Removing fish scales from Voile Vector BC. Can it be done?

[njfreeskier]

I've been looking for a pair of cheap voile vectors. Every cheap pair I come across is the BC version with the fish scale bases. Is it possible to remove them, sand them down, run a razor against them? Is it worth it do that? I have absolutely no experience with this, and just thought it might be worth a shot. Anyone have any input? Anyone do this before?

[neck beard]

Go into that project with very low expectations. Just think about it.

You'd be better filling in the pattern with something that will stay there, and then grinding it back to be smooth with the base and edges.

The Voile Vector is a great ski. In fact Voile make great durable skis v. weight v. price.

[hball]

Wouldn't it be sweet if you could run them across some kind of spinning drum with maybe like sand paper on it. You could rig up some sort of water sprayer so it doesn't heat up. Maybe some sort of auto feed wheel or something. Maybe add some variable speed choices. Next you could rig up something similar but with a large spinning stone with open pores that could actually flatten base while leaving a light pattern. Of course you would want to design a feed wheel and water system for this one too. After that you might want to focus on getting the edges sharpened and beveled then maybe apply something to the bases to get them to run fast on snow. Maybe some sort of wax would work?

All joking aside, I'd tune them like a normal ski and run it!! Might not get all the scale pattern out and of course you are taking some of the life span out of the ski but not that much...

[RockinB]

It is my understanding that the material the fishscale is made out of doesn't not hold wax like a standard base. I can't say for certain if the material voile uses is this way but I know some types are. Before you go running the ski over a belt and knocking off the scales make sure it will hold wax in the end.

[sb]

belt sander

[neck beard]

Depth of scale v.s. edge thickness.

[Notchtop]

I've done this on an "old" modern design Nordic set to make a kick wax pair out of a dinged up scale pair. The results were...anticlimactic. Used heavy thru finer sandpaper, then restructured. Now I got a pair of kicker skis that are as slow as a pair of scale skis. Woo hoo.
I'd treat it like gambling....I wouldn't try it on a pair you're not willing to lose.

[TAFKALVS]

Why not resell them to someone who wants them and not ruin a pair of hard to find used skis?

[Quadzilla]

Vector BC is a good capable ski in its own right for the intended use and that is BC skiing and unbeatable for car shuttles and tours with long runouts and approaches. So unless you have skied it and decided it sucks it doesn't need the scales sanded off to make it better when in actuality doing that would make it worse. IMO, from someone who has had a pair for three seasons as a quiver ski.

[TrueNorth]

Where are you finding all these cheap Vector BCs? They are fairly rare and usually sell quickly in my experience. I'd consider trading my non-BC ones for a nice pair of the BC.

As mentioned above, the fish scale section is a different material (extruded not sintered) and will not hold wax or glide as well as the tip and tail after being ground down.

[GeezerSteve]

Why not resell them to someone who wants them and not ruin a pair of hard to find used skis?

This. Or learn to luv fat fishscales. If I were limited to one ski forever it'd be my Vector BCs. You won't notice the fishscales in powder, barely notice them in corn. IME they are a detriment only on hardpack: How often do you encounter hardpack on a tour?

Where are you finding all these cheap Vector BCs? They are fairly rare and usually sell quickly in my experience. I'd consider trading my non-BC ones for a nice pair of the BC.

As mentioned above, the fish scale section is a different material (extruded not sintered) and will not hold wax or glide as well as the tip and tail after being ground down.

Yup to all points. The extruded fishscale base -- whether or not sanded smooth -- will not hold wax worth a damn.

[Cocximus]

+1 I would trade my regular vectors for the BC. Give it a try. If you hate them people will line up for them.