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VIDEO – “Applying Hard Wax to XC Skis”
Hi this is Doug with NoridicSkiSource.com. This video is applying a hard wax to your ski.
First, we have to make sure you already have soft wax in your ski, and before you get started make sure to check the temperature of your iron. We are going to run a thin bead of cold wax all the way down the length of ski. (Doug is rubbing the wax onto the iron and letting it drip onto the ski, going from one end to the other) Notice that I have angled the iron, the iron is slightly touching the base and we are letting that wax drizzle onto both sides of your ski base. Next we are going to iron the base from tip to tail (Doug slowly irons in one motion, making two passes). This is just going to be one smooth stroke all the way down, applying slight pressure on the iron to get the wax to spread evenly.
Remember, you have to also wax the groove of your ski, and you want to make sure there is wax in that groove before you run your iron down both sides of it (Doug follows the same process for putting wax into the groove, and irons both sides of the groove).
Follow this with two to three steady consistent passes from tip to tail with your iron.
Unlike a soft wax, we are going to scrape this wax when it is warm. We are going to allow the wax to solidify a bit; we do not want to scrape it while it is liquid (Doug uses groove tool to scrape out the groove, making one pass, then follows with one pass down each edge of the base). You want it to be a good, soft solid. (Scraping the wax while soft prevents the hard wax from chipping off the ski)
The first thing we will do is scrape the groove and edges of our ski the same way as a soft wax. And then we will do our passes with a plexi-glass scraper from tip to tail. As we have mentioned, let the scraper do the work. Make sure you have a sharp scraper and keep your passes light (Doug uses scraping tool to make four passes down ski).
When do you know when to finish? Basically when you are not picking up that much more excess wax. Then you are going to be ready to allow that ski to cool, or to apply a cold wax.
We have jumped ahead now, we have allowed our ski to cool completely. Next step is to do three to five fairly vigorous tip to tail strokes with your initial brush. Here I am using a fine copper brush (Doug makes five passes with the TOKO fine copper brush). You can also use a horse hair brush or the wild boar brush. Our next step will be ten to twelve brush passes – I am using a stiff nylon brush here, you can also use a horsehair brush – this is your second brush for the hard wax (Doug takes 10-12 hard brushes down the ski). We are going to follow this with a polishing brush, and we could use both a blue nylon from Swix, or the soft polishing brush from Toko. You can also use both. One of the advantages of using different brushes on a ski, is it will open up different parts of your structure in your ski base.
One of the things about brushing hard wax, is basically you cannot brush enough. A tip for getting even more excess wax out of your ski is to take your skis outside, let them cool off and get cold. This will squeeze little bits of wax out of your base and you come in with your nylon brushes and brush them away.
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