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To run on water, that is the essence of venturing out on frozen
water, where the journey becomes the destination. Enhancing one's
enjoyment through the journey is the goal of ski maintenance. |
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Understanding that through the ski one achieves an
intimate tactile sense of glide, so that when the ski is attached
it becomes an extended appendage of the soul. Hands on working
with the ski often appears as more of an unfathomable technical
understanding, like the works of Mandlebrant, rather than the
craftsmanship it is more akin too. In other words, this ain’t
rocket science. In fact a simple philosophy, keeping track of
observations made, and the use of good tools, are all that’s
needed.
The philosophy is simple, reduce friction to enhance glide
and stay sharp to follow the path. Start with base preparation.
When the skis are new get them stone ground with a one degree
base and side edge bevel, a two or three degree side bevel may
more appropriate if you are regularly skiing on very hard snow.
If the goal is to breath life into an old pair of skis, check
the base for any scrapes or holes that need to be cleaned, refilled
and then planed back to a smooth running surface. If there is
a rough tear in the base material, remove any debris and free
material with a knife, then roughen the bonding surface with
sand paper to help the P-tex become one with the ski. Once the
void is ready you can use either a P-Tex stick or powder. To
use the stick have a candle to light a stick of P-tex that is
similar to your base ( e.g. clear base=clear stick of P-tex,
black graphite base=black stick of P-tex ).
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Keep the P-tex burning with a blue flame by placing it near
a metal scraper. When the flame turns yellow a carbon residue
is formed which inhibits the bonding process. Slowly rotate the
stick in your fingers to keep the burning end in a bulb, caution
don’t touch the burning end with your fingers it is very
hot. |
Related Content:
P-tex repair video |
Now drip the melting P-tex from below the blue flaming
bulb into the hole, over filling it slightly. To use powder P-tex,
pour it in to the gouge, again slightly over filling the void.
Place the protective metal foil over the mound of powder and
surrounding base. Place the iron on top of the foil and hold
it for about 15 seconds. Be careful not to burn the surrounding
base by holding the iron in place longer then 20 seconds. Allow
the repair to cool to room temperature before planing it back
to the surface level of the base.
Edge work is your next step. First run your finger tip
gently along the edges to locate any burred spots and remove
them with a wet stone, Arkansas stones are a personal favorite
because they have a very fine particle size and are very hard.
If you have not sharpened your edges in long time run a stone
tip to tail to gently roughen the metal surface.
Beveling the edges, both side and base, will aid in edge
hold and turn initiation respectively. A tip for side edge beveling
is to twist a rubber band into a figure eight and place it so
that it will span the jaws of the vise. This way the ski will
sit on the rubber band when tightening or loosening the vise
which prevents the ski from dropping on to the metal guide bar
and putting a ding in your freshly sharpened edge. Also, your
vise jaws should have some type of protective pad to prevent
smudging your newly structured base. If there are no pads on
the vise a folded shop rag or several strips of duct tape will
suffice. Now, free the mind of all but one thought and that thought
is quality. An unfinished, poor quality job is just time wasted.
Edge work is the purest zen of ski maintenance. True the
Buddha is in all aspects of the ski. However, by focusing on
the quality of the work we gain a clarity of mind that distills
the peacefulness with the soul.
First we need to gather the tools recommended for quality
edge work. These consist of: a black magic marker, a rasp file,
mill bastard file, a stone, base and side edge bevels, two spring
clamps and a gummy stone. Now, we need to remove the side wall
material just above the edge. Run the marker down the side edge.
This will let us know when we have removed enough material and
will be ready for the next step. The file guides give precision
to our work by keeping the file at the desired angle. Several
models of file guides are available and range greatly in price.
The World Cup ski technicians prefer beefy CNC machined guides
because they can place virtually any abrasive tool ( file or
stone ) of their choice and they have and will retain their precision
better then the plastic models. It is a choice of quality vs.
convenience and price.
Next, use the spring clamps to hold the rasp file to your
side edge bevel tool. Place the file so that “tail always
trails” the direction your working. Removing material is
done with several passes, trying to do it one go will only damage
the edge. Work tip to tail in groups of three. That is three
passes on the tip third, three passes on the middle third and
three passes on tail third, use the third pass to continue into
the first pass of the new section and slightly overlap each section.
Always wipe the base with a shop rag between passes to prevent
edge debris from being planted in your structured base. Then
do two tip to tail passes to ensure an even transition between
sections. There is not a technical reason for using three passes
in thirds other than it is easy to remember, which aids consistency,
which in turn aids quality. Once all the marker has been removed
which may take more passes, we can switch to the mill bastard
file on the file guide. This file will not remove as much material,
but it will put a cleaner finish on the edge. Follow the same
procedure as before; black marker down the edge, three passes
in thirds and two full length passes. For a finish polish, place
the stone on the guide and work from tip to tail.
For base beveling several guides are available, use only
guides that locate on the same edge you are working. This is
especially important on shaped skis, where using a guide that
locates and works from opposing edges will create different bevel
angles between the tip, ski center and tail. Do not use the rasp
file for base edge work. The change in shine on the metal should
be enough indicator so that the marker is not needed here. Three
passes in thirds applies to base beveling as well. Once complete
run the gummy stone ( basically an eraser impregnated with an
abrasive ) tip to tail to remove the fine burr at the side and
base edge plane interface. Now you have a quality edge from tip
to tail and the question of of detuning the ski comes to mind.
Should detuning be done ? Yes and no. How far back does
one need to detune? It’s a matter of personal preference.
Ok, What is detuning? Detuning is simply softening or dulling
the edge. With newer shaped skis you want the whole ski length
to grab and carve as designed, so no detuning is required. A
sharp tip edge makes the older non-shaped skis behave grabby
and hard steer at times. Like when traversing a hill or skiing
the back side of a mogul, a sharp tip will want to grab the hill
and climb up it. Use a stone to make several passes on the edge
going only about 10 inches in from the tip and tail on both sides.
When you scrape the back of your finger nail on dull edge no
shaving should appear as they will on a sharp edge. Now give
the skis one last brush to remove any edge debris from the base.
Once skiing, if the ski still fills grabby simply continue another
couple of inches in towards the center until the ski performs
as you like. Remember start small and go from there, as it is
easier to detune then to re-tune the edge.
Now that the bases and edges are repaired the question
becomes to structure or not to structure? Structure or micro
grooves cut diagonally and linearly in the base help to shed
water out from under the base to enhance glide. Think of two
sheets of glass with some water between them and the surface
tension that develops a vacuum when you try to pull them apart.
This suction considerably slows skis in wet snow. Most high end
skis come from the factory with a structured base. The best way
to get a structured base is to pay, yes pay, a shop to stone
grind them for the type of snow you usually glide on. Alternatively,
you can do it by hand but it’s never the same as a good
grind. Wrap some white 180 grit sand paper ( why white? because
it is bonded better to the paper backing ) tightly around a file
trimmed to the width of your ski tip, work tip to tail, cleaning
or tearing off the build up on the sand paper. Now use a soft
brass brush to remove any particles that have decided to take
up residence in your ski base. Next, make several tip to tail
passes with some 00 Scotch pads, also trimmed to the width of
your ski tip. Lastly, use some Fiber Tex wrapped around a plastic
scraper and gently work the base from tip to tail; this will
remove any fine base hairs formed in the structuring step.
The last part of our Zen journey is to impregnate the base
with wax. Dry bases will develop tinny white hairs and open pores,
yuck. This is equivalent to skiing with a carpet on your bases
and becomes more apparent with increasing water content in the
snow. Use a basic Toko or Swix shop wax ( i.e. a non fluorinated
wax ), yellow or red will do for this stage of waxing. Using
a citrus type base cleaner before waxing is recommended, alcohol
solvents will excessively dry the base and are not user or environmentally
friendly. You should always wax your skis in a well vented area
and the skis should be at room temperature.
Waxing a cold ski will cause the ski to decamber momentarily
and the wax will not enter the base pores as efficiently. Heat
your iron to the level indicated by the wax manufacture. If your
iron has settings that say rayon and steam, get a different iron.
Heat the wax to a point where the wax will easily melt, but does
not smoke. Smoke is bad for your health and breaks down the wax.
Additionally, you can burn the base and close the pores in the
base material. After which the base will no longer retain wax;
a base grind might be able to save the ski at this point.
Drip the wax on to the ski and then iron it in, keeping
the iron moving at all times. Leaving the iron in one spot can
damage the ski. Work the iron down the ski from tip to tail moving
at a rate that leaves about a six inch trail of molten wax behind
the iron. After ironing in, the ski should be covered waxed completely,
tip to tail. With practice you will become more efficient with
how much to drip on without using an excessive amount of wax.
Use a plastic mesh scrubby, like those used for washing dishes,
to remove excess wax from the side walls. Let the ski cool back
to room temperature, about an hour, then use a plastic scraper
to remove the wax. Keep the scraper angled in the direction of
travel ( e.g. when scraping tip to tail the top of the scraper
will be leaning towards the tail). This reduces the chance of
the scraper skipping and damaging your structured base.
After scraping, brush the base with a copper, then plastic,
then nylon brush to further remove wax from the structure and
base pores. Follow this with several passes with a 00 Scotch
pad and several more passes with tex paper. Tex paper is like
a strong, fine toilet paper also sold in rolls at most ski shops.
Repeat this whole waxing, scrapping and brushing process six
times; done in one long day or spread out over several days,
or if your local shop has a Toko hot box which keeps the ski
at the right temperature to allow deep impregnation of wax into
the base, they can do it overnight. Either way is fine just don’t
use them until the process is complete. This is a lot of work,
but it only needs to be done after each base grind, which is
to say a couple of times a year.
Now the ski is ready to be waxed for the specific type
of snow you will be playing on ( new, old, cold-n-dry or warm-n-wet
). Waxes are typically color coded to snow temp., warm temp.
warm color like yellow and so on red, blue for increasingly colder
dryer snow. Fluorinated waxes are designed for moist snow, if
the snow clumps together in your fist it is moist. Fluorocarbons
are added to the hydrocarbon base wax to make it more hydrophobic,
repels water, which improves the glide of the ski. Fluorinated
waxes are expensive, exponentially so with increasing fluoro
content. This is where you must weigh the costs in, a box of
shop wax that will last a season for a backcountry skier costs
about $25.00, while a pure fluorinated rub on wax will cost elite
racer about $5.00 per run! A low fluorinated wax will be great
for most performance minded resort skiers. Several manufacturers
make waxes for both Alpine and Nordic skiers. The difference
is basically in the amount of paraffin in the wax. Nordic waxes
are slightly harder, so they last longer and offer better acceleration.
Alpine waxes on the other hand offer better top speed performance.
Apply the wax just as before: wax, cool, scrape, brush and buff.
A word of CAUTION: fumes from fluorinated waxes are BAD
and can induce pneumonia like symptoms. The use of a respirator
with cartridges specified for fluorocarbons is a must. Wash your
hands after handling fluorinated waxes, especially if you smoke.
Bad juju if you don’t.
Graphite waxes are designed cold dry snow wear static becomes
a factor reducing glide. Molybdenum waxes are great for dirty,
moist snow conditions. Major wax manufactures provide waxing
charts for the recommended wax per snow and temperature conditions.
These are very helpful, but keep a waxing log of what the conditions
were like at your house, on the hill, what you waxed and how
well it worked. This will help you select wax in the future.
Waxing is work up front to be reaped later while out on the mountain,
gliding across a traverse instead of trudging. Several of my
friends are die hard anti ski maintenance, which is their prerogative
and is fine with me. One client who is a chef thought it was
ludicrous to spend hours working on your skis. I asked him how
long it takes to prepare and simmer a soup to perfection? Because,
let's face it, the first one to the Subaru gets the good micro
brew. Lastly, keep a rag handy to wipe off your skis to prevent
rust formation, especially at resorts where chemicals have been
thrown on the snow to keep it hard. These chemicals tend to accelerate
the rusting process on your edges.
Enjoy the ride.
Jimmy Ludlow, a physicist by trade, is an active world
cup telemark racer, USSCA Level II coach, PSIA Nordic Demonstration
Team member, Telemark and Track examiner for the PSIA Intermountain
region, Instructor at Alta ski area and designs performance ski
accessories for the Salt Lake City based company Alden Ski Innovation.
He also teaches telemark, track, alpine and adaptive skiing at
Alta, Utah.