Wood Skate Guards

I know it sometimes seems like the rink guards are wooden headed, but I'm talking about skate guards. Yes, the plastic thingies you put on your blades so you can tromp around. These were actually made of wood up until sometimes in the 60s. I first read about these in the book "I can teach you to figure skate" by Tina Noyes.

I've seen these with the customer's name painted or carved on

Don't these seem classy? One problem. They rotted.

Urgh!

So when plastic guards were invented, people dumped the wooden ones right away. I've got some serious issues about plastic blade guards, but they are an improvement over the wood ones.

But I recently came across some wood ones on Etsy. I think the guy who makes them thinks blade guards are used for storing the skates. I don't think these are walkable. They don't have any clips, instead they use magnets. The curve up front is too shallow to really walk in. Maybe if he changed the front end to something like the other guards pictured above, and curved the bottom a little, these might be walkable, and a cute gift for the skater who has everything.  It would be super cool if the skater's name was painted on the side.

On the plus side they're probably waterproofed.
They have an exterior grade finish.

Ever hear the story of how Maribel Vinson Owens used to whack Frank Carroll with a skate guard? Now you understand why after 50 years he still remembers it. He was getting whacked with two pieces of wood!