TUNING YOUR SKIS

Prepare your skis before traveling out of town!
Prepare your skis at home before going on a trip.  Wax rooms at hotels can be very small and crowded as everyone tries to do their skis at the same time.  Sharpening of edges, stoning, base repairs or major binding adjustments should all be looked after at home where you will have an abundance of tools, space and time.

Finally, wax your skis with a thick layer of wax and do not scrap it off.  A warm temperature wax is suitable unless otherwise notified.  If we are lucky and snow temperatures correspond to our wax, all you will have to do is scrape your skis upon arrival!  Please have a look at the wax kit information below.

TUNING ITEM CHECKLIST:

• Stone
• Tile
• File Card
• File Guide and Clamp
• Sandpaper
• Body File/Sidewall Remover
• Clean Rags
• Base Filler/Petex

STONE

diamond stones are better than regular stones, however other industries such as knife sharpening flat stones have proven to be excellent ski sharpening stones

FILE
single cut 8 in.  Chrome files from the ski shops are much better and last longer than ordinary files from the hardware store

FILE CARD
used to clean your file

FILE GUIDE                 
·used when filing the sidewall side of the edge. 88 degree (or 2 degree) is standard
·flat file guides can be found at some local shops.  Look for ½ to one degree flat file guides

SANDPAPER
·one sheet of emery cloth or 400 grit for dulling tip and tails
·one sheet of 120 grit for sharpening your plastic scraper                

BODY FILE (or sidewall removal tool)
· sidewall tool is used to prepare new skis
· body files can be found at autobody suppliers/shops.
· Trevor has a sidewall removal tool and will help everyone get there sidewall taken care of

RAGS
· used to clean old wax from your iron, ski bases before waxing etc.

BASE FILLER (petex)
· ironed into a gouge, then scraped off with a plastic scraper.
· never use a metal scraper on the ski base
· very small scratches can be ignored, large ones that are through the black base material should be taken care of at a ski shop

WAXING ITEM CHECKLIST:

Brush
Plastic Scraper
Iron
Was
Ski Straps

BRUSH
· varieties come in brass, nylon, and horsehair
· nylon is the most universal and should be the 1st brush you aquire
· most of the time a nylon brush is all that’s needed  

PLASTIC SCRAPER

·   keep it sharp using 120 grit sandpaper and your file guide

IRON
· an old clothes iron - flat bottom without holes works great if you can find one

WAX (Swix, Toko, Holmenkol)
· standard low-fluorile.  Usually two temperature ranges is enough.
· high-fluorile wax tends to dry bases out if used all the time.
· keep your wax very clean and store in a plastic bag – away from dirty edge filings                                                           

SKI STRAPS
· always use 2 straps when transporting your skis (tips and tails)
· you can also use them to hold the brakes up while tuning your skis           

Put all of your tools in a toolbox or fishing tackle box that is small enough to be easy for traveling.  Be sure to put your name on everything. Put a lock on the box.