Wooden Skates: Twin Hardwood Runners Under a Strapped Board (Boy Mechanic, 1915)

"Skates that will take the place of the usual steel-runner kind and which will prevent spraining of the ankles, can be made of a few pieces of 1/2-in. hardwood boards."

From 1/2 in hardwood, cut four runners 2 in wide at the back and 1-1/2 in wide at the front, each 2 in longer than the shoe. Shape the front ends as in his figure.

Nail the top edges of a pair of runners to the underside of a board 4 in wide, at its edges. Fasten a block 2 in wide between the runners at the rear and one 1 in wide in front. Bore the runners and put two bolts through, one just behind the front block and one in front of the rear block.

Fasten four triangular pieces on top, one at each corner, so the heel and toe of the shoe fit between them; if you like, nail a crosspiece in front of the heel. Attach straps to the sides to fasten the skate to the shoe. Make the second skate the same.

From "Skates Made of Wood" by F. E. Kennar, in **The Boy Mechanic, Book 2**, Popular Mechanics, 1915 (Project Gutenberg 44585; checked on the archive.org scan boymechanicbook200chic2, p. 30). The scan says hardwood boards; the Gutenberg text drops "hardwood". He gives no sizes for the bolts, straps or corner pieces. The tools and metric figures are ours.