Ski Tuning

[JimG.]

Reliable Racing is another company that sells a ton of tuning gear.

 

[skidbump]

http://www.tognar.com

 

[beswift]

For waxing I will typically clean the bases with either just a clean rag or some base cleaner. After cleaning I use a brass brush to open up the base structure, then a coarse fibertex (green) to knock down p-tex hairs. Then I drip wax and iron. If the skis are new or it's the beginning of the season I will iron then hot scrape a warm temp wax 3-4 times per ski, then iron on a universal wax which I let sit for at least an hour then cold scrape. After the final scraping, I brush with a horsehair brush, then a fine fibertex (white), then I cork polish the bases. After the first waxing of the season I skip the warm temp/hot scraping step.

The toughest thing for me is what temp wax to use for general waxing, Like I said above I usually use a universal wax, but this past weekend I didn't like how it felt. It actually felt better as the day wore on. I also wax several days before going skiing as we live in MA and usually ski NH. I think I will pick up some varieties of temps and try to gauge what the temp will be like next time we go.

Has anyone tried hot waxing, then using a cold wax corked in later in the day?

You shouldn't have to go through that cleaning process to start the season, if you put your skiis up in the spring with an unscraped coating of wax. At that point if you think they are dirty, you can clean them. I've been using Coleman's Fuel to clean old wax off my bases lately. I use the gas to soften the wax, then scrape it off. Don't use a cotton cloth for the last swipe, use fibrelene. It works great. One advantage to having a quiver of skiis would be that you can wax for different conditions days in advance of skiing. When you ski, you pick out the one you think was appropriately waxed. When I was skiing the alps, I brought a travel iron and small tune box. Every night in Austria, I was out on my balcony tuning for the next day. Of course, it would be quite expensive to travel abroad with a quiver of skiis. As I remember, Swix recommends using fiberlene (lint free) to wipe your wax off when cleaning. It may also be better when using a chemical cleaner. I wonder if that will also take the p-tex hairs down. Since specialty waxes can be very expensive ,and really aren't all that necessary for the average skier, I've gotten in the habit of using the Parafin sold for home canning to dilute my parafin waxes. It also works great when cleaning or putting them up. I find it does quite well for a lot of purposes. I read about it in an old X-C book. However, all racing waxes aren't parafin based, some are fluerocarbon (Sera-f) so this isn't always a good trick to try.

 

[subdude]

Has anyone in here used that Zardoz NotWax made by dupont? Basaically it's a Teflon coating instead of a wax. I'm contemplating buying a puck to try out.

 

[beswift]

Haven't tried it. I also haven't crayoned on wax late in the day and then cork it in. I don't doubt that it all helps. One thing about these liquid, crayon or wipe-on glide products would be that many of them only help in specialized conditions like spring snows close to freezing. They try and sell them for Alpine skiing, but they can get scraped off quickly, and you only notice improvements in traverses in the flats.

 

[Teleman]

For waxing I will typically clean the bases with either just a clean rag or some base cleaner. After cleaning I use a brass brush to open up the base structure, then a coarse fibertex (green) to knock down p-tex hairs. Then I drip wax and iron. If the skis are new or it's the beginning of the season I will iron then hot scrape a warm temp wax 3-4 times per ski, then iron on a universal wax which I let sit for at least an hour then cold scrape. After the final scraping, I brush with a horsehair brush, then a fine fibertex (white), then I cork polish the bases. After the first waxing of the season I skip the warm temp/hot scraping step.

The toughest thing for me is what temp wax to use for general waxing, Like I said above I usually use a universal wax, but this past weekend I didn't like how it felt. It actually felt better as the day wore on. I also wax several days before going skiing as we live in MA and usually ski NH. I think I will pick up some varieties of temps and try to gauge what the temp will be like next time we go.

Has anyone tried hot waxing, then using a cold wax corked in later in the day?

Ok here is a trick that I use to uses when i worked in a ski shop for waxing for the right temp... We made our own universal waxes called Frankenstien waxes... what you do is pick a group of waxes either cold waxes or warm waxes and melt them down and recast them together to create a new wax... this way you will get properties of both waxes and you won't have to pick a certain temp wax....Then all you do is ironing them in and scrape... and your good to go :lol:

 

[Teleman]

If you are looking for a good site on all aspects of ski Tuning here is a really good one that i found. it is a site that is done by SWIX and has really nice pictures to show you step by step how things should be done

http://www.norwaysports.com/pages/insight/200110/swix_guide.php/page__1

This is all the stuff I learned when i use to wax the skiis for our local race program in the ski shop i use to work in.... Enjoy, I hope you find this useful :dunce:

 

[TeleGrrrl]

I've ordered ski tuning equipment, wax and telemark bindings from Reliable Racing.com. Interestingly I found the store online while searching for a good deal on a pair of G3 Targa bindings. They were blowing them out for 99 bucks, so I scoffed a pair. They packed a store catalog in with the bindings, and I later ordered some wax and tuning gear. Great service and fast shipping.