Home Ski Care 101 – Part 3, The Finishing Details

In Part 1 we looked at ski waxing basics, and in Part 2, we got a little more advanced with edge tuning. This week, we’ll take a look at finishing both of those jobs up with brushing and sidewall finishing.

Brushing

A common mistake we see at Start Haus is folks who think they’re trying to create a glass-smooth coating on the bottom of their skis with wax, and the more the better. The truth is, glass smooth isn’t fast – in fact it creates suction drag on the snow. That’s why ski bases have a pattern in them, and we don’t want to plug up that grind pattern with wax.

We want the wax inside the base, not on top of it. So after waxing and letting the skis cool, it’s critical to finish with scraping and brushing.

It boils down to taking the excess wax off in steps from scraping with a plexi scraper down through a few levels of brushing.

For those who really want to do a detailed job:

• Start with a wire brush to really dig into the grind structure
• Follow up with a nylon brush to start smoothing stuff out
• Finish with a soft brush like horsehair for a polished finish

For those who want to keep it simple, you can stick to a nylon brush.

See the technique here:

Sidewall shaping is a more advanced technique – using some of the tools previously covered in the edging tutorial, plus some specialized tools.

You’ll need:

• Panzer file
• Sidewall tool
• Sandpaper, wrapped around dowel
• Fibertex
• Acetone

See the technique here:

This is getting pretty advanced, and as always, the expert techs at Start Haus are here to help you out.