How to properly wax skis

vinnyT

vinnyT

Member
I have been skiing for a couple of years and have always taken my skis to a shop to get waxed, but what is the proper technique for waxing skis at home?
 
brush em off,

scrape em down,

edgework,

basework,

brush off once again,

melt wax in drips all over skis,

melt dripped wax with iron until it forms an even layer across the whole ski.

let sit for up to 24 hours,(longer the better)

evenly scrape off excess wax,

buff in with a piece of cork or material you choose,

RIDE!

 
word but i only wait like an hour before i scrape just because i usually have to wax a lot of skis at once and i wanna get it over with. by not letting it sit, it doesnt get into the base as well but whatever . i like waxing so i'll let it sit an hour only and then wax again after three days of riding.
 
i dont do it quite as intense because lets face it i dont want to spend 45 minutes on it.

i just wipe down base
sharpen
wipe shavings off
drip wax
smooth and let dry
scrape and brush

once youve done it a couple times you can do it in like 15-20mins
 
not too difficult, i wouldn't worry about gettin super techy about it...especially if you do it often

-scrape off all the oil/crap on your bases

-get the proper wax

-heat up iron

-melt wax onto base

-get wax deep down into bases

-scrape off wax on bases (if you want, you could leave it on)

-repeat

:)

 
Clean your shit off. Hold an iron to a block of wax so that it drips. Drip that wax on to your base. Don't overdo it. Don't be a frugal frank. Use your head. Iron that wax into your shit. Wait until it has dried. Scrape it off. Pretty much exactly what common sense would dictate.
 
unless your hardcore into pipe and need the edges to carve and the speed to get out of the pipe, all you need is to melt on a thin even layer, let it sit like 10 minutes and scrape. thats all i do on my freestyle skis. i dont tune them cause rails screw em up anyway.

And one thing that i learned last year after my race skis got really shitty over summer.. Right after your season is over you should put a good layer of wax on and dont scrape, it keeps them from drying out and they will last way longer
 
ask brad holmes what else one could do w/ ski wax.i usually use an old iron melt it all over my pants, yell "FUCK: I got wax all over my self" rub off excess wax with stell wool.
 
if they are race skis, yes follow the advice given above, but since they probably arent and you really dont care enough about the performance to spend an hour plus waxing your skis, here is a simpler method. Drip wax on skis, iron sks. your done go eat a cookie. Dont worry about your edges unless they are pipe skis, about everyweek or 7 days of riding de-bur your edges but thats about it your good to go
 
For letting your skis set after a certain amount of time your skis stop absorbing wax. The longer you iron your skis the better. It can just sit for like 4 hours. Till they feel cool.
 
I went to the 99 cents store and picked up a shitty ass cheap iron. It has holes, but I just use the tip for the most part, works great. I love waxing my skis.
 
i dont think i have ever said search bar before but i have spent hours typing out how to correctly wax your skis. so i think that its fair for you to take a few seconds to search for it. now i realize you may be a noob and not know what the search bar is if so i appologize but it is that thing in the uper right hand corner does wonders.
 
ya pretty much but to avoid wasting wax i tap the wax on the iron and rub it onto the ski. why waste wax ur just gonna scrape off anyway?
 
be careful, clothes irons go WAYYYY hotter than ski irons. If you hear a crackle while waxing, your iron is too hot and may damage the base/fuck up the wax. You want your iron to easily melt the wax, but not make any crackles. On a normal clothes iron, thats usually one of the lowest temps itll go to.
 
If your bases are really dirty i find a good technique (Obviously base cleaner works well) is to drip the wax, iron it in and scrape the skis whilst the wax is hot - it will take plenty of the dirt and shit out of the base (try it - your warm wax will scrape off all brown/grey)..

Then you can do it again, letting the wax dry (I don't see why waiting 24 hours does anything special) - the wax has done it's work and hardened/cooled within 1/2-1 hour - scrape away..

My $0.02
 
yeah its pretty much impossible to find an iron without steam holes in it now. you could go look at second hand stores or something. I used mum old steam iron the first season I was doing my own waxing, then I acquired an old solid base iron, works waay better than one with holes in it. you could go check out some second hand stores or something and see if you can get one.
 
Ski irons piss me off. My friend Alex's dad is rich as shit and so of course he has top-of-the-line everything. Me and BrokenBones go over for a maintenance sesh expecting a normal clothes iron like the rest of the world has and it's some fancy Dakine iron that takes like 30 seconds of rubbing your bases to melt the wax in that one particular area, shit is retarded. Clothes iron every time.
 
^haha yeah just clearing that up, I've now got an oldschool clothes iron without holes. works like magic. I'd never drop $100 on a proper waxing iron
 
i use a dang spendy iron and find that its much better, most people wont drop 100 bucks on an iron but i think its money well worth it. during ski season, i full tune 3-5 pair of skis a night, and i mean full tune. whats good about an iron specific for tuning is it holds heat better, and has a better plate for maintaining a steady temperature. clothes irons work fine for casual tuning, but if you hold a heat gauge over it you will see that it fluctuates rapidly and wont hold steady, and thats not a good thing for a good race-like tune. ^ and a few posts up someone mentioned an expensive dakine iron that sucked.........yea.........dont buy dakine irons.....
 
are you serious. cus i hope not. but i am gonna take you serious.

scrapping and brushing/just taking the wax off is the most crucial part. it helps to get the wax into the bases so it will last longer. ever notice that you wax a lot when you dont scaper? thats because it all comes off on the first run. there is nothing left because you didnt help it to stay in the bases. i spend at least 20 minutes brughing if its a roto, and 45- 60 if its a normal hand brush. and then on race skiis, before race day, i spend like 1h 30m on a pair of skiis, and that just brushing. go ask any skiier, great skier, or any shop tech, and they will tell you to scrape and wax your skiis everytime.

trust me, i have tried not scraping cus i felt lazy...and guess what? i had to wax 3 days later. a good wax job should last about 7 ski days..depending on snow conditions. if you dont scape, then you suck.
 
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