Yet another reason to wax skis is to recondition your bases by using the wax to clean out all the gunk that has inevitably penetrated into them when they were dry and you took them touring anyway, especially in the spring with all the pine pollen, grime, dust, and sticky skin glue.
Step one in the process of cleaning your bases might involve using a solvent cleaner, like a citrus based cleaner. If there is skin glue residue or sap sticking to your bases this is a good first step to get the surface clean. According to the race tuners at the Start Haus, if you rely on solvent cleaners for a deep clean you can dry out a skis’ bases. Their recommendation for cleaning up ski bases is to hot scrape them.
Hot scraping is simply scraping your bases immediately after ironing wax into them. Don’t wait for it to cool down. As soon as it transitions from being a hot, glossy looking liquid to a soft, still-warm solid phase with a matte finish, scrape it. By scraping the wax when it’s hot you can peel off impurities that are pulled to the surface before they seep back down. The results are more obvious than you might expect, with obvious discoloration where dirt has been suspended in the surface wax. If you have never done this before you may find you could do it a few times before the wax scrapes off clean.
Once you have cleaner bases, you should find wax adheres better and lasts longer because the pores of the p-tex are available for wax, not clogged with dirt.
© 2013
1 comment
“Base cleaners” are base killers!
Hot scraping is a far more effective method for cleaning your bases than any liquid base cleaner. And it won’t over-dry or leave any residue either.
So don’t scrape your finish wax until it’s cool to the touch!