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Tips on Waxing/Sharpening?
Posts: 292
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I've only just started to wax and sharpen my own skis. I've always gotten my buddies at the shops to do it or any friends I can coerce.
Thus far my results have been mixed. I tried the simple rub on wax (No Iron) with little success. I've been trying out Iron-on for about a week or so but every time I go out it seems like I did something wrong, or that something is just off.
I ski 172 05/06 Chronics, with center mounted Bindings.
Any tips you guys could offer would be most appreciated
Posts: 6072
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Swix has some videos of how to iron on wax on their site, I learned the basics through there. It seems pretty easy, where are you messing up?
I dunno about sharpening, I haven't bothered with that personally.
Posts: 292
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Karma: 10
I think i am messing up in the center, my tips feel about right, but I think I should be doing something different in the middle.
Thanks for the site though, I'll go check that out.
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Its really quite simple. First off to do a legit job you will need a wax iron, i got one for about 20 bucks at a ski shop. Then just get some kind of all temp wax or if you are really into it get specific temps and mix them or just know the forecasts and wax accordingly. You will also need a wax scraper and brush, or if you dont have a wax brush a scotchbrite pad will work just fine.
Alright, first off you will want to hold your brakes back with a rubber band, usually ski shops will give you a few for free. Next you will want to heat up your iron and pick what wax you are going to use. Once the iron is hot drip wax across the length of your skis, but remember that you dont need all that much, just put enough on to do an even thin coat. Next you will want to spread the wax around with your iron. I usually will do small passes, and push the wax all the way to the edges. Make sure to keep the iron moving, you dont want to melt your bases. Once you have the wax covering all of the ski I will usually do one last slow and steady pass across the whole ski to smooth it out. Now you are going to want to let the wax sit for as long as possible, overnight if possible to let it really sink into the pores of your bases. Then, take the scraper that i mentioned earlier and get all, and i do mean all of the wax off your bases. I think this might be where you are feeling that it is done incorrectly. If you have a bunch of left over wax on your edges it will be impossible to carve, so make sure to get it all off. After you have done a pretty decent job with the scraper go ahead and hit it up with the scotch brite pad. this will remove anything the scraper missed as well as get into the base structure of your skis and open them up so when you ski the melted snow can flow down the ski more easily and make you go faster. After you have gotten rid of the last of the wax you will be ready to rip.
That is pretty much what i do for my skis, every once in a while i will scrape a coat of wax off while it is hot to remove dirt from the bases, but thats about it.
Hope this helps, let me know if you are still confused and good luck.
Posts: 792
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that's pretty much it for waxing. any iron will do- i use a walmart one.
to keep your skis sharp between tunes, i'd recommend getting a medium coarseness diamond stone. deburr your edges before everytime you go ride (unless you hit rails, then you probably would want to detune them with the stone). they're about fifteen bucks and make your tune feel fresh for a lot longer.
if you want to really get into tuning, there is a lot to learn. start here- www.tognar.com and buy a how to video. there's a lot of good information if you google ski tuning.
go fast
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