Nordic Waxing How To

Step by Step Waxing of Nordic Skis, everything you need to know!

Looking for information on waxing your Nordic skis? Here is Fast Waxes guide on how to do it, as you will soon see it is pretty easy.     Having a clean, open work environment with good ventilation is critical for your enjoyment.

Mount your ski securely into a ski vice or use a waxing bench. It makes so much easier if the ski is not moving around on you.

Locate a warm clean place to do your work. Mounting the ski securely into a ski vice is one of the most important steps. It makes so much easier if the ski is not moving around on you.

Clean your base

Wipe down base with a base cleaner and clean cloth. The base cleaner will sink into the base and loosen the wax contained within.  Apply the cleaner to the rag and wipe down the base. Let the cleaner sit a couple minutes and then wipe it clean using another rag.

Now that the wax is loosened up, grab your Fast Wax Super Fine Stainless Steel Brush and brush out the ski base. Starting from the tips and working your way to the tail using light to medium pressure, just enough to force the stainless steel bristles in to the base in order to sweep the wax out of the ski base. Nordic ski bases are pretty tough so do not worry about learning how much pressure it takes to remove wax.  After a few passes less and less wax should be pulled up from the base.

Now that the old wax has been removed, use a rag to wipe off the wax that has been pulled out of the base.

Apply a new coat of wax

The ski base is nice and clean now, making it ready for a coat a new wax. On all Fast Wax waxes we place the iron temperature to use to melt the wax.  Set your iron to this temperature and allow the iron to heat up. Once the iron is at temp place the iron a couple inches over the ski base and place the wax onto the iron. Starting at the tip work your way down the ski. Attempting to place wax about every 1/2 inch or so, make sure you get enough on to the ski base. Nordic skis are pretty skinny, after a few times waxing them you will develop your own technique of dropping the wax from the iron right where you want it.

As you gain experience with waxing, you will be able to wax with less and less wax.

Once the wax drops are down the length of the ski. Place the iron directly on the ski at the ski tip and slowly move the iron down the length of the ski. You will want to move the iron at a rate of 1 or 2 inches per second. As the iron hits the drops of wax you may need to slightly light the front of the iron to allow the iron to slide over the top of the wax.

Keep the iron moving at all times, do not let the iron sit in one spot too long, doing so may burn your ski base.

Unplug your iron and clean the wax off the sole with a rag.

While the wax is still warm, use a groove scraper to clean out the center groove of the ski and sidewalls of the ski. You can do this after the wax has hardened but wax comes off cleaner if you do it while it is still warm.

Scraping wax

 Allow the ski to cool for about 1/2 hour or until the ski is cool to the touch. Please do not shock cool your skis by placing them outside. Nordic skis are made up of many different materials and these materials shed heat at different rates and shock cooling places undo stress on these components.

Here is the fun part! After the wax has had a chance to cool it is time to start scraping off the wax with a plastic scraper. Starting with a sharp scraper, one with a perfect 90 degree angle. Start at the ski tip and using firm forward pressure and light downward pressure push the scraper down the length of the ski.  Try to keep the scraper parallel with your ski base. You should see chips and sheets of wax start to fly off the forward edge of the scraper. You may need to make a pass or two before your ski base looks clean and even.

If you start to see black chips or strings you may be scraping too hard and you are removing parts of your base.

Brushing the base

Remove the leftover loose wax by making a couple of passes down the ski using the Fast Wax Superfine Stainless Steel brush. Going from tip to tail again make 1 or 2 light passes to pull any loose wax out of the ski base. Use a cloth to clean up the ski base.

Move to your Fast Wax Horsehair Brush now to start cleaning out the structure of your ski base. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, start at the tip of your ski and make 3 to 4 passes down the length of your ski. You want to use some down pressure but not so much that you start to remove the wax. Start using light strokes and after you get some experience you will know your skis and how much pressure it takes to clean up the structure.

The last step is to use your Fast Wax Nylon brush to polish the ski base. This is the magic step, your skis will go from having a dull finish to a nice and bright finish. Guess what we start the ski tips again and with light pressure and long strokes pull the Nylon brush down the ski base.

Shiny Nordic skis means the wax is happy and your skis will be fast. 

Your done!

Now that you have waxed your skis lets protect your ski base by using ski retainers. Please do not just throw them loose into your ski bag. Use a ski retainer that will securely hold your skis apart so they do not get scratched.

If you find your self covered in wax chips take a few minutes to clean up. A quick vacuum will make short work of cleaning up the bench and floor areas.

Congrats! You have taken the next step in your Nordic ski waxing journey. You will find that since you are now a wax pro your skis will always have the right wax for the conditions and that you will be skiing faster than you have ever skied before.

If you want to learn more wax secrets check out the Fast Wax, Waxing Secrets page to help you understand factors that you may want to consider when selecting which wax to use on your skis!

As always if you have questions, drop us a note at info@skifastwax.com

See ya on the trails, Be Fast or Be Last!