Ski tuning basics for Masters racers

jim tuning skis — *Masters racer and coach Jim Tomassetti preparing to tune skis*

Why should you tune your race skis?

Keeping your skis regularly tuned helps your skis perform the best in the race course. When your bases are flat, your edges are sharp, and your skis are waxed, your skis will bite into the snow and glide better--both critical elements for a fast time. Especially on the East Coast, with our freeze-thaw cycles and abrasive manmade snow, your skis are going to wear down more quickly than they would if you were skiing out West.

In general, before each race day, you should check the sharpness of your skis edges and reapply wax to your bases. You will probably need to sharpen your edges one every few races. Continue reading for tips on how to sharpen your edges and wax your skis, and some recommended tuning supplies to purchase when you're first getting started.

General tips

Always transport your skis with Velcro ski straps. This will keep your skis from grinding against each other and dulling the edges.
Ideally take a stone and/ or diamond stone to your skis after each use, to de-burr them and make it easier to sharpen them the next time.
Keeping skis waxed also keeps your bases from drying out and allows them to glide.
Suggest sharpening your skis after every few times skiing, it is easier to keep up with them, and will provide a much better ski experience.

How to sharpen your ski edges

1. Take the stone and debur any nicks. This is hardened steel and if you don’t remove them, they will dull your files. To debur, very lightly run the stone on the nicked area…follow the bevel of the ski. Don’t press super hard…just enough to get the bur off. Do this on the bottom and edge of ski.

2. Tape the base of the ski to keep filings out.

3. If the sidewalls are high you can shave down the sidewall to allow the file to make contact with the edge. This only has to be done periodically. Use the edge planar for this.

4. If the edges aren’t bad you can just use the diamond stone and clean up the edges at this point.

5. Run the edging tool down the length of the ski. Files are directional, so you’ll need to identify the cutting direction for the file. ….you’ll go tip to tail on one direction and tail to tip in the other unless you switch the file in the tool. It’s ok to go tip to tail then tail to tip on the other edge. The reason you do this is to ensure that the filings fall out of the tool on the side of the ski not the base to get ground into your file and base…you don’t have to clean your file if you sharpen this way. You can tell when they are sharp by brushing your finger nail over the edge or just feeling for a smooth edge. Sometimes big gouges won’t come out totally, and it’s better to leave a small imperfection then to take down too much edge.

6. Today’s bases are very hard, so if the base is too mangled you will need to take it into a ski shop to have them flatten the bases. Depending on how much you ski, it’s a good idea to get the bases flattened in a shop maybe yearly or every other year...if you are careful with your skis you can get 30-50 days without a base flatten and sometimes even more…but this depends on how many rocks you hit. Use only a good shop for this, there’s a lot of folks that can’t do this proficiently. We use Edgewise in Stowe VT to do this. They will ship skis back to you via mail.

7. Check on the specs for your skis on edge bevel. Our GS is 0.7 base, 3 edge. And our SL is 0.5 base, 3 edge. Recreational skis are 1.0 base, 2 or 3 edge. Press lightly with the edging tool, enough so you can feel it bite, but not so much that you are over pressuring…too much and you will change the bevel on the ski.

8. Once you have the basic sharpening done, polish the edges by first using a diamond stone (this is not directional) then the Arkansas stone. Use these stones in the edge of beast tool. We keep multiple edge of beast tools so we don’t always have to put them in and out of the tool.

9. Once both sides are sharp….wipe the base down…ideally you open the structure with a steel brush which will allow the ski to take on more wax…the brushes tend to have a direction marked on them…and you go tip to tail with the steel brush…just enough to get old wax out. The Swix brush has an arrow for the direction on it. The bristles should go in the direction of the ski…

10. Wipe the ski down with a clean paper towel.

How to wax your skis

1. Heat the iron up…not too hot…if the wax smokes when you put it on the iron it is too hot. You want to be sure that there is always wax in between the iron and ski. If you heat the ski up too hot and there isn’t wax in between, you can seal the base off where it won’t take wax…always have the temp just low enough to melt the wax.

2. It is best to use a universal wax that works for most temperatures. Holmenkol beta mix works for a wide range of temps, and Holmenkol yellow works for warmer temps. These two should cover most of what you need, however if you are going to only buy one, the colder range is the best bet.

3. Lay a thin layer on the ski…again…be sure the iron is not too hot otherwise you can burn the base…just hot enough to melt the wax – no smoke. Be sure to release the vise clamp so the ski is not clamped into a given position while you are heating it.

4. Let the ski cool for about 1 hr…

5. Take a plastic scraper and scrape the edges and base to remove excess wax. You can press really hard with this since it won’t damage the base.

6. After you have gotten a lot of the wax off by scraping, use a horsehair brush (for colder temps) or a nylon brush (for warmer temps) to get all the last bits of wax out of the ski.

Recommended tuning gear

Basic tuning gear