Waxing new skis with fish scales

[idahoTux]

I have brand new Madshus Panorama M68 skis. They're unwaxed from the dealer. I'm preparing to do an initial base wax and am wondering about how I should wax the scales. I'm thinking I'd hot wax the tips & tails with Swix Base Prep (BP99 'cause that's what I have). Should I just use something like MaxiGlide for the scales and call it good?

[bbense]

That's the easiest thing to do. Or even just maxiglide over the whole ski in the morning.

If you want to go down the rabbit hole of improving glide, start with putting some "structure" in the waxless section with a steel brush. After that hotwaxing the whole ski does work. You can wax the tip and tails as regular. I use a folded "lint free" paper towel to lift the wax out of the scales using an iron. This does help some, but I'm never sure it's worth the effort. The scaled section is extruded, not sintered so it's never going to absorb that much wax.

Some kind of wax on the scales is essential for wet conditions where the snow will clump to the base during climbing.
If the snow is soft, the waxless base will have very little affect on glide. The place where waxless skis suffer is a packed track. Generally if it's steep enough to make turns, I don't notice the waxless base. Low angle packed trails are where the drag shows up and in 30+ years of trying I've never found anything that makes a significant difference. Brushing the waxless section does seem to help a little in wet spring snow, but it's at best a minimal gain.

[idahoTux]

So I contacted Madshus to ask for their guidance regarding their new 'waxless' skis. They replied that there's no need to wax them when brand new, they are good to go.

[bbense]

So I contacted Madshus to ask for their guidance regarding their new 'waxless' skis. They replied that there's no need to wax them when brand new, they are good to go.

Umm... Do yourself a favor and carry some rub on paste wax for fresh wet snow.

[CIMA]

When skiing on powder snow in areas that have a mix of sunny and shady spots, I used to have trouble with snow getting stuck on the scales of my skis. To prevent this, I now always apply hot wax to both the gliding and scaled parts of my skis.

[wabene]

I've hot glide waxed the scales once and found it difficult to remove the excess during what would be the scraping phase of the process. Then the left over wax stuck in the scales pulled off with my expensive Easy Skins getting stuck in the glue. You couldn't really see it was there, bummer. Then when ironing the skins with a paper bag to remove the wax some of the glue came off with the bag. The skins still work but what a PITA. I just use paste wax on the scales now, but if someone has a fool proof way of hot waxing them I'm all ears.

[fisheater]

I hot waxed the entire ski. Immediately after taking the iron off, I wipe the scaled area with a paper towel. It worked well, and it was easy to do. I have had snow stick to scales treated with Swix paste wax. I have heard good things about Max-glide.

The real question about scales is, how do you stop that baseball card in the bicycle spokes vibration thing??? I asked Heaven for more powder, but the results weren’t consistent!

[mca80]

As we haven't had more than 2" on the ground at any time, I have been only using my old rossi 65 fishscale rock skis so far. Agree with @bbense to put at least something on there. For the patterened zone I use toko express 2.0 liquid, very easy and no fuss. Still can't get over how loud, and draggy, fishscale skis are though.

[bbense]

The real question about scales is, how do you stop that baseball card in the bicycle spokes vibration thing??? I asked Heaven for more powder, but the results weren’t consistent!

Skin skis are a huge upgrade like the Fischer twin skin, buy only come in XC versions as far as I know. I have to imagine in the very tiny XCD market I'm probably the only one who would buy a Fischer 78 with twin skin bases.

[wabene]

The real question about scales is, how do you stop that baseball card in the bicycle spokes vibration thing??? I asked Heaven for more powder, but the results weren’t consistent!

Skin skis are a huge upgrade like the Fischer twin skin, buy only come in XC versions as far as I know. I have to imagine in the very tiny XCD market I'm probably the only one who would buy a Fischer 78 with twin skin bases.

Madshus Fjelltech M50's have an integrated skin and are similar to Gammes and Transnordic 66's. They also have the skinnier M44. These are metal edged backcountry touring skis.