| Preseason ski prep
is what we make of it By Mitch Mode I miss wood skis this time of the year. Wood's a good material. You sand it and make real sawdust. You can plane it and see the little shavings
peel up. You can work on those old skis, and when you do, you release that fine scent, a breath of wood smell from some Norwegian birch or Finnish spruce. That wisp of scent is there and gone, like the fleeting draft of perfume.
Those old wood skis had that romance about them. When the base was sanded and cleaned, when the gouges and chips were trued and planed out, you took out the can of pine tar and had at it. With flame and a deft touch you heated and swabbed the base and performed
all kinds of magic on the ski. The scent of pine tar filled the room and lingered on your clothes for days. It was wonderful.
When you were done you set the still-warm skis aside and waited for snow, taking a certain satisfaction in a job well done.
Things have changed.
Preseason ski prep is still important, but now we work with modern skis, all plastics and synthetics, wonderful to ski on, but, when compared to the wood skis, bereft of personality. I do not much miss the
wood skis when I ski; I do miss them, however, when I work on my newer, all-synthetic wonders.
Preseason ski preparation, like skiing itself, is what we make it. We can spend hours in precise work, striving for that perfect base, or we can dust them off and take them out. Some, I suspect, even skip the "dust them off" step and just go skiing. Sometimes I envy them for that cavalier simplicity in their approach to the sport.
For most of us, however, it's best to spend
some time at the workbench. Time spent inside, working on skis, will be rewarded when the snow flies.
If you own recreational no-wax skis, you probably bought them in part because of the low maintenance required during the season. Preseason is not that different. A light pass with some wax remover on a rag should take off the accumulated dust and dirt of summer storage. Another few passes with the cleaner should remove any residual gunk that you picked up during last season. In most
cases you're probably good to go.
If you have waxable recreational skis, or are inclined to seek more performance from your no-wax skis, plan on hot-waxing them. A hot-waxed ski will glide better, turn easier, and the base will resist drying out and last longer. If you don't have access to an iron, take your skis to the nearest shop. This is often a quiet time in the ski shops, and they may well be looking for some company on a slow day. The cost to wax skis should be reasonable and is
money well spent.
If you want to do it yourself, start by cleaning the ski. Use some commercial base cleaner and get all the old wax and dirt out of the base. Then make a good inspection of the base for nicks and gouges. Small ones can be sanded smooth; large ones may need some P-tex repair.
After you're satisfied that the skis are clean and the base is in good shape, it's time to heat up the iron. If you're using an old thrift shop iron, shame on you! Darn things don't hold the
heat very well, are all over the board as far as temperature goes, and are basically worth what you paid for them in the first place, probably about $4! If you insist on going that route, be careful! Keep the iron set on "synthetic," and if the wax starts to smoke excessively, back off and let the iron cool down before you continue.
Heat in a layer of warm-weather wax and, before it hardens up, scrape it with a plastic scraper. This "hot scraping" should clean out
any excess dirt that's worked into the pores of the base. Get a fine grade of fibertex, wrap it around a waxing cork to keep it flat, and make a few passes, tip to tail to further clean and even out the base. Then iron in another coat of wax and leave it until it's time to ski. That will protect the base from any more dirt and dust that could accumulate during storage.
If you have stride skis, don't wax the midsection; the grip wax will adhere better if there's no glide wax there. When
you're ready to ski, scrape the ski clean, put some grip wax in the middle, and go.
Higher performance skis can be treated in much the same way as the recreational wax skis. But the higher the performance you hope to achieve, the more time and effort you'll want to put into the preseason prep.
Let's assume you put the skis into storage last spring with some forethought. If so, you cleaned off the wax that remained from the last outing and hot waxed a nice even coat of wax over
the entire base. Then you carefully set the skis where they wouldn't get banged around during the off season and forgot about them until now. If you did that, the first thing you need to do is dust them off and scrape off that layer of storage wax.
And if you didn't put them away with a good coat of wax on them? If you forgot about them and left them in a ski bag or leaning in the corner? Shame on you! Take a good look at that base! Go ahead, look at it! See all that whitish stuff on
the base? See how it scrapes off when you run your fingernail over it? What is it? Oxidation is what it is! And it's bad stuff. It means your base has started to dry out and that's just not very good.
What to do about it? Hold the ski at arm's length in front of you, perpendicular to the floor, tip up. Then bring the ski back quickly and sharply and whack yourself between the eyes with it and promise you won't forget next spring! Then put it on the bench and scrape off the white stuff
with your plastic scraper, melt some wax into it, let it cool, and scrape it off. Repeat several times. Then you'll be about back to where the people who stored them properly were to start with.
For best performance, you'll want a ski base that is as close to perfectly flat as you can get it. And you'll want it clean in order for it to accept wax better. A high-tech method of flattening the base is to take it to a shop with a stone grinder and have them dress it up. It's a quick and
easy way to get the base flat and true. It really works, and if you have access to a machine, consider having it done.
But you can come close to duplicating the flatness, albeit with some extra effort and time, with a metal scraper. Clamp the ski firmly in your ski vise, making certain it's supported for the entire length. Then get your clean, sharp metal scraper and go to work. Using a metal scraper is an art. It takes a deft touch and a lot of patience. Hold the sharp scraper firmly
in your hands, with your hands positioned so they just border the edge of the ski and thus serve to guide the scraper in a straight line. You do not need to use a lot of pressure! Use only enough to remove a thin layer of the base. Keep the scraper flat and true to the base and run in long strokes, tip to tail. If you are doing it correctly, you will feel the scraper dig in ever so slightly and you'll see a fine ribbon of base material cut from the base. If you have an old pair of rock skis,
practice on them.
A slip with the scraper can cut the base. Be patient, be careful, be cautious. Take your time and check the base frequently.
When you're satisfied with the condition of the base, use a copper brush to make a few passes, tip to tail, to add some structure. (Note: This is one area where a stone grinder, which can be programmed to impart structure, is superior to hand work.) Then take some fine fibertex, wrap it around a waxing cork or wood block and, working tip
to tail, make a number of passes along the length of the ski. That'll remove the little hairs of base material that inevitably are left after scraping and brushing.
As a final step, detune the edges. A sharp, well-defined edge may seem an advantage in skating. In reality it's not. A too-sharp edge can dig into the snow too far, increasing drag and slowing you down. It can also throw you off balance when the tip catches on the track. So get some 180 grit sandpaper, wrap it around a cork
and round over the edge slightly.
(If you are not comfortable with a scraper, consider skipping the above steps and going directly to the fibertex. Start with a coarser fibertex and finish with the finer grade. The end result will not be as good, but it may be easier and less risky than using the scraper, if you're not comfortable doing that. Sanding the base has fallen from favor in recent years. It leaves the base too "hairy" and requires a lot of extra work.)
Clean
the base by using the same technique mentioned above, namely hot waxing and scraping while the wax is still somewhat soft. Use a nonflouro wax; some basic red is a good choice. After you hot scrape, apply a layer of graphite base wax, Toko Moly or equivalent. That will help restore the base on an older ski. Then start the wax-cool-scrape cycle. Again, use a less expensive nonflouro wax. How many times should you wax and scrape the skis? The more the better, within reason. Most skiers will
work half a dozen coats into old skis, perhaps 10 or 12 into new skis. However many you use, leave the last coat on until you get ready to ski in order to keep the base clean and prevent it from dying out.
If you are working on classic performance skis, leave the wax pocket area clean and unwaxed. Use some sandpaper to rough up the grip wax area. That'll help the grip wax hold better to the base. Don't cover that with glide wax.
When your skis are ready, take a minute and turn
them over and look at the top. Check for nicks that are more than skin deep or places where someone stabbed your ski with a pole during that last mass start race you were in. If the top sheet is punctured, fill it with some epoxy to prevent moisture from working into the core. Otherwise just leave the scratches as they are.
Finally, grab a screwdriver and go at the binding screws. Most Nordic bindings take a blunter screwdriver than the standard Phillips type, but for a quick
inspection, you can probably use whatever you have around the workshop. Try to turn the screws and see if any are loose. If they are, tighten them down. If, when you try to tighten them they turn without much resistance and do not firm up, you'll probably need to back them out and reset them with some epoxy. Work the epoxy into the screw hole and get some on the threads of the binding screw and then snug them back down. They won't tighten up all the way, but when you get them as tight as you
can, flip the ski base side up and let it set overnight. By putting the base up, the epoxy will flow around the screw and set up; if not, the epoxy may flow away from the screw into the core material and be less effective.
What next? Set the skis aside, relax, and wait for snow!
|
