Waxing new skis

[XXX-er]

XC skiers often wax every day

On brand new XC skate skis you can wax em up and 2 hrs later the wax is gone ,you can see that whitish haze that indicates there is no wax left and you can feel that the ski is slow

the more times you wax a new ski the longer you can ski and not see the white haze ,on a 3 yr old xc ski thats been waxed dozens of maybe hundreds of times you might ski 6 hrs before that white haze starts to appear

the finns like to wax up a new ski and leave it in the suana ,ski racers often use a hot box with a bunch of lightbulbs for low heat using ... hot boxes are also good for warming up pizza

how wax gets into microscopic pores or WTF I don't really know or all that much care about the physics/chemistry of but you can google it if you like ...I just know what works


Waxing skis at the rental shop eh ,what would you use for a wet day at whistler ... bulk universal wide range in bar OR bulk universal wide range in droplet form ?

[farmer]

Waxing skis at the rental shop eh ,what would you use for a wet day at whistler ... bulk universal wide range in bar OR bulk universal wide range in droplet form ?

can't you read. After 2 weeks skis no longer need wax, because a salesman told him so, and salesmen never lie

[Ottime]

one of the Rossi guys came in and gave a demo and this is what he told me, so ya I am sure someone that works at rossi has it wrong!

Ever talk to the Rossi rep that runs demos up in Tahoe from time to time? I am sure he often has it wrong. Dooood!

Ptex needs wax. It is what keeps the O2 away. The general idea of hot wax a soft wax, strip, repeat. Wax on, wax off. Ask Schralp.

[F.D.V.]

Wax normally and quit 'yer OCD.

[cooltsi]

for the first wax, it's a good idea to apply a cheap soft all temp and let them cool completely. this will strip off the garbage factory coat that's already on there. after a scraping and brushing, you can use whatever you want. probably a harder, higher quality wax. the better wax will bond much better with the base and you will not have to worry about the factory coat. this method also works for cleaning your bases. solvents, especially citrus, tend to do dry out the bases. using the first pre-coat method will strip out all the dirt, old wax, etc., prior to applying the second coat. the extra effort is a pain, but it'll help you avoid base burn.

Solid post but I have to nitpick. There is no 'bond', no chemical reaction between wax and the polyethylene. Polymers of this chain length are fairly inert. Typcal UHMW polyethylene has chains in excess of 100,000 C-C molecules. Getting waxes to bond to polyethylene is highly unlikely.

[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_high_molecular_weight_polyethylene[/ame]

[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraffin[/ame]

Excellent read on Hydrocarbon versus Fluorinated waxes:
http://www.tokous.com/Chemical%20Mak...lide%20Wax.htm

Couple of other good reads:
http://www.dominatorwax.com/faqs.html
http://www.skifastwax.com/faq.html

[Jethro]

Umm I was a ski tech at a rental shop all last winter so I think I know what Im talking about.... one of the Rossi guys came in and gave a demo and this is what he told me, so ya I am sure someone that works at rossi has it wrong!

My last couple of skis, which were not Rossi's, had the worst bases I had ever seen on new skis. They had fuzzy strings of ptex hanging off the bottom and were damn near impossible to turn, besides being slow. They looked like they were hit with an 80 grit belt sander instead of a stone grinder which puts the proper texture into the ptex. I was appalled that expensive skis could be so bad from the factory. I will definitely have the boys in the shop wax my new boards when they mount them. If I have a good look a tune might be in order.

[cbrpaul]

DO NOT WAX NEW SKIS, I dont know why there is such a misconception out there that new skis need wax. With the modern base materials skis hardly need to be waxed in the first place, the special stuff from the factory first needs to be skied off before you do any waxing otehrwise you just trap the factory wax in the base. I would ski on them for a few weeks and then very lightly wax them a couple times a week for a maximum of two weks and you should be perfect.

You've got to be kidding! Have you ever skied a properly prepped ski versus a new, unprepped ski? It's like night and day.

Before waxing, set the edge angles and polish them. Use a Scotchbrite pad on the base to cut the microhairs off. Then hot scrape with a warm temp wax to clean the base. Don't use base cleaner. Then go ahead and wax a few times with warm (CH8 or BP88) wax - you can do this up to 4 times between scraping. Procede to colder waxes - fewer times necessary, down to CH4. Then ski that if it's cold, or put a warmer wax on if it isn't. If you can get 10 coats of wax on, that's great. 30 is better. Some race skis see 200 coats before they hit the snow. That's kind of extreme. I learned this from the Swix racing rep, and it sure works well.

[skideeppow]

DO NOT WAX NEW SKIS, I dont know why there is such a misconception out there that new skis need wax. With the modern base materials skis hardly need to be waxed in the first place, the special stuff from the factory first needs to be skied off before you do any waxing otehrwise you just trap the factory wax in the base. I would ski on them for a few weeks and then very lightly wax them a couple times a week for a maximum of two weks and you should be perfect.

Unreal, you my friend are a tard. You are tech at a shop, whoopppeeeee.
Been skiing my entire life, raced fis b's and some europa cups and still hot box new skis, even non race skis. Waxing is the best thing to do to your bases hands down. Before speed skis even hit the hill, you want to put as many applications as possible (maybe 25). This impregnates them and makes them faster. The older the ski, the faster it runs on the flats.
As for base cleaner, not bad to take grease or other shit off, but i would not put that on any ski you care about. It dries the base out and can damage it as well. Clean by hot waxing and scraping while it is still hot.

[spindrift]

Will all the people who go on about keeping "O2" away and bases "drying out" please go read up a bit about the properties of UHMW PE (perhaps starting with the link posted earlier)...

The amount of waxing "religion" - and related money and time waste - is kind of nuts. Just go look at the waxing discussions at epic... It is largely a bunch of fussing over nothing. Wax your skis & ski them. Or ski them and then wax them. Or maybe just slather them with Zardoz... Whatever. If you don't like how it is working out, just change your strategy. For the average recreational skier and any recreational ski, it just will not matter in the long term...

All other things being equal, I'd rather get a better prepped ski than a less well prepped ski. Especially since that'll push out how soon I'll fuss with it at all. But getting too anal is just silly... Skip the mythology. Skip toasting them on space heaters. Just go ski your JJs... Have fun. Wax them when they "need" it. Unless you just like recreational waxing - in which case, have fun...