Today’s post is an instructional piece explaining how to
tune your skis yourself, this process may not be the professional way of tuning
your skis for a race but it will do for the normal skier. In order to successfully
tune your skis you may want to have a bench with clamps that will hold your ski
steady. The first step that I usually do is clean the entire ski off, that way
there is no dirt being rubbed into your ski. Second is prepping your side walls
if they need to be cut down a little, this is done with a side wall cutter.
What this does for you is it makes your edge stick out a little more so when
you’re carving on your edges it will be all edges and not your side wall making
you turn better. After the side wall is trimmed you then start to sharpen your
edges. What I do before I start sharpening is that I take a permanent marker
and make a line down the edge to make sure when I sharpen them I hit the entire
edge, this will ensure accuracy when trying to sharpen your entire edge. To
sharpen your skis you will need a file guide and a file set. These can either
come in a kit or bought separately at a ski shop.
After the edges are sharpened next step would be to start
the prepping process of waxing your skis. First thing you want to do here is
use a waxing brush to get out all the old wax and dirt from your bases, after
you clean the base you should be able to see the pores in your ski. This will
give you a better layer of wax on your ski. If you have any deep gashes in your
skis like mine did in the photo be sure to fill it with a polyethylene repair
candle.
What you do with this
is take a lighter and heat up the candle until it catches fire (this flame is
not big at all) it will then start to drip, make sure these drips get into the
gouge that you’re trying to repair. After covering this area with the
polyethylene be sure to let it cool and then scrape off the excess with a razor
blade or file making it level smooth with your base. Next step is to start the
waxing process, use the hot iron and place a piece of wax to the iron and let
the wax drip onto the ski, be sure not to overdo it because you will be
scraping for a long period of time if you just cake it on. After you make a
nice line of drips down the entire ski you then want to start with the hot iron
from one end of the ski and spread the wax evenly to other side making sure the
wax is hitting the entire base of the ski.
Let this ski dry and start on the next one repeating this
entire process. When the wax is cooled you are then ready to scrape and brush
the ski of the wax. First thing you want to do is scrape the ski’s edges with
the scraper and then using the whole scraper to go down your entire ski taking
off the excess wax.
After scraping as much as you can off the ski with your
scraper you then will brush your ski with the wax brushes. For my skis I used
three different types of brushes, each brush has a different degree of fine
bristles which buffs the base of the ski. After buffing the ski out with the
brushes it is now complete and ready for slopes.
