Wooden Roller Skate Wheels

Have you ever seen vintage roller skates with wooden wheels? They happned to be the best indoor skate wheels for multiple decades of our past. The first known wheels for roller skates were made of wood, primarily boxwood. Later maple and oak were used. Other materials they used for wheels was ivory, copper or iron-stainless steel. French inventor Petitbled designed a roller skate in France in 1819 with wooden, metal, or ivory rollers. Rubber wheels were introduced on the Woodward skate in 1852.

In 1863 James Plimpton designed the first roller skate using two sets of parallel wheels. One set in the front of the skate and the other in the back of the skate. The wheels were attached to the boot using trucks. This would be known as the first quad skate. This style of skate allowed you to navigate turns. Quad skates then became the popular style of skating. Wooden wheels remained popular until about 1910.

Today's wheels are made from various synthetic formulations depending on the amount of hardness desired. In the 1960’s polyurethane became the wheel of choice and still is. Softer wheels are slower but grip the floor better and harder wheels are faster but are slippery. Pictured is a newer Sure-Grip designed wood wheel.

Wood wheels had their time in the 1800's and 1900's but in the 2000's I beleive polyurethane wheels have taken over for good.

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