hello my name is Zach little page and
I'm going to be doing a brief tuning
clinic on how to maintain tuned wax and
just keep your skis in great shape for
your ski season
so with this shaman e97 we have a 97
millimeter waist we're going to be
tuning this ski with a two degree side
edge bevel which will be a nice crisp
edge but be very durable
I'll take impacts from rocks and it'll
last day-to-day this is a really good
standard factory spec on your side edge
bevel the base bevel we're going to be
doing out of one degree the first thing
I'm going to do is get the breaks out of
the way the easiest way to do that was
with the rubber band press down on the
break move it back and hope it over the
top then I turn the ski over and I just
my bench
I bring the toe piece of the binding
right here up underneath the clamp part
of the vise this allows you to grab any
width ski from a race ski all the way up
to the widest powder skis with any vice
that you have so switched and Tocco have
the best bevel guys in the business what
these do is provide the slant on the
file and keep it consistent so that you
get a nice even pull across the edging
and have a consistent edge angle for the
file so you can see here we have a point
five a 1.5 and a one-degree base bevel
guide all your files will fit right into
these for these all-mountain skis I'm
going to be doing a 1 degree base bevel
so I'm gonna take my 100 grit diamond
stone I'm going to put it in my one
degree base bevel guide I'm going to
hold it flat against the base and I'm
going to pull pressure not heavy but
just real slight a bright up directly
above the edge here with the diamond
stone at this point we don't have to be
concerned about direction of pull so you
can hear as I pull this across you hear
that rough sound that is damaged on the
ski and that's what we're looking to
make go away
so now I've taken the case hardening off
of the edge it's ready for the file
using a nice clean paper towel to remove
any of the debris left over if filing
shavings and other dirt I'll now move to
what's called a bastard file we want to
start off of where the ski initially
contacts the snow as tomorrow hopefully
will be a real deep powder day snow
effect hits and is pressured by the ski
and all over the ski so you want to make
sure the edge is very even what you'll
find out a lot is that bevels aren't a
dressed-up off the contact points of the
ski and this makes the ski very erratic
so this is one of the things I always
check for so I'll go up top and you can
hear a nice solid bite of the file using
nice smooth overlapping strokes to pull
the material back on the ski to get this
established so now that we've gone
through with our bastard file will move
to us little finer file this will cut a
little smoother and give you a little
bit more consistent edge so go back
through with what's called the second
cut file and again this will only be one
or two passes after most we're going to
go back to a finer diamond stone again
I'm gonna go with the circle style just
a little more durable I just like the
results to look better
so now your base edge is established
it's polished it's smooth and this ski
will react very consistently as it goes
through different snow types the last
thing I do while I have to ski in this
position is ID tune it and make sure
that the ski is not overly sharp or beat
up at the tips and Tails I do that with
usually just an older bastards file and
I typically just go back a few inches
from the tip of the ski and a few inches
from the tail you try to do it evenly
you definitely don't want to detune this
way into the side cut of the ski now
shut it off and again with the tail and
I'm just quartering that edge to make
sure that it really disengages nice and
smooth at the release of the ski this is
a what we call is a gummy stone it's
basically like an eraser on your pencil
and this is how we polish in any of that
detuning that we're going to do so I've
come back about this far about now four
or five inches from the tip of the ski
with the file and then I want to make
sure that this blends nice and easily
into the the part of the ski that's
going to grip and bite in the snow so I
rub at a 45 degree angle and just polish
that up
again you want to do this evenly on both
edges I'll wipe off and you get the
debris that's left on the base and we'll
move to the side edge
the side edge you always wanted to with
the bass facing away from you you rest
the edge in and clamp it down again
you're not going to be using the center
clamp here you'll be using the clamps on
the edge the supports of the vise we're
gonna repeat the same pattern one of the
things that you're gonna have with the
side edge that you didn't have with the
base edge is that the side wall can be
getting in the way which is this white
material here can get in the way of the
file getting to the edge and creating a
nice smooth bite we're going to use our
Panzer orebody file which is just a
really really aggressive file to help
pull that back what we're going to do is
we're going to take a very steep angle
in this case a 93 degree side edge guide
which is a three degrees side edge which
is more than we're going to be using for
the final edge polish we're going to be
lining this up so it strikes the side
wall without going over the top of the
edge and we're going to use a spring
clip here to hold that against the guide
and then again with nice long even
strokes you don't have to press hard the
files should be doing the work if you're
not having the file engage or if you
feel like you're having to press really
hard against the the guide there's
probably something wrong either your
file is dull or the ski is not in the
right shape
so it exposes the side edge of the the
metal part of the side edge so you can
file it with your diamond stones and
your files just like we do at the base
edge I'm going to take a course diamond
stone to knock off all the case
hardening and any of the hard parts on
the scheme and what this does is this
part of the guide rests against the base
this part holds the file in a nice even
position so you get a consistent
presentation and angle against the edge
so it starts a tip nice even overlapping
strokes I'm pressing with the diamond
stone mainly just as I pull it towards
me and just gliding back against there
just show you wouldn't think that that
would pull off much material but when
you run that back you can see right here
the material if that that file is taken
back so then from the coarse diamond
stone I move on again to the bastard
file the course file I put it at an
angle the angle is allows the cut an
angle of the blades on the file to
really have the best presentation to the
edge to get the best cut so you see I
put that a little bit of an angle on the
file guide and again I'll just draw this
back not much pressure you really want
to have a nice easy gentle pull now
we're moving to our second cut a little
finer tooth
it's gonna make the edge a little bit
sharper a little bit smoother and
finally to our medium or 400 grit
diamond stones to get that final hone in
polish the file should sound nice and
smooth and consistent with no ticks no
chips or any funny sounds and when you
pull your hand across here with your
fingernail you should be able to shave
off your fingernail really easily on
there the last thing I'll do is I'll
take our dumped gummy stone again I'll
scrub the tips and Tails where we've
detuned it with the base filing run it
very lightly at a 45 degree angle across
the edge this removes any of the burrs
or final stuff that's hanging off the
edge and with this you'll have a very
nice smooth sharp consistent edge that's
going to ski really nice and that's how
you tune a skiing edge
so for waxing a ski this is a really
easy thing to do and you're going to
find that this is probably the single
biggest thing that you can do to keep
your skis performing well in between
Tunes the first thing I like to do is
again make sure the base is clear of
debris smooth and consistent I like to
use a metal brush to do this this
happens to be a steel brush brass is
also really good
this helps pull out all the dirt and
oxidize base material grease any filings
from your previous tuning and edge
sharpening that you were doing and open
up the base and make it ready to accept
wax go back again just wipe down the
base make sure that there's no debris on
there have your waxing on you'll notice
there's no holes in here this is a
digital iron so it keeps very good
control the temperature so you won't
have any smoking or burning or flare-ups
for tomorrow's condition we'll be using
a little lf7 has a really bright
performance range works great in high
moisture news snow it should be perfect
for tomorrow a lot of people there's
several different techniques some people
just like to crayon the wax on and come
and iron it some people like to touch it
to the iron heat up a little bit
leaving a little bit more wax on there
it's very important that your iron
doesn't touch your base it takes a
little bit more wax but it's the
difference between a wax you know using
70 cents worth of wax and 80 cents worth
of wax just to use a little bit more wax
and make sure that your iron floats
really nice and evenly across the ski so
what I'll do is I'll run a nice bead of
wax up and back down the middle and back
up again on the ski the ski hasn't been
waxed a long time so it's very very dry
and then I will use the heat and iron
to gradually melt this wax into an even
film across the ski again you should
have a nice even smooth glide on your
iron and a nice even distribution of wax
across the ski if you get to a part
where your iron is starting to grab and
in bind you definitely just can add some
more wax it's really easy to do and what
you're looking for is a nice consistent
even melt across the ski what bonds the
wax to your ski is the heat so the more
heat you can apply the better the wax is
going to bond the longer it's going to
last and also time the longer that you
can allow the wax to sit like over the
summer when you're storing your skis and
overnight when you're waxing them for
the next ski day the better the wax is
going to bond the longer it's going to
last and the faster your skis are going
to be
you know see here there's a nice little
melted film of Wax right behind the iron
and I just move nice and slowly across
here after about five or six passes
you're not going to get much more
absorption of wax into the base and
you'll probably have found the limits of
how much wax this ski will take so this
ski is looking pretty darn good here I'd
say there's little unevenness in the
base like I said this ski could use a
pretty major full tune okay so this ski
is absorbed just about all the wax I
think it's going to get a nice even
layer across the ski and we're going to
let this cool for a couple minutes again
the longer you can let it cool the
better the bonds going to be and then
we're going to scrape and brush it out
and that's how you access ski