how often do you wax

[Trekchick]

Originally Posted by severine

I'll admit to being an infrequent waxer. Basically, I wait until I feel a difference. Unless you're a ski racer or have a mad steezy ski day count, I don't think it makes a huge difference for the vast majority of people whether you wax frequently or not.

Severine, its more about the longevity of the bases before it becomes necessary to grind than it is about feel. If you clean your ski bases and keep a good quality coat of wax on them, you'll avoid base burn,which means you will not likely have to do a grind for a looooong time.

I use a stone to touch up burrs on my edges but I dont' tune them thoroughly very often because, IMHO it takes a lot of material off. Once or twice a year at most for tuning(outside of the basic edge clean up)

[Marc]

I've still yet any explain to me exactly what "base burn" is.

[Paul]

Originally Posted by Marc

I've still yet any explain to me exactly what "base burn" is.

Its when the base gets a burn. Sheesh!

[bvibert]

Originally Posted by Paul

Its when the base gets a burn. Sheesh!

BURN!

[Trekchick]

Originally Posted by Marc

I've still yet any explain to me exactly what "base burn" is.

Ooooof, sorry!
Base burn is when your ski bases have an appearance of being overly dry, and somewhat flakey(not really flakey, but for lack of a better term. )
On a black base, it would almost appear gray-ish, and would be dry/rough to the touch as you rub your hand across the base.
Its caused by the friction/heat that is directly against the bases due to lack of wax.

[Paul]

Originally Posted by Trekchick

Ooooof, sorry!
Base burn is when your ski bases have an appearance of being overly dry, and somewhat flakey(not really flakey, but for lack of a better term. )
On a black base, it would almost appear gray-ish, and would be dry/rough to the touch as you rub your hand across the base.
Its caused by the friction/heat that is directly against the bases due to lack of wax.

Careful there, Trek...

Marc's post may look tempting....

[bvibert]

Originally Posted by Paul

Careful there, Trek...

Marc's post may look tempting....

Too late, she just opened a whole can-o-worms...

[Greg]

Originally Posted by Paul

Careful there, Trek...

Marc's post may look tempting....

Yep. He's sure to reply with all sorts of technical mumbojumbo and words like poly-ethyl somethingorother. He may even draw up some sort of diagram...

[Marc]

So what exactly, chemically, happens to the polyethylene? Or is it a strictly mechanical phenomenon? In which case, the bases would just have lots of small scratches. I don't see how this could happen as, at least in the case of utlra high molecular weight polyethylene, the material has higher abrasion resistance than stainless steel....

[wa-loaf]

I know Marc will talk about base material being stable and what not, but how do you explain that my wifes skis that sat unused for a couple year looked dried out and were definitely concave (and had not been when left in the basement)?