Eileen Seigh holding a pair of wooden skate guards at the 1947 World Championships
"It was raining in torrents and the ice was covered with nearly an inch and a half of water," recalled World Champion Jacqueline du Bief. "The loud speaker having announced me, I sprang forward with all my force. Alas! I had forgotten to take off my rubber skate guards and I made my entrance flat on my stomach, shooting across the rink from one end to the other and leaving in a wake a big wash and a multitude of little waves. I sat up, calmly took off the guards responsible for my unorthodox entrance and, after placing them on the edge of the rink, I wrung out my skirt to get rid of the water. The public, which had been silent until that moment, gave a great shout of laughter and began to applaud madly... and before I had taken my first step on the Vienna rink, we were good friends." On December 17, 1939, a member of the Ice Club of Chicago named Jeannette (Lay) Le Mar wasn't so lucky. She stepped on the ice without removing her skate guards and died suddenly as a result of her subsequent fall. Fortunately, Jeannette's tragic death was an isolated incident. As it turns out, the largely ignored history of one item in a skater's bag that is often overlooked - the skate guard - is quite interesting.
The image that we conjure up of a nineteenth century skater slinging their skate blades over their shoulder and trudging through the snow before attaching them to their boots and skating outdoors on a pond is pretty accurate. Skaters of the early Victorian era weren't hauling rolly bags out of their carriages and walking out to the ice on rubber mats wearing skate guards. The only 'skate protection' that really existed until late in the nineteenth century were smart carrying bags.
Frederick Whit-Gould's Patent Skate Protector. Photo courtesy "The Weekly Telegraph", 1896.
The first known 'skate blade protector' was patented by an inventor from Regent's Park in London, England, named Frederick Whit-Gould in the year 1895. An article that appeared in the "Field" on December 28 of that year noted, "The protector consists of a sheath made of india-rubber, which is easily slipped onto the skate blade, and so protects it from injury when be carried and swung about. It will be invaluable to those who have occasionally to walk with their skates from one piece of ice to another; and to obviate slipping the bottom of the sheath is corrugated... They will be... extremely usual to the figure skater, who nowadays invariably has his skates fixed permanently to his boots; as they enable him to stamp the foot well into the boot before lacing. As most skaters use vaseline to preserve their skate blades from rust, we thought that this would render the rubber sticky, but the manufacturers (Messrs Purser and Co., 92 Hatton garden) informs us that the rubber used is specifically made to resist the action of grease. The protectors are obtainable at all india-rubber dealers and skate vendors and the price per pair is 2s." Unfortunately, he died only thirteen years later, at the age of fifty, never having seen his clever idea achieve great popularity. During the Edwardian era, a sporting goods store in Manchester called Mitchell & Co., which specialized in lawn tennis, fishing, and cricket gear, began selling Skate Blade Guards made of leather. In the years that followed, a company called Fagan made quite a trade out of selling leather guards in England.
Top: Advertisement for Mitchell's Skate Blade Guards. Bottom: Diagram from Alfred K. Johnson's 1920 'skate guard improvement' patent.
In 1920 and 1925, Alfred K. Johnson of Chicago patented two improvements on Frederick Whit-Gould's design. Skate guards began to be widely marketed by his brother Nestor's Manufacturing Company, already well-known for designing their own line of skates called 'Johnsons'. In one of his patent applications, Alfred K. Johnson noted, "These guards are commonly made of leather so they will not dull the skate when the user walks around. The guards are commonly a foot or more in length, and hence it is desirable to fold them when not in use so they may be put in the users pocket. This folding or bending has, however, been difficult heretofore because the leather of which the guard is composed is necessarily thick and consequently rather stiff; hence the guard does not bend readily and if forced to bend is apt to crack. The purpose of my invention is to increase the flexibility of the guard so that it may be readily bent double with very little effort and without danger of damaging the article." Johnson faced some competition locally from Harry H. Kaskey, who patented a similar 'skate scabbard' in 1928 which was sold by F.W. Planert & Sons.
1929 advertisement from Planert catalog showing Harry H. Kaskey's 'skate scabbards'
In July 1930, Charles I. Johnson of Chicago filed for a patent for a 'guard for skate runners' on behalf of the Nestor Johnson Manufacturing Company. Interestingly, by this time, Alfred K. Johnson had left his brother Nestor's company and formed the rival Alfred Johnson Skate Company. The Nestor Johnson Manufacturing Company's 'guard for skate runners' proposed using rubber or "other suitable elastic material... in one piece [to simplify] the construction, enabling the guard to be readily and easily put on and taken off the runner, and also permitting the guard by reason of its resilient character to snugly grip the runner when applied thereto, and moreover permit stretching of the guard to fit different lengths of runners and adjust itself thereto."
Diagram from Thomas R. Barnard's 1939 patent application.
Nestor Johnson died in 1950, and the next year Alfred K. Johnson's company went under. But by that point, neither of the Johnson brothers' stakes in the skate guard trade really mattered. In November of 1939, Thomas W. Barnard of St. Paul, Minnesota patented his own unique brand of skate guards, fashioned of wood.
Photos courtesy "Skating" magazine
Thomas W. Barnard's timing was perfect, owing to large-scale World War II shortages of natural rubber when the Japanese quickly conquered the rubber-producing regions in Southeast Asia. Barnard's wooden "skate guards" were a huge hit with figure skaters, who would get their name and skating club engraved in them so as not to mix them up in the dressing rooms. The cost in 1942 was two dollars and seventy-five cents and they sold like hot cakes. Also popular during wartime were the Cryst-O-Guards designed by Betty and Bill Wade. Manufactured by the NuLine Manufacturing Company in Chicago, these adjustable guards were made of lucite, an acrylic resin often used in shoe manufacturing.
Skate guards from Olympiad Skate Company in St. Paul, Minnesota
In the years that followed, countless patents were filed for skate guards made of everything from wood and rawhide to rubber to plastic, with numerous variations in designs. Some had collapsible hinges; others had notches and adjustable plastic straps.
Photo courtesy "Ice Skating" magazine
By 1946, the "National Skating Guide" listed over twenty American companies that manufactured skate guards. The popular Walkon Guards, distributed by Grove Hardware in Kansas, were made of plastic and 'strong fiber' with an aluminum core. A novel DIY project even appeared in the Junior Hobby Club column of the "Buffalo Evening News" in January of 1957, instructing young people on how to sew their own 'soakers' out of old blankets.
Though wooden, rubber, and leather skate guards may seem foreign to the skaters of today, they were all the rage at one point in time. Such has always been the case in skating. Trends wax and wane, but the general underlying concept of 'what works' will evolve but retain its original character.
Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.
Photo courtesy "Skating World" magazine
Though wooden, rubber, and leather skate guards may seem foreign to the skaters of today, they were all the rage at one point in time. Such has always been the case in skating. Trends wax and wane, but the general underlying concept of 'what works' will evolve but retain its original character.
Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.