What to do with new or freshly stoneground skis?

Wed, Nov  1, 2023 - By Iain Harvey

What to do with new or freshly stoneground skis?

OK so you got some new skis or you stoneground some skis...

First thing is to get the base ready for waxing. If the skis were freshly stoneground, they are good to go. If they are newly purchased skis, they maybe have been sitting in a warehouse or on a retail shelf for a very long time. The base material can harden a bit. To help the skis accept wax, brush the skis out well with a copper brush.

The second step is to penetrate the base with hot wax. A very soft hot wax will penetrate the base easier than a medium or harder one. In the Toko line the best way for this is Cleaning Wax. Hot wax the skis well with this wax. Let it cool completely and then reheat it. Repeat this a 3-5 times.

Now that the skis have wax in the base, you need to harden the bases. If you don't do this the bases will be so soft from this wax they are extremely sensitive to abrasion from early season cold snow. Your bases will be white after only a few kms. Scrape with a sharp scraper and with no burrs and then brush out the wax very well with a copper brush. You are conditioning your base with the brushing. Then hot wax with Base Performance Blue. Let cool completely, scrape, and again brush out well with the copper brush. Repeat this process and the skis are ready to ski on. The second layer and brushing out well with the copper brush isn't just hardening your bases but is also removing microhairs which slow skis down a lot in new powder snow.

From this point on, to make your skis faster just wax them and ski on them and repeat. The more you wax and ski, the better they get. Enjoy!