cold powder works how?

Recently I ironed my skis with a high flouro wax for the teensF (Solda
F31 Violet) and then put on some of Solda's S20, which is a ahrd
antistatic wax in powder form. This was the company's recommendation
for the conditions and it worked really well -- the conditions were
new snow in the teensF.

But what I don't understand is why the two-wax application? Why a
medium-hard wax plus a hard powder, instead of a harder wax from the
start? I guess I should've tested that myself, but does anyone have
any thoughts on this?

JT

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The only cold powder product I'm used to is the Toko. I've always
considered it just a super hard parafin wax. I haven't had a super lot
of experience with it, but have used it to good effect when the snow
was really cold, especially fresh sharp crystals. Not so much for
static, but just to get a harder wax. Also, in my limited experience,
I've used it with waxes that don't have a super cold range to begin
with, but never a relatively warm wax - only with the coldest wax in a
product line. For instance, I've used it with Holmenkol EC and Toko
Blue, but not with Swix XX4 or Start Green. I've never used it with
warmer waxes of those lines. I've used it two ways, and really don't
think there's much difference: (a) iron the first wax then sprinkle the
cold powder on that and then iron in both to mix them and iron them in.
(b) wax with first wax, scrape and brush, then sprinkle cold powder,
iron in, scrape, brush. I prefer (a). As for which works better of
all the possible combinations or methods mentioned above, - no way to
guess without testing. I'm not super serious so I just either ask my
waxing guru which he recommends or just pick one of my .

For antistatic, I've used a graphite or moly product. Don't get me
started on that! (again, I've dabbled in doing a separate "pre" layer
and mixing with the wax of the day - couldn't tell you which way works
better.

Again, I'm certainly no expert - and don't have any familiarity with
the Solda products, so what I've written probably doesn't have any
relevance.

I think the idea is that when you wax, something like 75% (a guess) of
the old wax in the ski is exchanged for the new wax that you're
applying. If you wax again with the same new wax, you might push that
up to 90% (again, a guess). So if you're racing on ground up ice in the
upper teens, that's very abrasive snow. So you might wax multiple times
with a hard wax trying to get a durable wax into the base. Then you
might do a single layer of something high flouro that's softer. The
high fluoro softer wax will glide well, but won't last long if it's in
the base alone. The harder base layer is there to add durability.

I think various waxers have been trying combos to find some extra
glide. I find the Solda recommendations interesting. I think by
applying a hard wax over a softer fluor, you would tend to soften up
the hard wax just a bit and give it a little flour also. Another
interesting concept would be that the fluoro makes the hard wax wear a
little faster. So when a sharp snow crystal digs into the base, a few
molecules of wax may flake off. (This is just my weird imagination, no
facts here). I think this is also the concept that makes pure flouoros
work at very cold temps. Anyway, it's interesting to see Solda mix pure
fluor and cold synthetic wax for cold temps. So instead of mixing (and
layering) the wax in the ski, they're mixing before putting it on the
ski.

Jay Wenner