Great Video. All in for base prep in 3min. Mans skiers dont know about the importance of a flat base and many ski come with a convex base because of the L-shape of the edges.
After spending a couple of days on and off on my wifes skis trying to flatten the convex base using a cabinet scraper I finally found someone who demonstrates this and the grades of paper to remove the imperfections left by the cabinet scraper! I've set an arbitary degree of flatness of using a 4 thou' feeler gauge across the width and in one or two places it just slides under at the edge so I called it a day. I followed up with the silicone carbide sandpapers stuck on a square metal block with double sided tape and finally some white Scotchbrite before a hot scrape and finally waxing ready for storage. Imagine my surprise when I started on my Volkl Mantra M5 which I have only just been able to christen because of the Covid lockdowns only to find that at the tip and tail ends are about 6 to 8 thou' concave for about 12" each end. These skis have never been used so the bases are whatever the factory finished them to. Apparently this is not uncommon on the new generation of skis.
Is this a well known practice? I’ve heard differing ideas. Are you sanding your edges at the same time here? I’d be worried about keeping my sanding square to the base
Depends on your edge life- you'll want to monitor how much metal is left on the edge. Serious racers who are tuning and maintaining consistently in between training and events will want a new ski every year.
Why did you go with 220 grit? Also, why do you go back and forth with the sandpaper instead of tip to tail only? I'm not objecting at all, just wondering why you haven't gone dogmatic on your tuning by machining the crap out of everything and only moving tip to tail? I love doing everything by hand myself and I thought this was an awesome video.
100-200 basically, finer for coldest snows, or mid range if you want performance in all conditions, 120 with some cross hatching is ok to leave for slop crap slush/spring snow... it's like car tires with sipes, the hatching or grind is to move water, the more warm the snow, or the faster you are going, the more friction happens, the more water creating water under the board, which is resulting in sticktion... soooo make some cross hatching after the first third of the ski or board, so the water created can get out and not slo ya down as mucho. deeper structure for slop conditions, and fine structure for cold cold, and fine/medium for speeding like crazy, or medium (what i use all the time) for mixed use... take a very very very light torch to it after waxing once, to remove fine hairs, wax again, brush with firm stiff short bristle metal brush, , etc, till it has impregnated, the hairs are gone, brush it in some more, go glide
@@galehess6676 Thanks for the reply! I put a 220 structure in the base last year. I ski in Utah. It took a couple days out to get the base smooth even after fibertex. It was dragging a bit, just didn't feel right. Now the skis are awesome! I didn't think of the torch but I wouldn't trust myself with that.
I think that it's just terminology for high carbon steel. My cabinet scrapers are made from old wood saws made in Sheffield and after filing flat then diamond stoned I use a tricker to put a hook on the edge. The tricker is a smoothed out knife steel made in Sheffield - by the way, I'm from Sheffield 🙂
Great Video. All in for base prep in 3min. Mans skiers dont know about the importance of a flat base and many ski come with a convex base because of the L-shape of the edges.
Very good video. I was looking for this kind of end-to-end instructions for quite some time!
Finally someone who really understands in ski préparation and especially in geometry. ..
After spending a couple of days on and off on my wifes skis trying to flatten the convex base using a cabinet scraper I finally found someone who demonstrates this and the grades of paper to remove the imperfections left by the cabinet scraper!
I've set an arbitary degree of flatness of using a 4 thou' feeler gauge across the width and in one or two places it just slides under at the edge so I called it a day. I followed up with the silicone carbide sandpapers stuck on a square metal block with double sided tape and finally some white Scotchbrite before a hot scrape and finally waxing ready for storage.
Imagine my surprise when I started on my Volkl Mantra M5 which I have only just been able to christen because of the Covid lockdowns only to find that at the tip and tail ends are about 6 to 8 thou' concave for about 12" each end. These skis have never been used so the bases are whatever the factory finished them to. Apparently this is not uncommon on the new generation of skis.
Nice work Jim! I've been trying to teach this method to folks, but most just don't believe it and are afraid of the steel!
Super helpful!
Is this a well known practice? I’ve heard differing ideas. Are you sanding your edges at the same time here? I’d be worried about keeping my sanding square to the base
edges get filed, not sanded, and that's after you do the base completely
1:49 which brand is the scraper?
Thank you for response ;)
Wintersteiger
This would be alot more helpful if he showed us the scraper to use :( i dont know which to get or from where
How many times can you sharpen skis?
Depends on your edge life- you'll want to monitor how much metal is left on the edge. Serious racers who are tuning and maintaining consistently in between training and events will want a new ski every year.
quickest ive ever seen a ski become even slightly hindered in performance is after 300 grinds. dont worry about over grinding a ski or snowboard
don't listen to this guy lmao
Why did you go with 220 grit?
Also, why do you go back and forth with the sandpaper instead of tip to tail only? I'm not objecting at all, just wondering why you haven't gone dogmatic on your tuning by machining the crap out of everything and only moving tip to tail? I love doing everything by hand myself and I thought this was an awesome video.
100-200 basically, finer for coldest snows, or mid range if you want performance in all conditions, 120 with some cross hatching is ok to leave for slop crap slush/spring snow... it's like car tires with sipes, the hatching or grind is to move water, the more warm the snow, or the faster you are going, the more friction happens, the more water creating water under the board, which is resulting in sticktion... soooo make some cross hatching after the first third of the ski or board, so the water created can get out and not slo ya down as mucho. deeper structure for slop conditions, and fine structure for cold cold, and fine/medium for speeding like crazy, or medium (what i use all the time) for mixed use... take a very very very light torch to it after waxing once, to remove fine hairs, wax again, brush with firm stiff short bristle metal brush, , etc, till it has impregnated, the hairs are gone, brush it in some more, go glide
@@galehess6676 Thanks for the reply! I put a 220 structure in the base last year. I ski in Utah. It took a couple days out to get the base smooth even after fibertex. It was dragging a bit, just didn't feel right. Now the skis are awesome! I didn't think of the torch but I wouldn't trust myself with that.
Why do i need a swedish steel scraper? I have a couple of American made ones, that I use all the time for both soft and hardwoods?
I think that it's just terminology for high carbon steel. My cabinet scrapers are made from old wood saws made in Sheffield and after filing flat then diamond stoned I use a tricker to put a hook on the edge. The tricker is a smoothed out knife steel made in Sheffield - by the way, I'm from Sheffield 🙂