Cleaning Wax Brushes: Brush a wire shelf

Tue, Jan  27, 2009 - By Mike Muha

Yesterday I demonstrated the "slap-and-scrape" method of keeping your ski wax brushes clean. Clean wax brushes are required to ensure you ski bases do not become contaminated with foreign materials (e.g., "dirt") or the wrong temperature wax.

Today's method requires an additional piece of equipment.

Cleaning Wax Brushes: Brush a wire shelf

The wire shelf method requires only two items:

• The dirty brush
• A foot-long section of wire shelf

Many people happen to have an extra section of wire self hanging around from a closet project. If not, you can have a one-foot section cut for you at your local hardware or big-box building supply store. This particular method was invented by NordicSkiRacer temmate Bill Kaltz.

Step 1. Hold the brush in one hand (bristle side down), the shelf in the other, and vigorously rub the brush back and forth over the wire shelf. You do not need a lot of downward pressure.

Like the slap-and-scrape method, the shelf works best if use before the wax has a chance to deeply embed in the bristles. Finish brushing the ski, then brush the shelf. Do another ski, the brush the shelf.

Hold the brush in one hand (bristle side down), the shelf in the other, and vigorously rub the brush back and forth over the wire shelf. You do not want a lot of pressure.

Periodically, you will want to sweep up the wax dust from under the shelf.