 Poster: A snowHead
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Afternoon 
I recently got my first board and prior to my recent trip to Les Arcs I lovingly waxed it. I followed the guides to the letter, and I'm reasonably competent with an iron, however, at the end of the first day I had white cloudy patches appearing. These were generally concentrated to the edges.
Brief technique:
- Hot wax to clean
- Melt wax all over the board and iron in, concentrating on the edges.
- Allow to cool in a warm room for a few hours
- Scrape off with perspex scraper, followed by a finer steel scraper
- Rub, front to back, with wire wool
- Brush front to back with coarse brush
Is this normal? Am I doing it wrong? Am I using the wrong grade wax? (I used K2 wax appropriate to the temperature range) or, preferably, I'm some kind of board demon who shreds longer and harder than anyone else.....  
On my trip to Les Arcs I went freshly waxed, then waxed the evening of day two, then thought I was doing it all wrong, so let a shop wax it on the evening on day five.
Any help would be greatly apprechiated as I'm gagging to faff with my board once more.... 
SnowSquirrell
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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p.s - I appreciate three waxes in a week is excessive and not usually normal!
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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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Surface wax wears off pretty quickly. Base near the edges dries out fastest as that's where the most friction is generated. So you'r enot doing anything wrong it's more a question of how often you can be assed to do it.
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i would suggest that the "white cloudy patches" - base burn, dry base, or whatever you want to call it - will not be able to absorb any of the wax you are ironing in (the overheating caused by skiing on the ski, without enough wax absorbed in the base, has transformed the amorphous ptex in these regions into crystalline ptex - or in laymans terms sealed the pores in the ptex)
therefore the wax you iron on will simply sit in a very thin layer on top of the ptex and wear off very quickly
this can be remedied by sanding the base to remove a thin layer of material an expose the amorphous ptex below
the ski should then absorb the wax and the wax will last much longer
nb: sanding the base is risky - in will produce a lot of ptex hairs and done incorrectly could result in a concave base - it may be easier to have the base stoneground
hope this helps, no doubt spyderjon will b along soon to offer his verdict!!
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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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What board is it and what kind of base does it have?
If the base is extruded, then waxing is pretty pointless.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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stevomcd, could you please xplain how waxing an extruded base is pretty pointless?
on average a extruded base is 40% made up of amorphous ptex, whereas a for a sintered base it is 60% - granted an extruded base will absorb around a third less wax, but how is it pointless?
waxing any base will surely make the board slide more easily and preserve the life of the board in the long term
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Wax on skis and boards does not last more than 5 to 10 minutes max.
The snow scrubs it off.
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Whitegold, you are correct - wax ON skis and board scrubs off very quickly
however, wax absorbed into the base of a ski lasts at lot longer, upto 2 weeks hard skiing in some cases (all dependent on the ammount of wax, snow conds, type of base etc.)
it not only acts to keep the base slick but it prevents the base from being abraded
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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tomow92, Surely for the base to become burnt would require a fair length of use? As mentioned, this board was brand new and it was towards the end of the first day that there was evidence of 'whatever'. A appreciate though that by hot waxing it I may have removed the base layer.
As to the type of board, I don't know! It's a K2 raygun. All that other language was well over my head.
I used a chepo travel iron, is there a chance that I was too conservative with the temperature therefore it wasn't hot enough, thus not opening the bases' pours and allowing the wax to be absorbed?
Thank you for your advice so far, all greatly appreciated.
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tomow92, the extrusion process creates a surface which is pretty-much solid (fibres all aligned) with no way for wax to get into the base.
That and I've owned an extruded board!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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stevomcd, i will concede that i didn't know that - it was explained to me, as i said above, as amorphous and crystalline "freckles" in varying proportions - and it is more difficult (not impossible) to get an extruded base to absorb wax
SnowSquirrell, yes it would require a fair length of use, if a good number of wax, scrape, brush cycles (3-5) were performed on the board prior to first using it
your method seems fine (go gently on the wire wool), as stevomcd, rightly said if the base is extruded it will be more prone to base burn
hot waxing will only remove a small surface layer of wax so that shouldn't be the problem
as for the iron, if the iron is hot enough to melt the wax then it is hot enough to "open the pores of the ski", just ensure the iron isn't hot enough that the wax smokes
K2 wax appropriate to the temperature is fine
imo it is a combination of not enough waxing when then board was new and the base being extruded (if in fact it is)
would suggest you continue waxing it every 2 outings and once the base or edges become damaged enough to require a stonegrind, try loading it up with a number of wax cycles after
in the meantime small areas of base burn won't actually affect performance that much
EDIT: having just read this document, http://www.alpineskituning.com/hotwax_myth.pdf i would revise my above statements
it appears it is impossible for an entruded base to hold wax for much more than one run
also the iron should be as hot as possible without smoking the wax, but move it quickly to avoid melting or burning the base
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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If the iron is making smoke then it is too hot for that certain wax.
Warm temp waxes have a lower smoking point then do cold temp waxes.
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Thanks for all the replies. I've done some digging and it would seem that my board is extruded  With there being such an apparent difference in the two types of boards I'm pretty pissed the guy in the shop didn't fully explain/know this.
So can we conclude from this that there is little I can do to hydrate my board other than bi-nightly waxing sessions? Bit of an effort really!
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You know it makes sense.
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SnowSquirrell, What a salesman
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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SnowSquirrell, Is it a job board? They often have extruded bases - cheaper - but easier to fix when they get mangled by the metal!
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Poster: A snowHead
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Sorry that should read jib - damn auto correct!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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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ahh, I assume you mean for freestyle? If so, no, I'm not really much of a freestyle guy just yet. You never know though....!
Fitzwilliam wasn't my typing.....guess there is a swear filter here..!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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SnowSquirrell, you'll find that rub-on wax is almost as effective as a hot wax on an extruded base, so at least you can give it a quick boost easily enough!
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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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It's not that unusual in my experience for dry spots to appear after a day or two. If you have been on a lot of firm corduroy you'll find it happens quicker.
My advice is continue with the waxing as you are currently doing it. It may help to put a bit more effort into the edge areas next time. Other than that, i'd bring rub on cold wax (rub not spray) and apply that nightly (i recommend doing that anyway because it is such a minimal effort).
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Quote: |
| if a good number of wax, scrape, brush cycles (3-5) were performed on the board prior to first using it. |
^^this.
I found the same issue with my Apo when it was new, after my first two days it was dry. I can only imagine that when it came out the factory it had little to no waxing by the manufacturer. After a week of riding with bi-nightly waxes (conditions were pretty cold and there was a little man-made stuff, also I only had an all round wax) I became pretty frustrated at the whole thing.
Before my next trip I did a couple of hot waxes/scrapes to clean the base a little and get some wax in it and then went through the hot wax, cool and scrape about four times with no riding in between before the board stopped accepting the wax into the base. I did my final wax with a pretty cold rated blue wax. After the whole next week of riding my base was in mint condition.
So in conclusion I reckon your board is just dry, you need to saturate the base, and get the wax to penetrate deep. An alternative to going through the process of multiple waxing might be to take it to a ski tech with a hot box, which basically does the same thing except more effectively.
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