 Poster: A snowHead
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Over the years I've acquired a few brushes for waxing skis. They are a fairly soft horsehair brush, a stiff nylon brush and a brush with what looks like fine copper bristles. I've never really given much thought to what each type of brush should be used for, and mainly I use the horsehair brush. Any clues as to what each brush's purpose in life is?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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rob@rar, Mr DS showed me how to wax skis at the weekend, and I waxed my own skis for the first time. He has a brush that has stiff nylon bristles on one side and copper bristles on the other. He doesn't use a fine brush. Basically once you've scraped the excess wax off with the scraper, you use different grades of brush to fine tune the wax. He says the copper brush is for racy type skiers, who will re-wax every day. This will get most of the rest of the wax off, leaving just enough for racing. The stiffer nylon brush will get less wax off, and is better if you are going to re-wax every few days, not every day. It is kind of akin to a coarse emery board when doing your finger nails (apologies for the girly analogy). The finest brush is just like a very fine emery board - providing a really nice smooth finish, but doesn't take off much wax.
That's how he explained it, anyway. I'm sure somebody will come along who knows a whole lot more than me, and explain it much better 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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docsquid, You're almost on the right track however it's the wax 'in' the base that provides the performance as the porous sponge-like base opens with heat/friction during use alowing the wax that was absorped by your ironing to be released, providing a lubicating layer between the ski base & the snow. Wax left 'on' the surface of the base after tuning actually hinders performance (so no good for racers) as it blocks the base's structure (ie the grooves in the surface of the base like a car tyre tread) preventing the base from shedding moisture & causing the skis to stick to the snow. Bases are therefore brushed after scraping to polish the base surface & to remove the wax from the structure grooves. My website is still a few weeks off completion but if you PM me your email address I'll send you my tuning guide.
rob@rar, Tech's use the huge range of brushes that are available in a variety of ways & each own has their own pet method. Here's what I use for the majority of my commercial tuning with universal wax:
- An aggressive stainless steel brush for 'breaking in' post grind bases or for adding structure, say for spring conditions.
- Two brass brushes, one for pre-hotscrape cleaning for the removal of existing wax & oxidation etc. The other as the primary post-waxing/scraping brush to clean out the base structure & provide initial base polishing.
- Horsehair brush for further structure cleaning & base polishing.
- Nylon brush for final base polishing.
For higher performance tuning using specific waxes each brush type is available in different 'strengths' (ie bristle length & stiffness) meaning that although the same brush types are utilised, softer brushes can be used for soft warm temperature waxes & coarser brushes for hard cold temperature waxes.
The use of flouro race waxes & overlays can require a different approach, for example I use a second but very fine horsehair brush for final polishing as it prevents the possibility of static build-up compared to the nylon brush.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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spyderjon, is your nylon brush softer than your horsehair brush for the final polish?
I work on the principle that I use my stiffest brush prior to waxing to get rid of all the accumulated rubbish and old wax, wax the ski, then a stiff brush followed by a soft brush for polishing. With my kit that means brass brush prior to waxing, then stiff nylon followed by fine horsehair (if I'm using a very cold wax I don't bother with the horsehair as it doesn't seem to do anything). Do you think this is a sensible approach or should I finish the polishing with a stiff brush?
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| rob@rar wrote: |
| spyderjon, is your nylon brush softer than your horsehair brush for the final polish? |
The 'standard' Kunzmann nylon brush that I sell is pretty soft & is used after their horsehair offering. However this situation can be reversed when using brushes from different manufacturer's as happens when I've using my large oval workshop brushes. It's a case of testing to see which of your brushes removes the most wax from the structure & then use them in that order, ie from most to least.
Most of my non racing clients don't bother with a horsehair brush at all which is fine.
| rob@rar wrote: |
| I work on the principle that I use my stiffest brush prior to waxing to get rid of all the accumulated rubbish and old wax, wax the ski, then a stiff brush followed by a soft brush for polishing. With my kit that means brass brush prior to waxing, then stiff nylon followed by fine horsehair (if I'm using a very cold wax I don't bother with the horsehair as it doesn't seem to do anything). Do you think this is a sensible approach or should I finish the polishing with a stiff brush? |
That's great. If it was me I'd be tempted to use a brass brush after waxing as well prior to your nylon & horsehair, especially if you're using a hard cold temp wax.
For your racing have you tried the 'wet polishing' technique? I've been prepping skis using this method for a couple of Xscape racers. After waxing, brass & horsehair brushing spray a fine mist of clean water on the base (using one of those small plant sprays) & then use short, overlapping tip to tail strokes with a medium to long bristled soft nylon brush. This can be repeated 2 to 3 times replenishing water as necessary. The result of this process is a finely polished surface void of wax particles normally difficult to remove with standard brushing techniques. It's also supposed to decrease the static generating effects caused by friction against polyethylene bases. Whether that’s true or not I don’t know but the lads definitely got fast skis. They reckon that prepped that way with hydrocarbon that their skis are as fast as using a fluoro overlay but without the mega cost.
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| spyderjon wrote: |
| It's a case of testing to see which of your brushes removes the most wax from the structure & then use them in that order, ie from most to least. |
Thanks, I think that's what I'm doing now. My horsehair brush is definitely the softest that I have.
| spyderjon wrote: |
| For your racing have you tried the 'wet polishing' technique? |
Sounds a bit like too much hard work for me  I try to wax every two or three days skiing, so that's already taking up too much time. Adding another step in the process would mean me spending too much of each trip in the ski room.
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