Learn how to give your skis a full home service, including ptex base repair and ski wax and sharpen.
Servicing your own skis can teach you a lot about ski design and tuning. And if your backcountry expeditions involve a very variable snowpack (like ski touring in Scotland, for example), then doing your own ski servicing may save a lot of money in the long run! Below you’ll find pointers on equipment and materials, plus step-by-step instructions on how to repair, wax and sharpen skis. Last, a quick look at some more advanced tasks.
⚠️ Hazards
- Burns (hot iron, naked flames, flammable liquids, hot wax)
- Sharp blades and edges
- Toxic solvents
Home ski servicing requires a variety of simple tools. Most of them are not too expensive and all can easily be ordered online or bought from ski shops in the UK. With careful use, they should last for years.
You may not need to buy many tools because household tools can work OK for a basic ski service. But if you want to wax and sharpen your skis properly at home, you should really use an electric iron, ski edge sharpener and a base file. These can all be bought relatively cheaply. Steel and plastic ski scrapers are also very useful for ptex base repairs and wax removal, respectively.
A ski or snowboard service both use the same techniques. However, you may want a longer base file and wider scrapers for a board.
Tools for a ski service
- Apron
- Gloves
- Eye protection
- Ski vice, bench vice or workmate
- Stanley blade
- Base cleaner or meths
- Shop towel
- Matches/lighter
- Ptex candles (use transparent ones over base graphics)
- Scrapers: 1 metal, 1 plastic
- Files: 1 dreadnought/radial file, 1 quality ski base file
- ‘Gummy’ stone, aluminium oxide stone, diamond stone
- Ski edge sharpener
- Base edge file guide (for experienced users)
- Ski wax of choice
- Ski wax iron (or cheap household iron) if using iron-on hot wax
- Bristle brush or scouring pad
How to perform a ski service
Time needed: 1 hour
How to service skis
- Put the skis in a vice
A proper ski / board vice makes servicing way easier. If you don’t have one, try a ‘workmate’ type bench, or use a bench vice (add wood or rubber to metal jaws to avoid damage). Complete each step for BOTH skis before moving on. This avoids mistakes and keeps the finish consistent.
- Clean and dry bases
Pick out grit from gouges. Cut off slivers of damaged base material using a sharp blade. Then remove old wax, skin glue, dirt, etc from the bases with base cleaner or meths (CAUTION: toxic ☠️, flammable 🔥). Dry with clean shop towel.
- Ptex ski / board base repair
Light one end of the Ptex candle and wait for the flame to turn from yellow to blue. This means carbon has mostly burnt off. Now, you can carefully drizzle the plastic into the gouges. The molten plastic is very hot, so beware. Use a metal scraper to catch drips. If there are deep gouges, they may need patching (see below).
- Scrape flat
Scrape lightly at first to avoid ripping the Ptex out. If using a metal scraper, periodically sharpen it on an old file if possible. Alternatively, use a dreadnought file or Stanley knife blade. Whichever method you use, keep the tool as flat as you can to avoid making the ski base concave. You could also use fine sandpaper or wet-and-dry paper for a near invisible finish.
- Deburr edges
Burrs consist of case-hardened steel, which will damage your file if you don’t remove them first. Therefore, use an aluminium oxide stone to remove them before sharpening.
- Sharpen edges
Sharpen the base edges first and the side edges second. When ski servicing, always use a proper ski base file and edge sharpener if possible. Be careful to avoid slicing your hand on the edge. Using a proper edge sharpener will help maintain correct edge angle as well as sharpness.
- Detune tip and tail
Detuning is a step that’s often missed out when people wax and sharpen skis. It involves slightly dulling the tip and tail edges to make the skis less ‘catchy’. Use your aluminium oxide stone for this, or a gummy stone.
- Apply wax
Choose a wax that matches the conditions. You can get a variety of iron-on waxes to suit different snow temperatures. Alternatively, you could use a universal iron-on or rub-on wax. If using a wax iron, be careful not to overheat any areas. Use hydrocarbon wax for touring skis (fluorinated wax can damage the glue layer of climbing skins)
- Scrape off excess wax
Use a plastic scraper for this (sharpen it occassionally for best results).
- Polish
To finish off your ski service, use a bristle brush or plastic scouring pad to polish the wax. Before attaching climbing skins, ensure all the loose wax has been removed.
Advanced ski maintenance tasks
There are a few ski servicing tasks that are very difficult, or impossible, to do in a home workshop. This is because they require very specialist, expensive equipment and/or training.
Patching a ski base is one step up from doing a ptex repair, and is usually needed to fix a core shot. It requires specialised punch cutters and a roll of sheet base material. However, a reasonable short term fix involves putting superglue in the hole before the ptex, or using ‘Metalgrip‘ and a soldering iron.
Proper binding checks need a calibrated machine, which many ski workshops don’t even have. You can do a basic visual check during your own ski service. Look carefully for loose, worn or broken parts and check binding and boot fit together properly. You should also follow the manufacturers instructions for lubricating and cleaning your bindings. It’s worth inspecting each season (or getting a shop to do it), to catch damage or wear early. When bindings and boots become worn beyond a certain point, you increase the risk of prerelease, which could lead to serious injury or death.
Many ski workshops will use a stone or belt grinder when servicing. These large machines are more accurate than sharpening by hand. If you service your own skis, it’s still worth getting a ‘base grind’ a couple of times a season. Thus, your bases and edges will be truly flat, meaning they can be tuned accurately.
Home ski servicing is a very useful skill to learn, requiring a range of basic tools and some practise. It can help you understand ski design and construction better, as well as allowing you to tune your own equipment to your liking.
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