From -Toko: Base Prep, Brushing and Edge Bevels Cheever and Willi Witz
Cheever on Base Prep and Brushing
Hello everyone, I wanted to do a myth busting eblast series. But I need to consult with the man before I attempt to blow everyones` mind. So instead for this early season eblast I want to talk about some base preparation and brushing. I should say, what I do for base prep and brushing…
My early season riding isn’t much different than most skiers and snowboarders. I’m on a glacier with varying conditions and trying to mimic racing as much as possible.
This time of the year usually calls for getting on a fast enough base that you can come close as possible to race speeds, but not slow down an actual race base. If you have the luxury of running a practice base… Awesome. But many people don’t, so you’ll be on your racers…or techs will be tuning racers.
It’s not quite panic time yet to worry about a structure you should have done a few weeks ago. With enough prep, your base will be brought to speed quickly. So it’s okay to carefully get on that racer. What I like to do with my race bases is make sure the wax is durable.
Duh… Put cold wax on the edges… But there is more to it.
Wax bonds to your base. Wax also bonds to other wax. My preseason routine is more than scraping off yellow then. Throwing on blue for durability.
I love toko red and the HF red. But let’s just stick with NF for now. Red can run in all conditions this time of the year. But more importantly it’s on my base as a bonder for any other temperature wax I’ll use for training. Before my snowboard gear is off I brush then iron on red. For my trainer board, I am comfortable just running with the red. But when I want to pull out a race deck, my routine starts the same with the red after I get off the hill, but I check my weather forecast and figure out what wax I want to bond with that red.
Say Pitztal is calling for colder weather and I am going to be in a blue/red range for tomorrow. I have my red on and methodically remove it.
Scrape. I scrape all the wax off. Scrape excess wax off my scrapers. ScotchBrite my scrapers clean so there is no gummy residue.
Brush step 1. Steely Dan. Toko’s oval steel brushes do the trick quite well for pulling the excess wax your scraper didn’t get and start pulling the residue from the structure of your base.
Brush step 2. Roto Horse hair. If you are subscribed to a toko eblast, I hope you have access to a roto brush. If not, I suggest investing. I use NO water for any roto brushing. The horse hair pulls most of the wax out of the base that you don’t need and leaves what you do need behind.
Brush step 3. Roto bronze. Now my roto bronze is used and is quite soft. It isn’t as aggressive as my horse hair, plus it’s used at a slower drill speed. No water here or for any roto brushing because water acts as a lubricant for brushing. If you want to pull excess wax out, the most efficient way to do it is without water.
Brush step 4. The grey toko board roto. This brush will remove just about any remnants that will slow me down and will leave what I need bonding to the board
Brush step 5. Toko’s black nylon roto. You want to polish that base and make it shine.
Brush step 6. If you have a paint brush, new of course, kicking around. Clean the tip and tail of your stick as they probably collected excess from brushing.
Step 7. Fiberlene. This final step microstructures your wax and cleans up excess junk left on the surface of your base.
Now that you know how I brush… Maybe after you put your next layer on try my method… Now I put on my red/blue combo for the next day. Repeat everything over once the wax is ready to be scraped. Roto brushing expedites the process and is more efficient than brushing by hand.
Go fast in training and faster racing,
Cheever
US Ski and Snowboard Tuning Legend Willi Wiltz on Prepping New Skis and Snowboards
US Ski and Snowboard Serviceman Legend Willi Wiltz on What Base and Edge Bevels to Use