Glide Wax

I think I should warn everyone about this procedure first off. This involves taking a hot iron to the bottom of your ski. You have to be very careful how you do this. I will not take any responsibility for you ruining your skis (which I myself have almost done) trying to glide wax them. I highly recommend that you watch someone glide wax skis before you attempt to do it on your own. This whole procedure should be just used to jog your memory about how to do it.

Glide waxing skis is one of the most important things one can do to skating skis. First some theory about what the wax does:

Glide wax is applied to allow water to run off the ski more rapid. When the ski is moving over the snow, there is friction between the ski and the snow. That friction generates heat, which is enough to melt the snow. If this water sticks to the bottom of your ski, it will slow you down. The wax basically treats the bottom surface of the ski to allow the water to run off easier.

First, it is a good idea to clean the base coat (the black stuff on the bottom of your ski) somehow. If you aren't going to use your skis for a little while, you can use some wax remover. I have heard though that this stuff takes a while to evaporate, and although I have never had problems with it, you should let your skis sit for a few hours to let the liquid evaporate. Another way to clean the base coat of your ski (which supposedly a little bit better, but I have never tried) is to melt some wax onto your ski and spread it out (see further down to see how to do this). While the wax is still hot, scrape it off, and when it is all scraped off, your skis are clean.

Ok, now that you have clean skis in front of you, you can start to really wax them. Pick a wax which will be good for the next day. You will need to melt the wax onto the ski with an iron. There are special wax irons which one can use, or you can just use a household iron. I strongly recommend buying an iron specifically for waxing. It is possible to wrap aluminium foil around the iron you use on your clothes, but I have gotten in trouble multiple times with my mother for accidently getting wax on the bottom of her iron. Once you have an iron, you will want to take the bar/block of wax which you are going to apply, touch it against the iron, and then rub the wax onto the ski. The purpose of this is to soften the wax a little bit so it is easier to spread onto the ski. Spread it liberally on the bottom of the ski, and be sure to wax in the groove. Once the entire ski is covered with wax, take the iron and rub the ski with it. The purpose of this step is to spread the wax out evenly on the ski, and make it melt a little bit better. This is problably the most difficult step. You want to spread it out so you can clearly see the proper color of the base coat underneath (usually black) and a second after the iron passes over it, it turns whiteish. Make sure this is the case along the whole ski. You are done spreading the wax onto the ski. Now place the ski to cool in some place. Leave it at least 24 hours.

Ok, it's the next day. You have this ski with a layer of wax on top of the basecoat. Now what? Now you get a wax scraper (be sure it's plastic) and scrape off as much of the wax as you can. You want to scrape from tip to tail in long even strokes. You do not have to scrape the entire ski each stroke, but each stroke should cover at least a foot, preferably more. Be sure you scrape the groove. How much do you want to scrape your skis? You want to scrape them until extremely little wax comes off each time you scrape.

Now you have most of the wax scraped off, and you want to take a nylon brush and brush down the rest of the ski, so the final bit of wax is removed. Once this is done, you're almost done. If it is warm out, take the brass brush and brush the ski a few times. This will create more grooves in the ski to transport water faster from the bottom of the ski.

Finally take some fiberlene (the thin white material) and polish the ski. Now you are done glide waxing your skis!

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