question

[midwif]

I brought two fairly new pairs of ski with about 12 days of skiing on each to be waxed and sharpened. The bottoms had no gouges and appeared to be in decent shape. Since I anticipate some ice-skiing this week in Vermont, I wanted sharpened edges.

The shop told me that new skis have textured bottoms which require the full "tuning". A wax and sharpen won't do for these bottoms.

Does anyone have any info about the validity of this? What's the reasoning?

Thanks

[François]

You should be able to wax and sharpen your skis. I wax and sharpen my new skis all the time.

Maybe he meant that your bases are in need of some work, not for scratches and gouges, but because the finish is worn off. Bases do have a pattern on them. If you look closely you should be able to see tiny grooves, almost like the grain in a piece of wood. That's why tuners always finish with a good brushing after scraping off wax. It's quite a science, there are even different patterns for different types of snow.

I think needing to refinish the bases after 12 days is a little much.

[Jim Ratliff]

Better skis do have a structure ground into the bottom. It facilitates breaking the vacuum between the ski bottom and the melted water the ski crosses. But the assertion that a wax and sharpen won't do for such skis is bull.... I wouldn't work with such a shop.

However, if you ever have the bases stoneground you need to make sure that the shop is good enough to recreate the structure in the base. But 12 days of skiing shouldn't require anything.

[jclayton]

I was about to post the same thing , the shop either doesn't know or is after extra work . Either way sounds like it should be given a wide berth , could be a rogue salesman .

[midwif]

Thanks all. It seemed a bit much to me. Basically, he told me that the bottoms were still ok. Stated that he recommends people ski longer on them until the bottoms were at the point that the whole tuning needed to be done. Didn't make sense to me. I will no longer go there for this.

[Belskisfast]

Bases are rarely true/perfectly flat out of the factory. Some brands are better than others as a rule but it is each individual ski. Ive' had trouble finding two acceptable bases selecting from 10 pairs. I always take a true bar with me and hope they have several pairs in the length I'm looking for. I pick out the two best bases. Best to shop early season.
Perhaps the shop meant you needed a full tune to get the bases flat and reconditioned. Had you ever waxed them? You can burn new bases if you don't wax them early and often. So called factory wax is a joke. New bases should always get a good conditioning wax(soft) and then a Temperature/condition wax before they're skied. If you wax often the bases will always run well ,be smooth, and probably outlast the ski's camber.
That last part about the shop guy recommending people wait till the "bottoms" are bad off makes him sound ignorant. I would go elsewhere.

[Belskisfast]

repeat

[Belskisfast]

re-repeat bad server

[Dave T]

Lots of good and correct information here. All skis (worth skiing on) have tiny grooves in the bases. As stated above this is critical to breaking the vacuum that can occur with the thin moisture layer that occurs when sliding on the snow. Brushing is the most important step in waxing as this brushes the wax out of the tiny grooves.

Contrary to information above, some manufacturers have deliberately concaved the tips in some models (I believe Atomic was guilty of that on some models only). This will make it a challenge to do tuning and waxing. The vast majority of skis come factory tuned and can be skied right 'out of the box'; however I agree with belfast, I like to thoroughly clean a new ski base, sharpen edges to correct angle in needed, and a wax job. Then you know what you are skiing on.