Today, i want to share what i just saw on NRK (the norwegian TV). The TV programm was about making telemark skis as the first men did. The first skis were made in Morgedal (valley of Morge) situated in the so-called region Telemark. This place is situated inbetween Oslo and Stavanger in the very south of Norway. This is one of the most mountaineous region in Norway. It is also nowadays a wellknown place for climbing ( Nissedal and Hægefjell) and iceclimbing (Rjukan and Hemsedal).
The first skis were made out of pine wood. One long piece of wood without knurl was chopped along the fibers. The front was the widest part, the middle was the narrowest where the feet laid and the back was about inbetween. They dug a hole in the middle of the ski, perpendicular to the gliding direction thus they can insert the binding.
Then they took a side profile so they could draw the height on the skiside that was basically really thin at the back, thick in the middle and without profile in the very front for a reason i will explain later on. Thanks to an ax, they took off the extra material they didn’t need in the direction of the fiber. When the profile was shaped, they could sculpt the front part as a customised one and like a craftman signature or as the user demanded it. All skis were customised before and made only once for each individuals as we should do again !
The spatula was then taken at the top of a bucket filled up with hot water and covered by a small piece of clothe. Thus the moist penetrated the wood and allowed the craftman to bend the spatula after 30min of this treatment. The ski was put in the bending vise until it cooled down. Then they used joung birch ( bjørk in norwegian) to build the bindings. 2 to 3 of them were braid together as they made strong, durable and flexible bindings. One of this arch was put around the back of the shoe and two of them at the top front of it. Usual shoes were fitted in to be used as transport mean in the deep fresh snow of the cold norwegian winter. That is why the heel was motion free. Some products impregnated the wood for the gliding under and for the durability over it.
Telemark skis were originally the only existing skis before firms came up with plenty different sorts of very specialised skis as we know them now.
The informations above originate mainly from this norvegian speaking tv programm but you can get some aditionnal information on the following links :
Skiing musem in Morgedal :
http://www.morgedal.com/en/activities/ski-museum
The website of Morgedal commune with pictures of skis and map :
http://www.morgedal.com
admin