Base Preparation / Waxing

[tommaso2k]

Hi,

in the instruction manual you wrote that it is not recommended to structure the base again in the base preparation phase because P-Tex 4000 slides best when it is smooth.
After removing the old wax is it not recommended to slightly structure the base with a soft brush instead of a copper brush?
After hot waxing should i structure the base when scratched off the excess wax with a brush (copper/nylon) or not?

Cheers

Tommaso

[rilliet]

Hi Tommaso,

if your work does not change the base structure, you can try what you want, but IMHO it is useless.

Personally I clean my base with some wax remover fluid. When it's dry I wax it hot. When the wax is cold, I scratch my base with a piece of plexiglass to remove all the excess wax. That's all.

Jacques

[nils]

I use a Nylon bruch afterwards to remove all excess wax , and make a small structure on the base. When the snow is wet/warm i use the brass brush but this doesn't happen often!

Nils

[tommaso2k]

Thanks a lot for your help Jacques and Nils.
First i will try Jacques methode because this is the easiest one - maybe later on i will try to use a brush and see if this will improve something.

Greets

Tommaso

[audacium]

People in the store will tell you that your base has to be stone-finished, because they have an expensive machine in the backroom they want to amortise . When I once met such a guy on the piste and he saw the base of my Swoard he strongly recommended a stone-finishing. I told him that I did not believe in it and that there was no necessity as my Swoard is gliding very well. He felt a little bit insulted and let me know that he was the professional...

welll - some minutes on a gliding passage later he did not have the slightest chance to follow me with his own race board (about same weight as me)

As a matter of fact I usually overtake most skiers when I go straight with the Swoard or when I glide on a flat part! (Aned most are rather surprised to be overtaken by a snowboarder )

So I will not stone-finish the base because I fear these fantastic gliding capabilities will be gone thereafter.

Personally I just clean the base with some base-cleaner, hot-wax it, scrub it and then I brush it a little bit to further remove excess wax, not really to give it a certain structure. Until now it works perfectly like this.

Besides: With EC I only wax my base every four or five days as it is little used...

[Arnaud]

Following the recommendation written in swoard/manual.html

<<One of the characteristics of the P-TEX 4000 ELECTRA is that the smoother it is, the better it slides.>>

I have sanded my swoard base with water sandpaper (400-600 grit) used for car paint repair (2 hours of hard labour ) , and then made like Jacques - see above. It's works perfect.

Arnaud

[harald]

Personally I do not understand why the wax should be structured when the base is not. Usually the idea behind structuring the base is to have some air between the base and the snow so it should not suck. In that case brushing the wax makes sense by removing excess wax and bringing back the base structure. Giving structure only to the wax seems IMO only meaningful when the board (or ski) should be used only in a race when split seconds matter and the board is not used for warming up. Otherwise, the structure that a brush gives to the wax is worn out after one run so the whole exercise seems meaningless for a board that is used for several hours. Therefore, since the base of the SWOARD should not be structured, I do as Jaques, wax the base, remove the excess wax and then polish with Swix Fiberlene. That gives a surface that glides well and faster than most others around. The most important thing is to wax often and maintain the base well, so it never dries out and turns greyish. This procedure is pretty fast and suffice for all freecarving purposes.

[tommaso2k]

Harald,

thanks for detailed explanation. Could you please let me know what is Swiss Fiberlene?

Greets

T

[harald]

tommaso2k,
Swix Fiberlene is a sort of paper where the fibres don't get off and stick to the base as an ordinary handtowel paper will do. Swix is the brand (same brand as the Swix board/skiwax). Fiberlene is the sort of tissue. Maybe other wax brands also have the same kind of tissue but I only know of Swix. A soft cloth could also do the job. The important thing is that it does not set off fibres into the waxed sole.