Musings on Wax

[lilcliffy]

Master Watinforsnow-
Thank you for your beautifully written post.
Great to hear from you.
I hope you more than survive the delamination damnation.

[lilcliffy]

That being said (Sorry Lilcliffy), I'm guessing a good part of the reason why Lilcliffy is getting decent glide results with the polar melt, scrape and brush is that he is essentially removing most of the grippy wax he has melted in that is inhibiting glide in very cold temps. I fully understand why you would not use glide wax, as you explained very well LC, but I think here the secret to glide here is no wax, or very little anyways? No?

(Don't need to be sorry my friend!)

When the Polar glides well I do not scrape it- I buff it with a cork.

When my Polar base becomes too grippy- I don't apply new wax- I re-heat/melt what is there and scrape and polish.
And- yes I do agree that this improves glide because there is less wax and it is more polished. It is also harder because it is so cold outside.

The principle is the opposite of applying a thicker layer of kick wax-
If one's kick wax is not producing enough grip- the first step I always take is to apply another layer of the same grip wax before resorting to a softer wax on top.
The reverse of this principle is also true- if one is getting too much grip polishing and/or removing a layer of the wax should result in better glide and would be my first step before moving back to a harder wax.

Scraping and polishing the wax is the same principle whether it is glide or grip wax in my experience.

NOW-
After all of my rambling, I must admit that I am ignoring my fundamental personal BMP- to never give personal advice to someone that is in a completely different context....

My polishing of Polar wax is working quite well at -30C- I cannot assume that it works at -40C.

[Woodserson]

I come forth from the mountains...

You must creat the hardest, smoothest Base possible for glide. Harder and smoother than Ice. Like the pupil of a raven.

Scraper must be like kanna or nomi, sharpness is a theoretical place that cannot be seen, only experienced.
Scraper must be flat and smooth therefore. Take care of your plastic bases-it is the wax you want.
Many layers of cold glide wax of good quality must be used..scrape well, polish, repeat. The pores are filled. There is no structure. For this reason many Skiers have skis only for the Quiet Cold.
Edges must gleam like katana.
There is no liquid water in this world of white sand and talc you wish to slide on, so the mind must be lubricated instead.
Trudging, shuffling. The occasional slide like an otter.
You will be happy with this when it is 35 below. Soon you will realize the glide is as it should be, and the kick is wanting. For this you must search out the diminutive hive of Bombus polaris and borrow some wax from her. Apply tenderly under a gibbous moon and you will fly down the trail.
If the crystals are truly old and advanced, and you are not on a groomed trail with bouncy skis, your kick wax will be gone soon enough and the opportunity arises to try many techniques. All that wax scraped off by snow goes into our water keep in mind. Be careful what you put on your Skis, mountain friends!

The cold is strong now, my cheeks are scabby and tender. I revel in the quiet and accept the cadence that the snow and the mountains give. The sun blazes over the peaks stronger now, and the caribou are moving high on the ridges. The valley bottoms sit pale and still under their lids of dense cold air. The wolverine cares nothing about all this but lopes on.
I have come out of the forest for important business concerning Warranty Issues and the greatest scourge of our time, delamination damnation. All is not well underfoot. When this business is finished I will report truly and in full for my mountain friends.

First, such a great post!
Second, about the delam... OH NO! The Ingstads!?

[w8n4snow]

Last night it snowed an inch in an hour. It was 22 below zero at the ground. All quiet except for the flakes like pretzel salt hitting my parka and ricocheting off in spitting arcs in the sapphire light of my headlamp. It was like skiing through the dunes of the Namib. Wax was irrelevant. The snow stopped suddenly and it grew cold again.

D’lamb. I will offer a clue that will send you on a learning journey. “ Nunamuit”

[jyw5]

Your waxing method is awesome and I have been having a great winter. However, I noticed alot of snow glomping on my FT62s today when I skiied downhill about 1 mile/1200ft. (after removing full skins and wiping the base with a cloth) even though I have 3 layers of polar and a thin layer of blue in the kickzone... it was 15F, sunny. Any suggestions on how to get rid of this without compromising the nice grip/glide?

The snow mostly accumulated around the kick zone.

Thanks

[Telerock]

If it is 15; use green

[tkarhu]

That being said (Sorry Lilcliffy), I'm guessing a good part of the reason why Lilcliffy is getting decent glide results with the polar melt, scrape and brush is that he is essentially removing most of the grippy wax he has melted in that is inhibiting glide in very cold temps. I fully understand why you would not use glide wax, as you explained very well LC, but I think here the secret to glide here is no wax, or very little anyways? No?

With sintered bases, "no wax, or very little wax" is a functional approach to glide wax, too. Sintered bases are really different from 1980’s skis, when it comes to glide waxing.

You must create the hardest, smoothest Base possible for glide. Harder and smoother than Ice. Like the pupil of a raven.
Scraper must be like kanna or nomi, sharpness is a theoretical place that cannot be seen, only experienced.
Scraper must be flat and smooth therefore. Take care of your plastic bases-it is the wax you want.
Many layers of cold glide wax of good quality must be used..scrape well, polish, repeat. The pores are filled. There is no structure. For this reason many Skiers have skis only for the Quiet Cold.
Edges must gleam like katana.

In my surroundings -20’ C is rare, but people use cold weather glide wax full time (when track touring). Just because it wears out slower.

In the approach to glide waxing I know, point is to keep bases shiny, like a katana sword. Every time after skiing, brush dirt away from glide areas with a bronze brush, then polish with a nylon brush. If bases are shiny, fine. If bases are still not shiny, clean them with lamp oil and a rag (or with glide cleaner). Do this as many times as dark color comes out of the base. If bases are shiny, fine. If not, apply some cold weather glide wax. Or, then just scrape the bases with some kuzmin or hardware store metal scraper. Or, have someone grind your bases. I do not know, if bases become shiny black with scraping or grinding only. I do not have experience of that. After grinding, a hi-fi grinding store also glide waxed my bases, and I got the bases shiny. Anyway it is not many grams of glide wax that a sintered base needs. For glide, cleaning is more important than waxing.

All the above was for XC… I still have to figure out, what I want to do with my new BC skis. Mostly, I have neither cleaned or waxed BC ski glide areas. Only my first BC skis had wooden bases, which I handled with boat tar once.

[FourthCoast]

It has been cold here, at least by local standards, with a low last night of 7 Degrees. The high today was 20, so I thought I would be good to go using the two-day old swix blue extra that worked well the last few days. There was lots of fluffy new snow with more falling while I was skiing.

I had a lot of dragging and sticking. I scraped a little and then put green wax on which sort of helped, but it was still mostly grip and very little glide. I used the slow-wax opportunity to ski a few steep runs using my headlamp for light. It was fun.

Back on the track the sticking became a real annoyance. I scrapped off everything I could and then polished hard with a cork. The glide was much improved and I still had plenty of kick.

Anyway, I have a question: How do I get the wax off my scraper after it is completely clogged with wax? At home I soak it in really hot tap water and use some paper towels. But outside with cold hands and lots of snow all over it is really hard to get the wax off the scrapper. If I don't get the scraper clean it acts more like a putty knife than a scraper and just pushes globs of wax around.

Do I need a scraper scraper? And a scraper for to scrape the wax off my scraper scraper? Where does it end?!

[Woodserson]

It has been cold here, at least by local standards, with a low last night of 7 Degrees. The high today was 20, so I thought I would be good to go using the two-day old swix blue extra that worked well the last few days. There was lots of fluffy new snow with more falling while I was skiing.

I had a lot of dragging and sticking. I scraped a little and then put green wax on which sort of helped, but it was still mostly grip and very little glide. I used the slow-wax opportunity to ski a few steep runs using my headlamp for light. It was fun.

Back on the track the sticking became a real annoyance. I scrapped off everything I could and then polished hard with a cork. The glide was much improved and I still had plenty of kick.

Anyway, I have a question: How do I get the wax off my scraper after it is completely clogged with wax? At home I soak it in really hot tap water and use some paper towels. But outside with cold hands and lots of snow all over it is really hard to get the wax off the scrapper. If I don't get the scraper clean it acts more like a putty knife than a scraper and just pushes globs of wax around.

Do I need a scraper scraper? And a scraper for to scrape the wax off my scraper scraper? Where does it end?!

I just pick it off with my hands... Blue extra and green shouldn't be too difficult.

It sounds like you might be using too much wax.

[The GCW]

Regarding the wax and temperature... 7°-20°. -For Me, that's a Blue wax day. Easy peasy. Why Extra?

Enjoy BLUE wax days while You can.

Re: the scraper. I've pulled it out. Handy, clean it with a stick. Kind of a problem eh', yes. Clean it with a metal edge; haven't had to do that yet... Error on the side of colder wax and use scraper less is a thought. Scraper to the clean the scraper is what I've been thinking. -& I think I will get there.

What do experienced hard men skiers do, though?