On Mar 12, 6:57 am, Zach Caldwell wrote:
Provided these are Amer (Atomic)-produced skis, then what they need
more than anything is time. The base is quite hardened by the factory
grind process. Brushing with aggressive metal brushes will only abrade
the surface and make it worse to deal with. It doesn't make sense to
try to "open the pores" with a brush - it just plain doesn't happen.

The warm base material itself is not hard to work with on those skis
(unlike the cold base, which is very hard). The factory finish is
really difficult to deal with. However, it's MUCH easier to work with
a ski that's seen a couple of months worth of waxing and skiing than a
brand-new ski. I would just start waxing it and keep waxing it. You
don't need to do anything extreme, just work on it normally. It's not
a question of saturating the base - that's easy to do quickly on a
healthy and open base. It's a question of softening the surface. The
base you've got is kind of like a scab. You don't want to rip it off -
you just want to gently soften it until it dissolves.

There is not likely to be any surface oxidation. Some pollution
(dirt), for sure. They buff-on a moly-based wax in the factory to make
the bases look kind of shiny, and that'll make things (wax scrapings)
look pretty dirty for a while. It'll all clean-up and soften and
smooth-out after about 50 waxings. The more scraping and regular
brushing you do the better it'll get. When the base starts to look
dull and feel a bit grabby when you're scraping soft paraffin, then
start putting in some harder paraffins. When the harder paraffins
don't seem to change the surface anymore, go back to some softer
paraffins. By the time you go back to harder paraffins the second time
you'll probably have a race-worthy base.

If you try to hurry this process up too much by shaving or aggressive
brushing you'll probably end up wanting to regrind the ski.

ZC

Zack - for those of us who are just serious recreational skiers and
for whom "50 waxings" is extremely, er, extreme to get a ski in shape,
is a fresh stone grinding a reasonable short cut? For me, spending $50
on a fresh grind and hotbox is a very reasonable alternative to all
the work you're talking about. I've had (for my purposes!) excellent
skis pretty quickly doing that.