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After the first slide of the season, this year I've decided to self administer wax to my beloved board. Thing is, there are that many different kinds that I don't know which is best/easiest to use!! There are the hard/hot wax kind that you need an iron to use, the soft paste-like wax that seems easier to apply (but do you wipe it off afterwards??) and the spray-on wax that really doesn't seem to do anything!!

 

what are peoples views of each of the wax types above and which one do you reckon a wax moron (thats me) can use and get the best out of!!

biggrin

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Best is iron-on. Lasts longests. When it cools you scrape excess off and use a stiff brush to buff the surface. It's really only meant to fill the pores.

 

There are general purpose glide waxes for this; if you were racing you'd shell out big time for exotic waxes that you change acc to snow conditions.

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As ziggy said, iron on is the best. There are many types of wax for all different snow conditions and temperatures, you can get soft waxes and hard. I recommend you go down to a tuning shop and get your board or skis done and ask to watch them. Its alot better then the machined waxer, after one run all the wax is gone!

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Yup, hot wax all the way. I actually find it's as much effort putting the rub-on stuff on as just doing the full-on thing. Get an old iron or a new one that you're not gonna use for clothes - as cheap as possible. This is the process I follow. Get the right temperature wax - there's warm, cold, and very cold. In Japan mostly I find the cold ones are good - -5° to -15°, that kind of range.

 

1) Drip the wax off the iron onto the base all over, make long straight lines, wiggly lines, whatever - just keep it even.

2) Run the iron up and down the board to melt the wax and cover the base entirely. This is the part of the process that gets the wax into the base, so spend time making sure the wax has got up to temperature and running freely - but don't overheat your board (just keep it moving and you should be fine)

3) Let the wax set, give it 30 minutes or so to cool down and harden

4) Scrape scrape scrape - make sure you've got the wax off your edges, and then scrape as much wax off as you can. It feels like you're scraping it all off, but that's what you want - to leave the wax just filling the pores.

5) Buff with a stiff plastic brush. I do this lengthwise first, and then I put a cross-hatch pattern in by doing one diagonal and then the other. The rationale behind this is to help guide the melted snow (i.e. water) out from under the base. Not sure if it works or if it's just psychological...

6) Apply Zardoz Not Wax - this is liquid teflon and soaks into the pores and remaining wax and makes it really slippery.

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Prolly true that Thursday.

I was gonna tell you off - but you are probably right.

I don't choose to iron very often (I have a lovely lady come once a week to do that for me) - but I am pretty good at it.

 

Just don't keep it stationary and you will be OK - keep it on LOW and keep it moving.

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I do the iron on base wax in the beginning. But first I fix up the gash. I use Iron and flake on the sintered base and PTex candle on the others.

I do the ShayDn and on (5) mine is a copper/nylon brush. I just run it one way.

I don't do (6) I don't like teflon.

 

When I didn't have any iron, I used wax remover to lift out the old wax and gunge, and used a hair drier and warmed up the surface and wax a bit. Then I used cork block to rub it in and then scraped it off.

 

I always carry tube wax and apply after a few hours. Yeah, you gotta polish it off.

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Same - iron on wax off. Although not done this season as my board needed some deep repairs, it really is quite simple to do as long as you are routine with your putting the wax on. And when doing the scraping, try to find something that is the width of your board, with a straight edge. It'll save time in the long one and will also give you a nice level base.

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Originally Posted By: ShayDn
Yup, hot wax all the way. I actually find it's as much effort putting the rub-on stuff on as just doing the full-on thing. Get an old iron or a new one that you're not gonna use for clothes - as cheap as possible. This is the process I follow. Get the right temperature wax - there's warm, cold, and very cold. In Japan mostly I find the cold ones are good - -5° to -15°, that kind of range.

1) Drip the wax off the iron onto the base all over, make long straight lines, wiggly lines, whatever - just keep it even.
2) Run the iron up and down the board to melt the wax and cover the base entirely. This is the part of the process that gets the wax into the base, so spend time making sure the wax has got up to temperature and running freely - but don't overheat your board (just keep it moving and you should be fine)
3) Let the wax set, give it 30 minutes or so to cool down and harden
4) Scrape scrape scrape - make sure you've got the wax off your edges, and then scrape as much wax off as you can. It feels like you're scraping it all off, but that's what you want - to leave the wax just filling the pores.
5) Buff with a stiff plastic brush. I do this lengthwise first, and then I put a cross-hatch pattern in by doing one diagonal and then the other. The rationale behind this is to help guide the melted snow (i.e. water) out from under the base. Not sure if it works or if it's just psychological...
6) Apply Zardoz Not Wax - this is liquid teflon and soaks into the pores and remaining wax and makes it really slippery.


Follow this and you will be fine. Also remember you can leave your wax on as long as possible (about a day or two) and it will be beneficial to you later as more of it is absorbed into the ski. Wax is also generally color coated (purple tends to be the most all around) and it should have a temperature indication on it.
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haha thats a nice plan you've got there Stem....get em young, pretend that its a fun thing to do then *WHAMMO* you're doing Dad's or no pocket money for you!!! lol

 

gonna do a test run on my scratch board and see how it goes!

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