February 16, 2008 – Proper base preparation is perhaps one of the best ways to insure you have good kick and good glide for the 55km American Birkebeiner. Conditions appear to be fantastic for the 35th Birkie annual race. Follow these simple steps and your skis will be ready for race wax application. Swix makes it easy for you to have great skis!

First step is to clean the base from old wax, oils and dirt. If using classic skis, clean off old kick wax with a putty knife and then wipe / scrub clean with Swix wax remover (I0062). Using a piece of Swix Fibertex (T0266) with the wax remover works great to scrub the kick zone free of old wax. Let skis dry.

On the glide zones it is best to clean by using the traditional “hot scrape method”. Take Swix BP99, which requires a very low iron temperature of 110C, and melt this onto the base. Iron in with 2-3 passes down the length of the ski with each pass taking approximately 7-10 seconds. While wax is still molten, use a stiff (3mm) plastic Swix wax scraper (T0823D) and scrape wax off the base. You can usually see the dirt and particles in this scraped up wax. Continue to do this 2 or 3 times until you can not see any more dirt coming up. Let skis cool for 10 minutes, and then brush out the base using the Swix Fine Steel Brush (T1088B pro oval) or (T0192NB rectangular). Brush 7-10 strokes. You can feel when the brush becomes free and no more wax is left in the base structure. Keep brushes clean by using your vacuum on the bristles. The extra fine filaments of the Fine Steel Brush are incomparable in performance. They are extremely durable and do not break down like an old nylon brush or too soft of a brush such as copper or soft bronze. You are able to not only clean the wax out of the structure, you are also able to open up the pores of the base that may have been inadvertently burned or sealed by using too hot of an iron or lingering in one spot too long. As I recently mentioned in my article on Cold Weather Waxing Tips, coaches or those doing several pairs of skis may really enjoy the new Steel Brush (T01790 pro oval or T0179R rectangular size) for this first step brushing method.

To read the complete article click here