Most ski wax manufacturers make glide waxes that are used as “base” or undercoat waxes. While these waxes may provide good glide by themselves, their real function is to improve the glide and durability of the final wax coat. In mid-winter conditions – normal December thr Februarycolder weather and snow – these will be hard plastic waxes containing graphite (carbon particles) and other additives. These waxes (and the following procedures) are used on the entire base of skating skis, and on the glide surfaces (tips and tails) of classic skis (waxable and waxless).

Unquestionably the best wax I have ever used for this purpose is a product called MAP Black by the Italian wax company Star. Properly applied, this wax helps make skis very fast in temperatures from 30°F to below 0°F. It is not for wet snow conditions (use MAP 200 instead), but is excellent in moist or dry colder snow. Another benefit of MAP Black is that it acts like a “binder”, increasing the longevity of the wax-of-the-day. Furthermore, MAP Black allows the “crayon method” to be used when waxing in the wax-of-the-day, saving time and money.

MAP Black retails for $32 for a 60 gram bar. That is enough wax to do two coats on a pair of skis five times (10 coats total). Since MAP Black is applied only after every 6-10 “daily” waxing (which can last a few days), a bar will last most skiers two seasons (40 to 100 days of skiing from December thru January).

MAP Black is unique because it blends hard synthetic wax with metal oxides to reduce dry friction on cold abrasive snow (old or new), graphite to prevent static electric charge, plus a fairly high fluorocarbon content to handle any moisture in the snow (wet friction). The combination of these additives makes this wax great! It can be applied under any normal winter wax, regardless of brand. I have found no synergistic problems with any other wax.

There are similar products from other companies. Toko Nordlite Molybdenum and Swix Graphite Cold are two such products. These instructions for applying MAP BLACK can be used with these other hard base wax products.

CAUTIONS: All hard waxes have higher melting temperatures and should be applied with an iron designed for waxing skis. Star, Swix, and Toko make good wax irons. Clothing irons work OK for softer waxes, but do not hold as constant a temperature as true wax irons. This can result in smoking wax and base damage.

The iron should never smoke. If it does, turn down the temperature. When turning up the temperature setting to wax hard waxes, wipe off any soft wax with a paper towel. This will prevent the soft wax from smoking when the iron temperature is raised. There should be no smoke or toxic fumes produced when using these waxes and no respirator is required. The room where the waxing is being done should not smell “waxy”. If it does, provide exhaust and fresh air ventilation and double check to see if the iron is smoking.

When applying any hard glide wax, the ski should be at room temperature for at least one hour. It is OK to apply the wax in a cold room or outside, just have the ski warm before starting. If the heat of a hot iron is applied to a cold ski, the base layer will warm fairly quickly, but the core may not. This can cause the base to delaminate or the core to degrade, resulting in a bubble or swelling of the base.

TOOLS REQUIRED: a good wax iron; a vise or waxing profile to hold the ski when waxing; a plastic (Plexiglas) scraper; a groove scraper; paper towels or Swix Fiberlene (optional); a soft brass or copper hand brush (not a stiff bronze/brass brush); a roto brush setup with a stiff horsehair and softer nylon (7 mm black) brushes (optional, but recommended); soft white polishing pads (if no roto brush).

OVERVIEW: All hard waxes melt at high temperatures and, being plastic and less fluid in nature, tend NOT to penetrate into the pores of the base. Remember, we ski on a wax-impregnated base, not a layer of wax. So a waxing procedure must be used that draws these hard waxes into the base. We do this by starting with two coats of a soft wax, then applying two coats of MAP Black. Skis are waxed one at a time. One ski is waxed completely, and then the second ski is waxed completely. All scraping and brushing is done warm. After the skis have cooled, they are re-brushed (preferably finishing with a roto brush), and then a quick coat of the wax-of-the-day is applied and finished.

BASE PREPARATION: Do any base preparation first. If the skis are new, wax and ski on them 4-6 times. Don’t just wax the ski, go skiing on them, too! The goal here is to get good wax penetration before starting the MAP Black process. If the skis are old, they probably already have good wax penetration, even after a light steel scraping. If a layer of pure fluorocarbon (like Swix Cera) has ever been “burned” into the ski (sparkles, lots of smoke), the bases will probably need to be steel scraped.

WAXING: Work one ski at a time. With a cooler iron setting, apply a coat of a soft pure paraffin wax. This wax should contain no silicon, graphite, or fluorocarbon additives. Star Uniblock yellow is an excellent choice. The Swix Base Prep wax is a little harder, but still an OK choice. Drip on a good layer and wax back and forth with the iron until the wax is molten along the entire ski. This coat will blend with and purge all old wax from the base. Remove when liquid by wiping off the wax with a paper towel or Swix Fiberlene.

Next, apply a second layer on the same ski and repeat the process. This second layer will penetrate deeper into the pores of the base. The entire ski (base and core) will also become warmer, but the top sheet should never get hot to the touch (the base will). Wipe and scrape off all wax. Brush with a soft brass or copper hand brush. Do NOT use a stiff (coarse) brass or bronze brush (prickly to the touch). Do NOT use a roto brush. Brush with shorter overlapping tip-to-tail strokes. Remove all surface wax.

Take a paper towel and wipe off all excess soft wax from the iron (base and sides). Turn the temperature up to about 115-120°C, or the #7 setting. The actual setting will vary a bit, even between irons of the same model. The final temperature setting will be high enough to melt the MAP Black or other hard base wax when the bar is touched to the iron, but not much hotter! The iron should never smoke. These waxes will NOT stay in a liquid state very long. The top sheet of the ski should never become hot to the touch!

Still working on the same ski, which should be fairly warm, apply a coat of MAP Black by dripping small drops along about one third or so of the ski base, then immediately use the iron to melt and spread these out to a thin layer on the base. The wax will be molten under the iron, but will solidify shortly after the iron passes down the ski base. All areas should have a thin coating; drip on more wax as necessary without being wasteful.

It is possible to iron the wax along the entire length of the ski, provided the iron periodically goes back over the previous waxed sections to keep the wax warm (but not molten). Make sure to wax all sectons of the base the same amount, time wise. Use a plastic scraper and groove scraper to remove all the wax. If the wax chips or has to be "shaved off", reheat. Use the hand brush to brush the entire base (as above).

The first coat of MAP Black was drawn into the pores of the base and mixed with the soft wax that was previously applied. Without the layers of soft wax, the MAP Black would have just “sat” on the surface and there would have been very little penetration. A second coat is required to purge the outer layer of the base of any soft wax. A third coat is unnecessary except in very cold conditions (under 10°F). Check again to ensure that the top sheet (and therefore the entire ski) is not getting too hot. If it is, wait a bit before applying the second coat. Apply the second coat of MAP Black, scrape and brush. When finished, there should be NO surface wax on the base. Set the ski aside to cool and wax the second ski in the same manner.

After the skis have cooled to room temperature, they should be re-brushed, first by hand and then with a roto brush (see below, and Tech Tip #15). The cooling process causes the base to contract, squeezing wax out of the pores and onto the surface. Yes the wax shrinks (about 1%), but the base shinks more when it cools. For the wax-of-the-day, the skis should be cooled to snow temperature (set outside) before this final brushing when the temperature is below 15°F or so.

If a roto brush is not available, polish with back-and-forth motion with a soft white polishing pad (Fibertex/Scotchbrite, or the Sierra Nordic white pads). Do NOT use any of the green or other color scouring pads. These will scratch the base. Only use white. Do NOT use any roto brush pads; use only hand pads.

If a roto brush setup is available, set the rotation direction to be tip-to-tail. Use a 120v drill with a max speed of 2500 rmp. Brush at full speed (2500 rpm). Cordless drills are ineffective because they do not spin above 1800 rpm. Using a scalloping action with LIGHT PRESSURE and back and forth overlapping stokes, brush the length of the base with a stiff horsehair brush. Do NOT use a stiff nylon brush. Do NOT use much pressure. Go down once only (and briefly) with this brush. A light amount of wax should be flicked out of the base as dust. This is best done in a tip-to-tail direction so that the dust is pushed down the ski and is visible. The roto brush can be used back and forth since the rotation is always tip-to-tail.

Using a softer nylon brush (7 mm), come back along the base with overlapping strokes but with the bristle tips just brushing the surface. There should be very light pressure, less than the weight of the brush and drill combo. Next, turn the brush at 45 degrees and go down the base once, then turn the brush 45 degrees the other way and come back up the base. End with a single pass straight down the ski with the brush in the normal perpendicular position. The ski will have been roto-brushed 5 times in about 20 seconds. The base should be totally polished, with all structure visible and open (free of wax), and extremely shiny.

WAX-OF-THE-DAY: select the wax of the day, usually a fluorinated wax. Star LA and HA lines are excellent choices, as are the Rode glide waxes. All are reasonably priced and have higher amounts of fluorocarbons in their blends. Swix and Toko have excellent products, but stick with their higher fluorinated lines. Some “low-fluor” waxes just do not have enough fluorocarbons to make any difference.

It is very important to use the following “crayon” method to minimize waste and maximize the benefits of MAP Black. Forget everything ever learned or heard about dripping on wax and waxing back and forth for 3-5 minutes. That only wastes wax, dollars, time, and all the benefits of the MAP Black.

Set the iron at an appropriate temperature for the wax. Put the end of the bar of wax on the base of the iron briefly. Immediately “crayon” the softened edge of the wax onto the base. A full (thick) coat is not necessary. Do about one third of the base, and then go back over the base with the iron and smooth out the wax. Add more wax if necessary. When the surface layer is just smoothed and covered edge-to-edge, it’s done. Finished. Stop. Do not keep waxing the same area. Move on down the ski. The faster a thin layer can be crayoned and smoothed out along the entire base, the better. Again, do not keep going back and forth with the iron. Smooth out the wax and it is done.

Hard waxes should be scraped and brushed warm. If a hard wax cools before scraping and starts to fragment, simply re-heat briefly with the iron. When a hard wax cools, not only is it difficult to scrape, but also the wax can chip out of the pores. There is no need to "shave" a cooled hard wax off the base. This does NOT allow for better penetration or glide, and only wastes time. The skis will NOT be faster. Air is NOT trapped under a hard wax once it is melted into the base. (Drops chip off of cool bases because they have yet to be melted into the base.) The cooling base will contract more than the cooling wax, and actually squeeze wax to the surface (in the structure), which is why hard waxes need to be rebrushed after cooling. However, they do not polish well until fully cooled, so wait until cooled before polishing with the roto brush.

On the other hand, soft waxes should be allowed to cool to room temperature, then scraped and brushed. If a soft wax is removed warm, it tends to be drawn out of the pores. This is why cleaning waxes are removed warm. By allowing a soft wax-of-the-day to cool, it will be “cut” from the surface of the base and not pulled out of the pores.

Finish the skis as with MAP Black. There should be no wax on the surface, but if pressed with a thumb, the base should feel waxy. Hard waxes will leave the base shiny, but softer waxes will be a little dull. The entire wax-of-the-day process, when using a roto brush, should take no more than 10 minutes from start to cleanup and out-the-door. If it takes longer, wax quicker.

REWAXING: The wax-of-the-day should last for 30 to 100 kilometers of skiing, depending on how abrasive the snow is. Old, coarse, icy, or windblown conditions usually require re-waxing daily. New snow may allow for several days of skiing. Examine the bases for wax wear after each ski. If the base, particularly at the edges of skate skis, looks dry or gray (on a black base), re-wax. If the bases go too long between waxing, the whole process must be repeated. If the bases are re-waxed often (but quickly!), the next coat of MAP Black only has to be repeated after 6-10 daily waxes.

MAP Black, Uniblock yellow, and other recommended tools and supplies may be ordered from Sierra Nordic.

Enjoy fast skis.