Skating Gimlets

Wirtz, Virginia - When we received and read Bob Roger's A Guide to Gimlets yesterday, we were particularly intrigued by the use of gimlets in ice skating. Bob cites an 1860 The Living Age article "Concerning the Worries of Life" in a description of a woman preparing to ice skate "...Don't bore that hole in the heel of the boot too deep, you may penetrate to something more sensitive in leather..." He says that gimlets were used to bore a hole in the middle of the wooden boot heel to attach and fasten the skate. We dug into The Daily Screw postcard archives and found this Christmas skating scene:

We could never figure out why a corkscrew was laying on the ice. Now we know it is a gimlet and not a corkscrew! The postcard was mailed to Gladys Hudson in Waterloo, England in 1913.

Digging a little further we found a card depicting a uniformed female putting on her boots. And there on the floor is another what we thought was a stray corkscrew. A gimlet perhaps? And for what purpose?

We are truly fascinated Bob's new publication. Email him at toolman@rica.net

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