote that the people at Liberg felt shame towards the other parishioners for the many hearses and funerals.

 

When I arrived at Rosenfors on June 11, 1876, where I had taken a job in the pantry, the director's house had not yet been built and the square in front of the office building had not yet been furnished. It was all pits and stones outside. The workshop consisted only of a house with a forge, where the grinding house is now. Right in front of the director's house, on the elevation where the flagpole stands, there used to be a pub, the 'Dundra Krog'. Closer to the passage to the factory was the saw house, where still were some old apple trees when I arrived. The work in the factory lasted 12 hours a day: from 6 a.m. to half past eight in the evening with half an hour break in the morning and one hour in the afternoon. There were no fans in the grinding and polishing house yet, so all the dust remained in the rooms, which meant that the grinders died early. People with a small lung capacity disappeared within a few years. As a result, there were always incompetent staff, which made the work very difficult for the managers and the controllers.

Deaths were very common. The inhabitants of Husby were used to Hearses from Rosenfors at that time. Because in those days the house where the sick person died was not disinfected, but was only superficially cleaned and there was such a lack of housing that new guests immediately moved into the former home of the dead, the disease was often transmitted by infection¹⁵to the new tenants, who soon succumbed and usually left behind a large family. The number of widows increased by the year and because they rarely left or remarried, they had to work in the factory to support themselves and their children. In the stock department, most of them were engaged in oiling and dusting finished products or turning handles for tools. They also took care of the laundry and housekeeping for the bachelors. These were the black pages in the history of Rosenfors. I still remember a telling and tragicomic incident from that time. On a day when the dust was even thicker than usual in the workspaces, a few employees chosen by the other workers came to ask if something could be done to make it less unhealthy in the workshop. Because, they said, none of us last long in that dust- and smoke-filled air. There are so many funerals that we start to 'feel ashamed' of them. If it continues like this, we'd better get a cemetery on Rosenfors itself so we no longer have to face the other Husby residents.

Sometimes there were a few deaths at a time; then the grinders became worried and left en masse. But soon new workers came in their place, from more distant areas, where the dangerous work of the grinders was not known. Therefore there rarely was a lack of workers.

Blacksmiths and lathe workers just as quick met their demise. They died the same grim death as the grinders, while only a partition had been enough to save them from it. After barely ten years or so, the entire old workforce had died. All the grinders and blacksmiths, with the exception of a few, died of tuberculosis in the prime of their lives, from their twentieth to their fortieth. Only a few made it to the forty-five-plus.

The facilities in the workshops did improve somewhat over time. The workrooms were widened and fans were installed, which functioned well in the beginning.¹⁶

In 1876 Liberg reached an agreement with the municipality of Husby-Rekarne that the factory itself would take responsibility for all the poor among the staff. As a result, the employees could no longer rely on assistance from the municipality. In return, Liberg would pay only half of the municipal taxes due, without having to surrender voting rights, which at the time were linked to the amount of the tax assessment.

All three parties involved benefited from this arrangement. The municipality no longer paid for the care of widows in the poorhouse, nor for the housing of their children with foster families in the parish. Liberg had cheap and grateful labour on the widows - who helped, for example, pack skates - and also saw its tax bill shrink by half. Although the widows after the death of their husband often had to move into a worse home, they were much better off compared to the municipal conditions. They were able to keep their families together, the children grew up in their familiar surroundings and the widows, like the other staff, continued to receive sick care and medicines at the expense of the company. Moreover, although the work was hard and the pay was low, their appointment still gave them a sense of security.¹⁷

No. 36 - In-line skate on two stanchions
	Parlor skates, wheels made of guttapercha, mounted as no. 9
	1880c: 14,00 Kr.
	1891: 15,00 Kr. / only available on order
	1902: only available on order
	1907: taken out of production

No. 37 - In-line skate on two stanchions
Parlor skates, wheels made of guttapercha, mounted as no. 17
1880c: 16,00 Kr.
1891: 17,00 Kr. / Finer parlor skates, available on order
1902: only available on order
1907: taken out of production

Inline skate EM 30742 from the collection of the Eskilstuna City Museum has three stanchions instead of two, as shown in the catalogue.

The parlor skates (nos. 36 and 37) show how much Liberg tried to focus on the foreign market. To my knowledge, there was no skating in halls in Sweden before 1886.¹⁸ 

From this I conclude that the parlor skates were intended for the American (exhibition Philadelphia, 1876?) or the French market (exhibition Paris, 1878?). Of course, they are also proof of the skating craze of those years. That it was not a short-lived fancy is evident from the fact that these inline skates were still available in 1902. 

In 1877 Skogstorp got a daily train connection with Eskilstuna, which was already connected to Stockholm by rail. The station was right in front of the Rosenfors factory and I assume that it was also used for the transport of skates.

At the World Exhibition in Paris in 1878, Liberg – the company employed about sixty workers at that time – was present with scissors, skates, planes and chisels. All products were destined for the domestic market or found their way to Norway, Finland and Denmark.¹⁹

No. 38 - Club-toed skate with runner that ends under the heel
Norwegian model
1880c: not described separately
1891: 9,00 Kr. / only available on order
1902: only available on order
1907: taken out of production

No. 39 - Metal figure skate; spring skate
	English model
	1880c: not separately described
	1891: 10,00 Kr. / only available on order
	1902: only available on order
	1907: taken out of production

With no. 39, it looks a lot like Liberg made an attempt to include all conceivable designs in its range around 1880. Although the description Engelsk modell is very brief, the image offers enough support to identify the skate as the Patent Spring Skate of John and George Rodgers and Thomas Fellows jr. These three English gentlemen had already obtained a patent on this model as early as January 18, 1831(!). Although the whole thing looks like a clap skate, according to the patent description, the springy foot stock was only intended to give the heel of the shoe counterpressure so that it remained in place. What a find! Because of the springy movement that was made with it, the heel strap had to be loose around the instep. In this way, it was indeed possible to keep the entire tread of the runner on the ice during the push off, which must have had the same effect as the clap skate. Around 1840 this skate appealed to the imagination in England because of its light and elegant appearance, but turned out to have all kinds of defects. Apart from the spring, which in certain positions received so much lateral pressure that it sometimes broke off, the square heel was not particularly suitable for skating figures backwards.²⁰

About twenty years after Fiskars, Liberg was the second Scandinavian skate maker to venture into the model, which was in fact already outdated by then. Its introduction illustrates once again that Liberg did not listen well enough to the figure skaters! They had already converted to the rockers, figure skates with a slightly extended and rounded heel, and also to clamp skates that were on the rise.

Why did Liberg, who adjusted the model somewhat (heel cup instead of pin), still put this model into production after all this time? Was it an attempt to be complete? Was it a challenge for the makers? Was it a matter of status? Did they want to score with it at an exhibition? Did competitors have to be beaten? Or was there really a demand for this skate? The latter hardly seems realistic. We rather get the idea that the company experienced a period of prosperity and success in which the sky was the limit.

No. 40 - Metal figure skate with heel mechanism
Without description
1880c: not described separately
1891: 7,00 Kr. / only available on order
1902: only available on order
1907: taken out of production

The method of binding for no. 40 is difficult to fathom. The heel seems to be a system that had to click into the shoe.

No. 41 - Metal figure skate with lever mechanism
	American model
	1880c: 10,00 Kr.
	1891: 3,75 Kr. / American model (Halifax) always in stock and available in various versions (41A, B, C en D) and quality. Price ranging from 2,15 tot 5,25 Kr.
	1902: always in stock and available in various versions (41 A, B, C en D) and quality
	1907: taken out of production

For no. 41, all kinds of fittings were available separately.

No. 42 - Metal figure skate with clamp mechanism
1880c: not yet included in the range
1891: 13,00 Kr. / only available on order
1902: only available on order
1907: taken out of production

This was the last model from the Liberg catalogue of around 1880, which as a 'picture book' gives a unique overview of the development of skate models between 1860 and 1880. The data from two price lists (circa 1880 and 1891) make it possible to classify the skates. With the insight in availability in 1891, 1902 and 1907, we get some idea whether and for how long a model was common. It is clear that new designs were almost continuously included in the range and that they all remained available at least until 1891. A comparison with catalogues of American skate makers from the same period tells us that Liberg's range was not only wider, but also more varied, although racing skates, for example, were still completely missing.

Nevertheless, the development of new models would take such a flight that between 1902 and 1907 all the above 42 numbers were taken out of circulation. The beautiful catalogue from around 1880 was no longer useful and could be thrown away. And that apparently happened! The copy of the Royal Library in Stockholm, which I have used so gratefully, is - as far as is known - the only one that has been preserved.

The Liberg story is continued in period 1880-1920.

Anonymous blacksmith from Gävleborgs land, Sweden (circa 1865)

The hook-toed skates from Länsmuseum Gävleborg (XLM.00447) are well forged and stamped HÖGBO-BESSEMER-STÅL. This inscription reveals both the age and the origin of the steel.

Bessemer steel 

The Bessemer process is a production method for obtaining steel from pig iron in a blast furnace.
In the Bessemer process, which was developed in 1856 by the British Henry Bessemer (1813-1898), the excess carbon is oxidized by blowing air through the molten pig iron. In addition, the carbon burns into carbon dioxide in the air stream, so that the carbon acts as fuel for the process. Once the process is underway, it maintains itself without further addition of fuel. So it is an economic process.

 

Source: Wikipedia

Bessemer steel was introduced to Sweden by Göran Fredrik Göransson, a decisive entrepreneur from Gävle and one of the co-owners of Högbo Bruk. He bought the rights to the Bessemer process for Sweden and Norway. From 1858, the workers in the blast furnace of Edske, which was affiliated with Högbo, succeeded in casting usable Bessemer steel.

The technology caught on and soon the ironworks in Högbo turned out to be too small for large-scale production. About six kilometers to the south, a new factory was set up at a sandy arm of the Storsjön, which was named Sandviken. Production started there from 1862, first under the name Högbo Stål & Jernverks AB and from 1868 as Sandvikens Jernverk (ironworks).¹

The company still exists and nowadays (2022) Sandvik AB is a major international player in the metal industry, which still supplies steel for skates.²

If we go by the stamp in the hook-toed skate from the Länsmuseum, the runner would have been made between 1858 and 1868, the period in which steel was produced under this name first in Högbo and then in Sandviken.³

Probably the ready-made runner was purchased by a skilled skatemaker or carpenter in the province of Gävleborgs land. The combination of runner and foot stock gives the impression of a factory-made product.

The shape of the wooden foot stock is striking. With the protruding nose, the rectangular foot plate and the bell-shaped heel, it is very similar to that of skates that were common in the southern Blekinge.

Anonymous peasant smith from Gjesdal, Norway (circa 1865)

In the rural Gjesdal, Jæren provsti (an administrative ecclesiastical area), south of Stavanger, where mainly sheep were kept and wool was spun, ironworking increased considerably in the course of the 19th century. This was remarkable because raw materials such as iron and coal do not occur naturally here. Around 1865 there were no less than eighteen blacksmiths and apprentices active, of which a dozen made scythes. Together they accounted for about 8,000 scythes a year, which were sold throughout southern Norway. The scythes dropped half in price over the years.

Only one gårdmand (peasant with a farm of his own) was involved in making skates together with his two sons, on average about 50 pairs a year. We can assume that these were traditional models with gutter for use in the environment. Per day this peasant blacksmith could produce about one and a half pairs to 72 skilling per pair. For skates with double gutter, which were made exclusively to order, 84 skilling per pair had to be paid.

Thanks to precise research by Gabriel Edland, a farmer's son from the area itself, we can use the production figures he has given to make a price comparison between scythes and skates.¹ All prices are in skilling.

^{* depreciation and labour costs are taken from scythes}

So you could earn roughly the same amount of money from making a scythe as from a pair of skates (with gutter), but because the demand for scythes was considerably greater, there were many more scythe makers than skate makers. In addition to their main product, all blacksmiths in the Gjesdal also made by-products, such as tools and horseshoes.

J.K. Kjennerud, Kongsberg, Norway (circa 1865)

J.K. Kjennerud from Kongsberg, at the time a worker in a weapons factory, was the maker of a simple curl skate with violin-shaped foot stock, and a short-heeled runner.¹

The small curl could have been a snabel (hook toe) that was bent back for safety reasons.

Lars Svensson, Östra Bodarna near Alingsås, Sweden (1866)

The pair of skates AM 1696 from the collection of Alingsås Museum is said to have been manufactured in 1866 by Lars Svensson from Österbodarne (Östra Bodarna).

According to the person who brought in the skates in 1936, Svensson sold his skates in different parts of the country.

Jöns Östblom, Axmarby, Sweden (1869)

According to the Länsmuseet Gävleborg, the pair of skates XLM.00444 was made in 1869 by Jöns Östblom, a house owner from Axmarby, about 200 km north of Stockholm. The year of manufacture is indicated in one skate, but it is not clear by whom and when this inscription was made.

Jöns Östblom's skate was part of an exhibition in the museum in 1940.

Rifle maker H.C. Lie, Lierfoss, Aurskog, Norway (circa 1870)

Rifle maker Lie, who worked in Lierfoss, in the district of Aurskog, about fifty kilometers east of Oslo, must have had a certain reputation. This is evident, among other things, from an article in Festskrift, in which he is given the floor under the heading Skøiteindustri i Urskog omkring 1870:

Before I came, there was no trained craftsman in this municipality. I had first been apprenticed for three years with my father, rifle maker Lie in the Gudbrandsdal and later a year with Myrvold in Kristiania, one of the best rifle makers there was.

The runners of my skates were 40 cm long and 3 mm thick. They were steeled, well hardened and finely polished (pudset). The runner had a gutter that ran from the back to the center. At the front, the runner was slightly bent. The skates had birch foot stocks; they were low and the runner was straight, so they were real racing skates.

The price ranged from 1 Daler to 6 Mark. People thought they were too expensive, but I did not earn much from them, because making them was a lot of work. Further on in Åsnes (about 100 km northeast of Lierfoss) was someone who made cheaper skates (jernbleier) and he sold a lot of them. But when it came to races, only my skates were good enough.

I made skates for the famous storflyer Ole Syvertsen from Lillestrøm, old Thomassen, Johan Olsen Dingsrud, Anders Waaler, Andreas A. Lie and another lot of good skaters from Odal and Aurskog, who I no longer remember.¹

Ole Syvertsen: adorning himself with borrowed plumes?
On March 7, 1886, a race over 5000 meters was held on the sea ice of Frognerkilen in Christiania. The youngster Harald Hagen broke through and won in 10 minutes. 23 sec. But the approximately 6,000 spectators cheered loudest for the 58-year-old Ole Syvertsen from Lillestrømmen, who took more than three minutes longer, but nevertheless got into the paper:

 

His skates were somewhat primitive; they were those old '‘snudeskøjter’², which were fastened with rope. Nevertheless, he kept his pace very well and stood out for his fine, calm and even stroke. After the referee had shouted 'stop', the old man skated another lap and hardly seemed tired.³

It earned Syvertsen a cream scoop as an extra price.⁴

That same 'old man', whom we met earlier as a youngster in connection with Skjølli's scythe skates, would last a long time, as evidenced by a photo from 1912. He was 81 at the time and – still on his loyal old snudeskøjter – participated in a competition for seniors.

Syvertsen later donated his skates to the skating museum in Oslo. They would have been made by himself 'from the best materials’⁵ This statement seems to make sense, because as a snekker (furniture maker) Syvertsen was certainly capable of doing so. Nevertheless, the skating museum attributes his skates to bøssemaker (rifle maker) H.C. Lie from Lierfoss, late 1860s.⁶

 

I take it that H.C. Lie was the maker of Syvertsen's skates, although we cannot completely rule out that it was a co-production, in which Lie took care of the runners and Syvertsen took care of the wooden footplates. It is of course also possible that Syvertsen provided the runners with new wooden foot stocks at a later stage.

Lie, who also took part in races around 1870⁷, probably took inspiration from the popular model from the region after his arrival in Lierfoss. In any case, his skate is unmistakably similar to the Odaler, with the main difference that he extended the runner a little further behind the heel. The half-gutter he spoke of was not characteristic of Odaler sletskøiter either. Although we do not know exactly when Lie settled in Lierfoss, it seems almost impossible that the Odalers who so surprisingly dominated the races in Christiania in 1863, were already using his skates.

Anonymous skate maker from Åsnes, north-east of Lierfoss, Norway (1870-1880?)

According to skate maker H.C. Lie from Lierfoss there was someone in Åsnes who made ‘jernbleier’. Cheaper skates, of which he sold many, but which were of lower quality.¹

Carl Viktor Forsbom, Eskilstuna, Sweden (circa 1870-1876)

Forsbom (1826-1887) was mentioned as a maker of clasp-knives in a 1876-survey of industrialists in Eskilstuna. He had his workshop at  gård no. 157, now Kungsgatan 33. Three to four employees of his made knives as well as skates of unknown model.

Forsbom stopped his own production in 1876 and became a commission agent for blacksmiths from Eskilstuna.¹

G. Forsberg, Stockholm, Sweden (1875-1879)

G. Forsberg from Stockholm was the creator of the promenade skate with sliding heel that was meant to be for Kungliga Skridskoklubben in Copenhagen.

On April 3, 1877, he sold the skate, which incorporates a snake and deer, to Nordiska Museum in Stockholm.

Rifle maker S. Pedersen, Christiania/Oslo, Norway (circa 1870-1885?)

In the 1870s good figure skaters from Christiania (Oslo) were no longer satisfied with the imported figure skates from Germany and England.
S. Pedersen, blacksmith and korpsbøssemaker (rifle maker for the army) in the Øvre Slotsgate, probably was the first Norwegian to make and advertise figure skates.¹

In an interview, Axel Paulsen and his pupil Theodor Rasch qualify skate maker Pedersen afterwards as 'the oldest, the first and the best', but at the international competitions in Vienna (1882) Paulsen skated on a product of competitor Støren, who used special skate steel from England.²

Pedersen and his contemporaries used rolled steel with a hardness suitable for skating from Næs Jernverk in Tvedestrand in southern Norway. In addition to skate steel, a whole range of products, up to cannons for whaling, came from there at the time.³

I have not been able to find Pedersen's skates. Although his advertisement from 1883 mentions stalskøiter (steel skates), we cannot rule out that they still had a wooden foot plate.

T.A. Thorsson, Eskilstuna, Sweden (circa 1877)

In a Swedish trade calendar from 1877-78, T.A. Thorsson is mentioned as a locksmith who also produced skates.¹

As with his contemporary Forsbom, also from Eskilstuna, we do not know which type they were.