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Ice skates made for skating straight forward are called speed skates. Dedicated speed skates should be light yet sufficient sturdy for transferring a maximum of physical power to the ice surface. The Norwegian skaters Paulsen and Hagen therefore experimented already around 1890 with blades that were completely supported by light weight tubular frames and fixed boots. Their ideas are still valid. As in the Netherlands touring on ice is a very popular people's sport practised by young and old, poor and rich and as the Netherlands did not have a metalworking industry of any importance until after World War II hundreds of thousands of relatively cheap ice skates with wooden platforms have been made by local blacksmiths in winter seasons when agricultural activities came to a pause. Only after the middle of the 20th century all-metal speed skates became the standard in the Netherlands as well. |
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