A good tip is to only have a limited range of waxes and learn the ones you have thoroughly. Feel free to write down what you wax with from time to time. That way, you learn a lot, and a well-kept notebook is invaluable to avoid getting lost in waxing when conditions are difficult.
At the beginning of the waxing career, there is often wax in all sorts of colors well ingrained in the skis. A prerequisite for a nice ski tour or a successful race is good skis. Therefore, the most important thing is to clean the skis properly before waxing them again.
Things to keep track of and preferably note down
1. What type of wax did you use when you trained or competed? Then note how it went. Good grip? Good glide?
2. How many layers of wax did you use on the skis
3. What were the conditions, meaning what type of snow was it
4. Humidity: Was it high or low?
5. Temperature
How cold it is outside has a crucial impact on what wax you should apply. Remember that there is often a different temperature in the snow and the air.
All wax brands have essentially the same color coding system, which applies to both glide, grip, klister, and can waxes.
Red: very warm, about three to ten degrees Celsius
Yellow: warm, a few degrees above zero to minus one degree
Violet: about zero to minus three degrees
Blue: about three to ten degrees below zero
Green: cold, about ten to twenty degrees below zero
General tips and advice for waxing
- Use a waxing iron. Regular irons have too uneven a thermostat.
- Always keep the waxing iron in motion.
- Activate the base before glide waxing by lightly brushing in the direction of travel with a fine steel or brass brush. Be gentle with the fine steel brush.
- Brushing after scraping is often done too little. Brush a little more even if you feel satisfied. With the horsehair brush, you can never brush too much.
- The only time you use Wax Remover is for cleaning the ski's grip zone and top side. Wax Remover is never used on the ski's glide surfaces. Make sure to separate cleaning for grip wax and glide wax.
- The ski's glide surfaces benefit from being cleaned occasionally. Use a soft paraffin and heat in with the waxing iron. Scrape while the glide wax paraffin is still warm. After this, the glide surfaces need to cool down and then be brushed out as after a regular glide paraffin.
- A structure groove can make a big difference for the glide. In cold conditions, it is recommended that the ski base has a fine structure, and in warm conditions, a coarser structure. Especially in warm and humid conditions, grooving makes a big difference for the glide.
- When waxing with klister, the grip zone should be shortened by 3-4 cm.
- Remember: Practice makes perfect! Try different waxing options during training so that you know it works in a potential competition. Never test new waxes during a competition, do that during training.
- When you put the skis away for storage at the end of the season or during a longer break, we recommend ALWAYS applying a layer of glide paraffin on the ski's glide surfaces without scraping off, it keeps the base clean and fresh for next time.
- Take care of your skis so that you always get the most out of them.
- We cannot emphasize enough the joy and help you will get from a well-filled notebook.
