Hot waxing the skis with a heat gun
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There is another way to hot wax the skis and that is using a heat gun instead of the iron.
See a quick example in the youtube video below.
It sounds extremely appealing as well, because:
- you consume a lot less wax
- you don't need lots of scrapers, lots of brushes and other utensils
- you don't need to spend half an hour scraping, brushing and cleaning the mess
- you can add just a bit of wax to the edges rather than the entire ski
I tried it and noted that you need a gun that goes to at least 800 C, set on "high".
Some wax is really good for this, like the warm/soft Kuu. The Hertel Super Hot Sauce is perfect for this. Other wax will clump up and take more to cleanup, notably the Kuu green cold wax.
Maybe an iron heats the wax more evenly and penetrates better. Also, an advantage of the iron is that it is moving in contact with the wax and spreads it out, so no clumping. On the other hand, the iron needs a lot of wax between it and the ski, to protect the base.
The only disadvantage I can think of is that because of the strong air stream, you will be extracting more fumes from the wax. It would be advisable to use a breathing mask when using this. Especially if you're planning to use it on Fluoro racing wax.
So here's the steps:
- choose the right wax - a good all temperature wax like the Hertel Super Hot Sauce++ is perfect for this application.
- rub it into the ski base. Be careful not to clump it, some harder wax likes to fragment and those crumbs will clump up
- then heat nice and uniformly with the heat gun
- perhaps rub it with some paper towel or some felt pads while hot, to spread it out better, break the clumps and work it in.
- let it cool at least 20 minutes and you're good for training. For a race day, you should brush it with a horse hair brush a few times.
More notes
You should keep moving the heat gun continuously, making sure you have no more than 1-2 inches trail of melted wax. No less either, since it would probably not help penetrate into the ski.
Some softer wax will melt faster, for the colder wax, just move the gun a bit slower.
I tried with two passes - I think that's good enough.
This can be a good alternative to dripping and ironing in the wax, especially for beginning racers, lower age groups and maybe it helps overlays of expensive wax to penetrate better.
Also, this sounds like an awesome idea for a travel kit, for any family skiing vacation: no mess, little effort, can be done inside any room...
One other advantage is that indeed, most of the time you just need to add wax at the edges of your skis. With an iron you can't do just that: you need wax melted between the iron and the ski base so you don't burn it. With the heat gun approach, you can just add a bit of wax to the edges only - without scraping etc... should be awesome for training, eh?
Read on for even more Ski Tuning Ideas.
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