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Wax

Dr Skimeister

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Nov 3, 2005
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I wound up buying 1000g of Swix universal wax from www.tognar.com. It comes as a big bag of wax pellets. I melted some down in a Pyrex bowl on the stovetop until it was liquified. Once It cooled, I carved three bars out of the bowl.

Looks like the bag of pellets will last a long time. :)
 

mlctvt

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Mar 24, 2006
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As I've posted before, I'm a HUGE fan of stuntwax (www.stuntwax.com). Great stuff across almost all temps/humidity/snow crystal structure. Great longevity - you can go 3 full days 25-30 runs and still have good wax protection, and they DON'T want you to scrape!!! :)

Do you do a full hot wax job, iron and all , every 3 days out? I do mine about twice a year with applications of liquid wax very other day. I'm just trrying to figure out what I "should" be doing. When I bring my skis in for a yearly tune the guys at the ski shop always say my skis are in good shape and there is still wax on the bases.
 

drjeff

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Do you do a full hot wax job, iron and all , every 3 days out? I do mine about twice a year with applications of liquid wax very other day. I'm just trrying to figure out what I "should" be doing. When I bring my skis in for a yearly tune the guys at the ski shop always say my skis are in good shape and there is still wax on the bases.

I pretty much tune my familes skis every weekend(basically every 3 days on snow). My wife and I just like the fresh glide and when needed, a fresh edge. As for my daughters skis, well tuning a pair of 100cm skis just doesn't take very long at all ;)

"Should" be doing, is a personal preference. If you're using liquid wax every other day, that should keep the bases "moist" with wax and oxidation free, thus giving you better glide, especially in the flat sections and on wet snow. Then it just gets down to what do the edges feel like to you???? If you have a noticeable improvement in edge grip just after a tune, then you might want to increase the frequency of getting the edges done. As for wax still being present. Most skis even after ALOT of days on the snow will still have wax present in the middle of the ski base. Where you'll find the base is skied out of wax is in the 1/2" to maybe 1" of base surface immediately adjacent to the edge. That's where your bases spend more time in contact with the snow, and where the bases "dry out" first. It's very easy to see if you have black bases, where this strip of base next to the edge will have a grayish/ frosted appearance compared to a deeper black/shinier appearance in the middle. A really dry base will also start to have little almost hair like pieces in the dried out area, these will affect your glide, most noticeably in the flats and wet snow situations :eek:
 

bvibert

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I actually recommend a regular rock structuring of one's base. Mine last got done courtesy of the Washington auto road.

I just structured the bases of my bump skis using brick, then rock... After Greg suggested that we could ski back to our car after a night of skiing. He was right, the perfect mix of snow and abrasive surfaces to get the job done. I had previously not considered the use of brick since rock is what most commonly available.
 

derek

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Feb 28, 2007
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hey stuntwax people,

What do you use to clean and prep your base with? They recommend scraping every 3 or 4 tunes. Their website mentions a base prep wax but I can not seem to locate it anywhere? Thanks.
 

drjeff

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hey stuntwax people,

What do you use to clean and prep your base with? They recommend scraping every 3 or 4 tunes. Their website mentions a base prep wax but I can not seem to locate it anywhere? Thanks.

I just do a "hot scrape" with some of the large supply of warm weather wax that I've acquired over the years to clean and prep the base. All yuo need to do to hot scrape the wax, is wax in as usual, then without giving the ski a chance to fully cool, as soon as the iron leaves the ski base, pick up your scraper and scrape until you can't get anymore to scrape off, reheat the base with the iron(without adding any new wax) and scrape again, repeat until not residual wax is.

All that base prep wax is is essentially a soft, parafin based wax that's non temperature specific. In a bind, any warm temp, soft wax will do.
 
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