When waxing your skis...?

Question

what is the best wax?

Can you use bees wax? Will it damage your skis?

when waxing skis, your really just filling in the scratches right?

Your not really skiing on wax right? There is only wax in the cracks, scratches of your skis.

Answer 1

The technical info about waxing your skis as mentioned by the previous entry is exactly correct, so I'm not going to elaborate on that.

Beeswax is not something you should use, at least on modern ski bases...maybe Sven used it in 1890 on his wooden skis, but you don't want to.

Ski waxes come in a wide variety of formulas designed to be used on certain temperatures of snow. These melt at various degrees to help with the glide. Every time you ski, you are causing friction. This melts the wax just enough to give you some slide. Too much wax and you get stuck. Not enough and you also can get stuck.

Beeswax is very soft and melts very quickly. The friction would most likely cause it to come off after only a few runs.

Wax was used (in days of yore) to make the wood skis smoothe. Nowadays, the plastic and composite bases eliminate the need for heavy coats of wax. I can usually get 3-4 waxings out of one Swix block because I know from experience how much I need and some efficient ways to apply the wax. You really don't need much because most of it gets scraped off and thrown away. If I use Toko...I can get a lot more waxings out of one block because the wax block is much larger.

As for the best wax...I don't have a favorite. I've been using Swix hydrocarbon wax for a few seasons now, but I've used other Swix products as well as Toko. Just wax for the right snow temperature and you should be OK.

Answer 2

When you ski, it is on a thin film of water that is melted snow from the friction of your skiis and there wax.

  When you wax the skiis, you are filling in all of the microscopic pores and scratches in the bases. This thin film can then generate enough friction to melt the snow.  If you try to use bees wax, you will end up with a very sticky mess, there is too much biologic material in it to allow a good slide. This may damage the skiis, but more likely just cause you to hate the way they perform.  The best wax is a high quality fluorocarbon powder, it is used by the top competitors for racing.  For recreational skiing, common ski wax  or canning paraffin or candle wax is good enough.  Learn to do your own hot waxing.

Answer 3

Polite suggestion: Wax your own. Try the waxes by climbing on a small hill. Start with The hard blue..next medium green...finally soft red. Try climbing on different snow surfaces. Good skiers will wax 'fast' and others will wax 'slow'. Learn about snow crystals. Be sure your skis have sufficient 'flex' for your weight. Buy a waxing lesson.

Answer 4

You're applying it to the bottom of your skis. Yes, you ski on the wax. There are different grades of wax for different temperatures and snow conditions. There are different waxes for downhill and touring. Glide wax for alpine and kick for nordic. Bee's wax is not one of them, far too soft to use on skis.

The best is a matter of preference, it's like choosing Chevy over Ford. Toko and Swix are popular and easy to find.

P-tex is used to fill gouges or deep scratches, then wax goes over the p-tex, it's just a filler.

Answer 5

You are completely wrong with all of your assumptions.  I dont know about using beeswax...I have never heard of this or tried it.  There are many different kinds of wax specifically engineered for use on skis and snowboards.  They are made for different snow conditions, temperatures, etc.  

Wax is not for filling in scratches.  That is what P-Tex is for.  Small scratches will be filled in with wax, but it is not very stable and will get worn off pretty quickly.  Large scratches need to be filled in with melted P-Tex, ground smooth, and the base will need to be re-waxed.  When you get your skis tuned, what happens is that they fill in all the big gouges with P-Tex, grind down the base of the ski, which not only removes excess P-Tex and small scratchesfrom the base of your plank, but also puts a new sharp edge on the thing.  After this the tips of your ski or board will need to be de-tuned.  This means filing down the sharp metal edge in these areas.  If you want to know why, go to wikipedia.  Then you get your new wax.  A block of solid wax is melted on using a waxing iron, and then is spread out over the entire base of the plank.  After it solidifies, the excess wax is then scraped off, leaving a very thin, but effective layer of wax that will decrease the friction of the snow on the base of your ski.  Excess wax is no good though, it will slow you down.  Due to this, skis are usually brushed or smoothed with a piece of cork.  The heat from the friction produced by the cork or brush will soften the remaining wax, and force it to enter the little pores on the base of your board, and also removes any remaining excess wax, giving you a mirrror smooth finish on your bases.  If you take off too much wax during the finishing process, you will have bare P-Tex, shich is much sl,ower and rougher on snow that a waxed finish.

Yes...you do ski on the wax.

A simple wax job will cost from $10 to $20, depending on the mood of the technician that morning.  A full tune which includes all of the stuff above...$40-$60 depending on where you are at.

What you want to do is find a local ski or board shop at the base of the mountain, go in early, and find the tech that is tuning skis that day.  Dont go to the counter, you will have to wait forever for your skis.  Throw the guy a $20 and ask him to hook you up.  He will put your planks at the front of the line and have them done in 10 minutes for a simple wax.  If you find him directly and keep it quiet around the shop, he gets to keep all the money and dosnt have to give a cut to the shop.

A little local knowledge for you.