How to maintain skis (s bound 98)

[Sloth Monster]

I've been on my Fischer's for a few years.
What should I be doing to keep them tuned? Wax wise etc? I'd like a little more downhill glide/speed.
I know bikes well, but got no clue what I should do with skis. I plan to do all my own servicing, please point me in the right direction.

[fisheater]

The fastest wax job for that ski would be proper temperature glide wax. Heat and iron glide wax onto ski. Immediately wide waxless pattern with a paper towel or maybe two. Scrape and brush while cool.

[fisheater]

For better grip, wax entire ski with Swix Polar White kick wax. I cork the wax into the scales with a synthetic cork. I use a real cork, and really shine the wax on the sintered base

[wabene]

I have a slightly different approach. When I first got my 98's, as I do with all skis I first hot waxed the whole ski with a soft base prep wax. I tried wiping the wax out of the scales immediately, but it didn't go well for me. I spent quite a bit of time trying to pick the scales clean, but still got base prep wax on my Easy Skins for a while. I ended up ironing the skins with a paper bag to remove the wax from the adhesive, losing a slight amount of glue in the process. No big deal the skins are still good. I'm not sure the extruded scaled insert holds wax well enough for the effort of hot waxing anyway. The sintered tips and tails hold wax very well. I don't bother hot waxing any extruded base ski anymore, it just doesn't hold wax well enough to bother. Liquid wax only on those skis.
Now for my fishscaled skis i hot wax the tips and tails regularly and every time out use liquid glide wax on the scales (need for speed!). I bought an expensive Rex two part liquid wax system with an etching cleaner and spray on wax. I also use a much cheaper and easy to apply Toko liquid wax. I don't notice a difference and won't splurge on the Rex product again when I run out. Swix makes the F4 liquid glide wax probably very much like the Toko.

[Bohemian]

What about edge sharpening?
I tried to sharpen the base edge of my Rossi BC100 (fishscales similar to Fischer's) to 0.5 degrees with a Kunzmann kombi tool and I was taking more material off the fishscales than doing any good to the base edges... Sharpening the side edge (89 degrees) was not a great success either... Surely I've done something wrong?
OT: I'm not impressed by the edges and general quality of these Rossi skis anyway... Both my Aasnes Combat Nato (62) 195 and Fischer Traverse 78 have way thicker steel edges!
I use the Rossi BC100 for touring for turns with plastic boots, and the Natos more for touring for distance with turns with the leather boots.
At some point I may want to sharpen the edges of my Fischer Traverse 78, too!

[corlay]

Swix makes the F4 liquid glide wax probably very much like the Toko.

I use F4 Universal (solid, rubbed-on) in the pattern base area of the ski,
and Polar on the sintered tip/tail.

Fisher Traverse 78
Works well for me.

[wabene]

I use F4 Universal (solid, rubbed-on) in the pattern base area of the ski,
and Polar on the sintered tip/tail.

Fisher Traverse 78
Works well for me.

How is the solid wax to work with? How do you apply it? I'm guessing it's more economical. I've used the Swix North paste wax, but didn't like working with it and it didn't seem to glide well.

We've had a cold snap up here in Duluth and I've been ironing in polar glide wax on the tips and tails and using polar and green kick wax in the pocket for grip on my Gamme and M62 waxable skis. This is the first time I've had fast skis in weather from -10 to +5 fahrenheit. Pretty sweet. In this weather the fishscale skis are on the rack.

[corlay]

How is the solid wax to work with? How do you apply it?

I literally just rub it on, and that's it - no corking.
For me, the wax placed in this area is simply to prevent snow from sticking.
The Fischer Crown base has all the "grip" I would ever need. No reason to try and enhance it with grip/kick wax.

In this weather the fishscale skis are on the rack.

Yup. I don't grab my waxless until conditions start to degrade due to either warmer temps, or wide daily temp swings. (mostly closer to Spring) Sometimes I'll use them if I know conditions will be "crusty" or "icy" as well.

[wabene]

What about edge sharpening?
I tried to sharpen the base edge of my Rossi BC100 (fishscales similar to Fischer's) to 0.5 degrees with a Kunzmann kombi tool and I was taking more material off the fishscales than doing any good to the base edges... Sharpening the side edge (89 degrees) was not a great success either... Surely I've done something wrong?
OT: I'm not impressed by the edges and general quality of these Rossi skis anyway... Both my Aasnes Combat Nato (62) 195 and Fischer Traverse 78 have way thicker steel edges!
I use the Rossi BC100 for touring for turns with plastic boots, and the Natos more for touring for distance with turns with the leather boots.
At some point I may want to sharpen the edges of my Fischer Traverse 78, too!

I just ordered my first edge tuning kit this morning, so I'll be waiting for advice on this too.