Scraping wax off skis

You want to scrape all the wax off. Use a good flat scrapper and go tip to tail until all the wax is off. The next stage is super important the brushing. Brushing gets the excess wax ou. Of te structure in the base and aloes the structure to work as intended. Make sure to always at least give them a quick brush it makes a big difference. I like to finish with a polish and make sure not to touch the base after polishing it.

To elaborate a little on the brushing part... Ideally you would brush with a coarse bronze brush prior to waxing to clean the bases. Then after scraping the wax off you would hit it with a bronze/nylon brush to remove extra bits of wax that the scraper didn't get. With these two brushes you are only supposed to brush in a straight line from tip to tail (if you're anal about it) because they create structure. Following the bronze/nylon brush you can polish with a nylon brush and then a horse hair brush if you really feel like having smooth skis.

Honestly if you aren't racing then you can just brush with one of those green dish scrubber things, though. Personally I brush with one of them before waxing and then used a bronze/nylon brush followed by a nylon brush after scraping.

jadavisTo elaborate a little on the brushing part... Ideally you would brush with a coarse bronze brush prior to waxing to clean the bases. Then after scraping the wax off you would hit it with a bronze/nylon brush to remove extra bits of wax that the scraper didn't get. With these two brushes you are only supposed to brush in a straight line from tip to tail (if you're anal about it) because they create structure. Following the bronze/nylon brush you can polish with a nylon brush and then a horse hair brush if you really feel like having smooth skis.

Honestly if you aren't racing then you can just brush with one of those green dish scrubber things, though. Personally I brush with one of them before waxing and then used a bronze/nylon brush followed by a nylon brush after scraping.

Very good info about brushing. Just to say though brushing before won't actually clean the base for that to want to do a hot scrape. That is where you wax the ski but scrape the wax off before it cools. This brings a lot of the dirt out of the base. You could then give them a quick brush but brushing without waxing won't actually get anything out of the base it will just clean the surface.

I've never really brushed my bases. How much of a difference does it make?

MLJI've never really brushed my bases. How much of a difference does it make?

It depends on the base condition. If you have a good structure I will help allot as it will remove all the wax an allow the base to work as intended. Even on an old flat base it helps a lot though. You don't want a flat base as that will cause suction and slow you down. Brushing will help break up the surface of an old base sI it will help with speed.

You should scrape off all the excess wax but there will still be a coating of wax, the bases won't look/feel dry. Just keep scraping tip to tail until no more wax is coming off. And yeah the wax in the gouges will probably stay there, but that's not a permanent fix, if they are big you'll probably want to fill them in with petex. Or if they're core shots, take them to a shop cause they need more than just petex to prevent the core from getting wet and rotting.

oh damn..... I usually just scrape as much as i can off then just ride it off....

I should probably rethink this.