Tuning Your Own Skis

[MissySki]

Intro Tuning kit - Ski & Snowboard

Check out the deal on Intro Tuning kit - Ski & Snowboard at SIDECUT

www.sidecut.com

Basic Waxing Kit - Ski & Snowboard

Check out the deal on Basic Waxing Kit - Ski & Snowboard at SIDECUT

www.sidecut.com

Sidecut Ski Tuning Products - SIDECUT

Vises - Sidecut designs the highest quality tuning tools and provide knowledge enabling snow skiers, ski racers, snowboarders, XC skiers to reach their maximum potential.

www.sidecut.com

I had a bad tune from the shop at Tremblant. I asked Pierre to check the skis. We did a full tune up after that. They have great tutorial video's for you on the site as well.

Every night we came back from skiing, we cleaned everything off. Then checked the bases, and edges. The edges were diamond filed with a 200 and 400 and 600 file as all we were doing was maintaining them. Cleaned everything up and waxed.

The site also has all the pieces separate too.

Thank you!!

One question I’ve had a hard time finding an answer to.. if you go over with diamond stones each day to maintain everything nicely, how long does the edge stay sharp before you need to actually sharpen further? I assume much longer than doing nothing as I currently do in between sharpening at the shop. Did you discuss that at all? I’m curious when I would then need to add files in as well in the process. I feel after say 7-8 days I am feeling too dull on firm East coast conditions. Then I usually ski a bit more on too dull of skis before finally going in for a sharpen. It’s not a good cycle for sure.

 

[Jilly]

I'll ask that question!!

 

[MissySki]

I'll ask that question!!

Thank you, I appreciate that!

 

[Trailside Trixie]

I don't mainly because I get great discounts at my mountain. I buy them a bottle of good boubon every year so they take good care of me.

 

[Jilly]

I got a bad tune at the mountain. It was part of a "privilege package" you can buy. Tune up, 20 hot chocolates/coffee, better discounts on food and first tracks.

It can happen and it's happened before at other places. And our local shop is closing, so time to learn.

 

[MissySki]

I don't mainly because I get great discounts at my mountain. I buy them a bottle of good boubon every year so they take good care of me.

Unfortunately I just had an exceptionally bad tune from a very well regarded shop I've never had a problem with before. I had a great full tune from them early season, then brought them in after 16 ski days on them just for an edge sharpen, nothing base related. Saturday I skied them with what felt like no edges and thought I was going to die anytime I hit ice.. like I literally couldn’t even go straight off of an icy lift offramp without my skis both sliding out in opposite directions away from under me. Never have I felt anything like it! And on freshly sharpened skis, what gives??? So I went back that afternoon and asked them to take a look because something was very wrong. They put a true bar on them and said they were railed and I needed a base grind, which made absolutely no sense given the issues I had being the opposite of what you’d expect if that were the case. Plus, my skis were fine prior to my dropping them off for edge sharpening, they were just dull. To me they felt completely base high. Then they said they would redo the edges by hand overnight and not do a base grind (and I am so confused at this point because how is THAT going to work??).. when I picked them up yesterday morning first thing there were different people there and they had no idea what had been done to my skis and what was found during the edge work. To their credit, they did the redo for free and very quickly overnight so I could try them out ahead of traveling with them this week.. and they were very sharp and much better overall yesterday. However now my tips are very twitchy/grabby when entering any turns on scraped off groomers, so it seems I now have a hanging burr or need to detune a little there. The opposite issue of the day before and just in the tips on very specific snow conditions.

Anyway, I want to learn so I can do it myself, and not get bad surprises like this again.. and I had already been wanting to learn already so this sort of sped things up more. Then I will know what was done, what wasn’t done, and any screw ups are on me. Had I not skied these skis over the weekend, which I almost didn’t, I would’ve had no clue that they were totally messed up ahead of my trip to Big Sky I’m leaving for Friday.

This is only the second time I’ve ever had a bad tune anywhere, to the point that my skis were either unskiable or downright dangerous.. but that’s enough for me. Any other work I need and cannot handle myself will go back to SkiMD in MA preferably.

 

[Trailside Trixie]

Unfortunately I just had an exceptionally bad tune from a very well regarded shop I've never had a problem with before. I had a great full tune from them early season, then brought them in after 16 ski days on them just for an edge sharpen, nothing base related. Saturday I skied them with what felt like no edges and thought I was going to die anytime I hit ice.. like I literally couldn’t even go straight off of an icy lift offramp without my skis both sliding out in opposite directions away from under me. Never have I felt anything like it! And on freshly sharpened skis, what gives??? So I went back that afternoon and asked them to take a look because something was very wrong. They put a true bar on them and said they were railed and I needed a base grind, which made absolutely no sense given the issues I had being the opposite of what you’d expect if that were the case. Plus, my skis were fine prior to my dropping them off for edge sharpening, they were just dull. To me they felt completely base high. Then they said they would redo the edges by hand overnight and not do a base grind (and I am so confused at this point because how is THAT going to work??).. when I picked them up yesterday morning first thing there were different people there and they had no idea what had been done to my skis and what was found during the edge work. To their credit, they did the redo for free and very quickly overnight so I could try them out ahead of traveling with them this week.. and they were very sharp and much better overall yesterday. However now my tips are very twitchy/grabby when entering any turns on scraped off groomers, so it seems I now have a hanging burr or need to detune a little there. The opposite issue of the day before and just in the tips on very specific snow conditions.

Anyway, I want to learn so I can do it myself, and not get bad surprises like this again.. and I had already been wanting to learn already so this sort of sped things up more. Then I will know what was done, what wasn’t done, and any screw ups are on me. Had I not skied these skis over the weekend, which I almost didn’t, I would’ve had no clue that they were totally messed up ahead of my trip to Big Sky I’m leaving for Friday.

This is only the second time I’ve ever had a bad tune anywhere, to the point that my skis were either unskiable or downright dangerous.. but that’s enough for me. Any other work I need and cannot handle myself will go back to SkiMD in MA preferably.

That sucks. Terrifying. I had a bad tune once from a local shop where I don't normally go and i was beyond freaked out. I managed to get down the hill without killing myself. My usual mountain shop made it all better. Never been back there and my 1 shop mostly does my tunes. Totem Pole is Ludlow does a great job also so I'll usually give them a pair or two a season.

I am lazy, don't want to spend my Friday nights working on my skis so prefer to have my mountain shop take care of my stuff. I actually had a tuning kit once but it just sat there so i sold it. I have enough skis so I just ski my stuff until they aren't as sharp or I'm not sliding enough and I'll ski something else while the skis are in the spa.

That said bad tunes can happen so definitely not a bad thing to know how to do it yourself.

I used to wax my snowboard but then just fell away from it.

 

[Iwannaski]

So, thanks to the Divas here, I started waxing our ski fleet (i have a setup very similar to @Jilly ’s… folding workbench and then I added ski vises when they were on sale at REI and it is amazing.

I got our stuff between REI and our local shop. I will say that the MountainFlow Eco Wax kit is very complete (at REI) and as a bonus, it has runoff-safe wax that works quite well.

 

[MissySki]

I like waxing, and do that already as I find it very relaxing.. so figure it doesn’t add much time to maintain edges when the skis are already on my bench. I’ll usually do a pair Wed or Thurs night for the weekend. I find the snow this year so abrasive I want more wax after a 2 or 3 day weekend for sure. I used to use diamond stones on my edges, once upon a time.. but fell away from it after I just didn’t feel like I was necessarily doing a good job of being able to keep my skis as sharp as I’d like. I’m hoping I can remedy that with more knowledge gained this time around.

I really despise the helpless feeling of not being able to know what the issue is and how to fix it that happened this weekend. So that definitely has given me an extra push. Totally understand it isn't everyone’s cup of tea though. There's a reason there are a lot of tune shops in business!

 

[kmb5662]

Thank you!!

One question I’ve had a hard time finding an answer to.. if you go over with diamond stones each day to maintain everything nicely, how long does the edge stay sharp before you need to actually sharpen further? I assume much longer than doing nothing as I currently do in between sharpening at the shop. Did you discuss that at all? I’m curious when I would then need to add files in as well in the process. I feel after say 7-8 days I am feeling too dull on firm East coast conditions. Then I usually ski a bit more on too dull of skis before finally going in for a sharpen. It’s not a good cycle for sure.

Awhile back I listed to a podcast before on Youtube with Tom Gellie and he says he usually does a file tune every 30 days or so while maintaining daily with diamond stones. If I remember correctly, I believe it was one of the interviews he did with the owner of Sidecut tuning. I think Chris is his name?

This year is the first year I took the time to maintain my edges daily with diamond stones and file guides and it has definitely made a big difference! I got a tune at the beginning of the season and I have now had about 15 days on my one pair and am now starting to notice they aren't quite as sharp after diamond stoning them and felt like I could have used slightly more sharpness this past boilerplate day I was out, so I will be taking them into the shop soon for a good file tune.

 

[Jilly]

Chris Hillier is the owner. He's based in Whistler.

 

[Scribble]

I do my own touch ups and side edge sharpening but take them to a shop when the base edge gets messed up from hitting rocks and such. I practiced on some old skis first.