Prepping New or Stone Ground Skis

Fast Wax Tip

Tue, Nov  27, 2007 - By Dan Meyer

Detailed Waxing Instructions for New or Stone Ground Skis

1. Open the Skis Base

Aggressively brush the ski base from tip to tail with medium metal brush. This will open the ski base clean out wax and dirt and allow better wax penetration of the new wax.

2. Remove Base Hairs

Brush the ski from tip to tail using a White Scotchbrite Pad wrapped over a Speed Block or a flat cork. This is to keep Scothbrite pad flat and prevent it rounding off the ski edges.

Next, use a razor tool held at a 90° angle to the ski and lightly scrape the ski several times to remove the fine base hairs. Check the razor blade edge after each pass and repeat until no gray fillings are left on the razor

3. Hot Wax Process

Using a ski waxing iron, drip a generous amount of Base Prep wax onto the ski base and iron in from tip to tail.The wax will act as an insulator, a generous layer helps keep the iron off the skis base, use about one drip every 1/2 inch, more if you are inexperienced.

When ironing in the wax, draw the iron down the ski holding a molten bead of wax about 2 to 3 inches behind the iron, and always keep the iron moving. If necessary a second pass can pick up any places that are missed.

4. Scraping off the Wax

Scrape the grove with a grove tool and clean off the edges while the ski is still warm. Then let the ski cool slowly to room temperature before scraping the bases

Scrape the wax off using short easy strokes again working from tip to tail until all the wax is removed.

(Tip) Use a sharp scraper and keep it sharp. A scraper sharpener makes it easy to give the scraper a few passes each time before scraping.

5. Brushing out the ski

Several options here:

• If you are experienced: A fine metal brush or a roto brush can shorten the brushing process, the tendency here, however, is to over brush the ski with these tools and remove too much wax, so proceed cautiously when using metal brushes or power tools after waxing.
• Preferred, use a Nylon brush followed by a horse hair brush. When it appears no further wax is being removed stop.

6. Repeat steps 3 to 5

7. Waxing Sequence

• New Skis: 5 to 6 layers or Base Prep followed by 2 to 3 layers of HS-30 Red, 2 to 3 layers of HS-20 Blue and a few layers of HS-10 Green - add the wax of the day and go skiing.
• Stone Grinding, Deeply Ground Bases: Most of the wax will be removed in the grinding process, so follow the same process as for new skis: 5 to 6 layers or Base Prep followed by 2 to 3 layers of HS-30 Red, 2 to 3 layers of HS-20 Blue and a few layers of HS-10 Green - add the wax of the day and go skiing.
• Stone Grinding, Touched Up Skis: For "touched up skis," the process is shortened as not as much wax is removed in the grinding process. Reduce the Base Prep applications about 2 to 3 layers followed by the HS-30 Red and a few layer of HS-20 Blue, then apply the wax of the day and ski.

Tip -- Skis generally do not get fast until they get some hard wax into them. This is something to try if your skis do not seem to be fast or are not getting fast -- add a few layer of HS-10 Teal Wax

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