Skis: Ash or Hickory Planks Shaped to an 8 ft Pattern, Steam-Bent Tips and a Running Groove (Boy Mechanic, 1919)

"Either hickory or ash will give satisfaction, because both are heavy woods, as well as strong and flexible." For a man of good height, 7 to 8 ft is the right length.

Get two ash or hickory planks about 9 ft long and 2 in thick, from the outside of the lower trunk, with the grain running as in his Fig. 6, A/D (in ash choose open, widely spaced grain). Or split a sound, straight tree about 10 in across and clear of knots for 10 ft: axe a straight groove about 1 in deep along each side and drive small wood wedges along it; hew only enough off the outside to make the flat running surface.

Make a paper pattern from his Fig. 5 (8 ft ski): 3-3/8 in wide at the heel, 3-1/8 in at the foot, 4 in at the bend, rounding to the toe. Trace it on the plank and saw out; on green wood make the width about 1/4 in greater for shrinkage.

Plane the running surface perfectly smooth, grain straight from point to heel. Work the thickness down from the top side only, never the bottom: about 1/2 in at the heel, 3/4 in at the foot and 1/2 in at the bend.

Lay the ski over a wash boiler of boiling water and soak the tip by mopping it with the water on a cloth tied to a stick. Bend gradually over many treatments to a good 6 in bend (it finishes near 5 in, as the wood straightens a little as it dries). Hold it in a rough frame over a short log, or lash or cleat the tips to the bench, as in his Fig. 7. The arch under the foot is easily put in, and easily straightened when cold if overdone.

Put in the hole for the foot binding. If the wood was left long, trim the heel so the ski balances when lifted by the toe straps (he sees no advantage in weighting a light heel with lead). Cut a groove in the exact centre of the running surface, about 1/8 in deep and 3/8 to 1/2 in wide, from the heel to the start of the bend, with a grooving plane or a small gouge.

Sandpaper top and bottom and rub down with linseed oil with a little paraffin or beeswax in it; oil and wax the running surface (spar varnish on the tops if you want gloss). For a hard wax, melt 10 oz of beeswax with 5 oz of rosin, stir in 1 oz of turpentine and pour into small boxes. Rub it on and go over it with a hot flatiron; too much wax makes climbing hard.

From "How to Make Skis" by Stillman Taylor, in **The Boy Mechanic, Book 3**, Popular Mechanics, 1919 (Project Gutenberg 71856; checked on the archive.org scan boymechanic0003unse, pp. 27-30). His text gives the groove as 3/8 to 1/2 in wide; Fig. 5 shows 3/8 in. He does not describe the binding. The tools and metric figures are ours.