bikehikeskifish said:
When you first purchase a new pair of skis, or have them ground, you should iron in several (3-4) applications of a relatively soft wax, like CH10 or STAR yellow, scrape and brush between, just to saturate and protect the bases. The last application can be 'hot-scraped' (scrape after solidification but before the ski cools) which will put out any dirt or impurities in the ski. Then let it set, scrape, bronze brush the heck out of it to get as much wax out as possible.
Now you're ready to do the wax of the day.
This requires advanced skills and special equipment to do and only a small number of very serious skiers (and racers) do this. Hot waxing a "waxless" (pattern) base also means that you will have to spend hours carefully scraping the wax out of the pattern. (Been there, done that...) Most users of waxless skis to not have adequate incentive, equipment, or knowledge to do this.
In general any halfway appropriate wax applied by any of a variety of means will help to protect the bases and improve glide of a waxless ski.
The products that I mentioned earlier (Swix F4 (paste) and Maxiglide) simply require wiping on, letting dry, and buffing. Easily applied to both the glide and kick zones.
Field waxing of a waxable (classical) ski is also generally pretty simple--crayon the (hard) wax* on the bottom and smooth it with a cork** ***. If you need to change the wax (either you chose the wrong wax or the snow conditions changed) you can put a softer wax over a harder wax or scrape the old (softer) wax off and then apply the new (harder) wax. All very easy for a relatively cold and dry snow. (If the snow is too wet, the easy way out is to reach for your waxless skis. You can also use klisters (soft, gooey, messy stuff).
All you need are the waxes, a synthetic cork, and a plastic scraper for waxing with the hard waxes.
http://www.rei.com/product/454021
* The waxes are color coded and the instructions on the packages tell you which wax to use for which temperature ranges. If after skiing 100yds or so your ski is still too slippery, put on a softer wax and if the ski doesn't glide well enough, put on a harder wax.
** This is good enough for a recreational skier--racers spend 99% of their effort waxing for the last 1% of speed.
*** If you wish, you can use a grippy (softer) wax in the grip zone (~center third of the ski) and slippery (harder) waxes on the tip and tail thirds of the ski (the glide zone).
Doug
(first step: shave your cat...)
