Again this year, I will be grinding classic and skate skis for the loppet. I will be waxing skis for the skate races on Sunday.

I will grind skis on Wednesday, Feb. 12 and after that on demand up to and including Saturday, Feb. 15. You can bring skis to Wakefield at any time when we are open. You may also drop off skis at Euro-sports in Ottawa. On Tuesday, Feb. 11, I will pick up skis at Euro-sports at Noon. I will grind these skis on Wednesday and return the skis to Euro-sports by Noon on Thursday. If you drop off skis at Euro-sports, please send me an email to inform me that your skis are at the store.

Euro-sports will have a booth for the loppet in the gymnasium of the school. You may drop off skis at the booth for stone grinding at any time. However, if you want to use the skis for the race on Sunday, you will need to get the skis to their booth before they close on Friday. For people who want me to wax their skate skis for the race on Sunday, I will have these skis ground, waxed and ready to go at the booth on Sunday by 7:15 am. If you want your skis to be ground only and you want to wax these skis yourself, you will need to make arrangements to come to Wakefield on Saturday afternoon to get these skis.

For the grinding of skis, you can decide for yourself what grind you would like or let me determine the appropriate grind for the race on Sunday. I will be in the gym on Sunday morning prepared to put hand structure on any skis that need structuring.

For the last month, I have been testing the new NF liquid waxes. I am highly impressed with these waxes. For the loppet, I will be using the new Star NF liquid glide waxes. Once these waxes are ironed in, they can last for up to 80 km. The Star waxes are also highly effective on the skins of skin skis and can also be ironed in using an iron temperature of 120 C’. From this point on, I am going to use and sell NF, non toxic, liquid and hard glide waxes.

I will charge $65 for the grind and base saturation, $20 to harden the bases and $35 to glide wax skate skis for the races on Sunday using Star NF liquid waxes. The liquid wax is applied over a NF, hard wax of the day that has been ironed into the base and polished well. After applying the liquid wax, it is ironed in using a iron temperature of 130 C’ and then polished.

Enjoy the Races.

Wayne

Cleaning Skins

See the video to your right.

​As illustrated in the video, I prefer to use a wax remover to clean the skins. Immediately after cleaning, I use 99% isopropyl alcohol to remove the residue. After cleaning, let the skins dry for at least 1 hour before you wax the skis or go skiing.  

Please pay considerable attention when ironing in glide waxes.  Keep the iron and waxes at least 1 cm from both ends of the skins.  

Applying Montana Win the Race Liquid Silicon Compound

See the video to your right.

Montana Win the Race Silicon Compound is technically not a wax. However, for the sake of this article, since it accomplishes the same thing as liquid waxes, I am going to include Win the Race as a liquid wax in this article.

​When applying Win the Race, do not use heat. After the liquid is dry, you do not need to scrape or polish the skins or the glide zones.  One coat will last about 2 to 2.5 hours. If you apply a second coat, it will last about an hour longer.

Last winter, I tested Win the Race in comparison to other waxes. I concluded that in variable and wet conditions, Win the Race is as good, if not better, than other liquid waxes, NF, LF and HF.

This winter, I am going to continue to test Win the Race in comparison to all the new NF liquid waxes that are now on the market.

Liquid Waxes

On Tuesday, January 7, I received the new Star NF liquid waxes. On the same day, Peter Hamilton came to Wakefield with samples of the new NF Vauhti PUR liquid waxes. That same day, I waxed 4 pairs of test skis with the waxes (blue range), including Star NF liquid, Vauhti PUR liquid NF and Start Ultra Gel NF liquid. That night, I started testing.

All liquid waxes need to be applied to a clean, dry ski base. The base of the ski does not have to have wax in it. The skis will be faster if there is a wax ironed into the base of the ski. It is better if this wax is a non fluoro paraffin wax.  Considering that liquids need to adhere to the base of a ski and not the wax, any wax that has been ironed into the base needs to be scraped and polished well.  After 100 to 200 km of skiing on liquid waxes, it is recommended that the skis be waxed again using an iron and paraffin wax. For best results for race day waxing, the wax ironed in needs to be in the same temperature range as the liquid wax applied.

For those people who do not have an iron or prefer not to use one and are about to use liquid waxes on a regular basis, I suggest that you consider having someone clean and wax your skis at least once a year. Your skis will perform better if you maintain your skis properly. I also recommend that you have your skin skis cleaned and waxed at least once a year.

Moving forward I am going to be using and selling only NF liquid and block waxes, namely; Montana Win the Race Silicon Compound, Star, Start, and Vauhti. 

If you have not already tried using liquid waxes, I suggest that you do so. I think you will be pleased!