# Different Ways To Wax Board



## ABagofButter (Jun 10, 2011)

Yea so I've seen two different ways to wax snowboards: by dripping the wax on or by pressing it against the iron and rubbing it onto the board. which way do you prefer and why?


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## basso4735 (Nov 27, 2010)

I personally drip my wax. I do the board in 3 sections, nose, middle, tail.


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## KIRKRIDER (Mar 18, 2008)

drip, melt, spread, cool.(beer) spread, cool, (beer) spread, cool scrape, brush, cork. Shower, dinner sleep. wake. Drive, shred. Smile. Repeat.


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## ABagofButter (Jun 10, 2011)

basso4735 said:


> I personally drip my wax. I do the board in 3 sections, nose, middle, tail.


thats how I learned from Snowboard Addiction


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## skycdo (Sep 15, 2011)

KIRKRIDER said:


> drip, melt, spread, cool.(beer) spread, cool, (beer) spread, cool scrape, brush, cork. Shower, dinner sleep. wake. Drive, shred. Smile. Repeat.


Haven't tried that technique! Sounds really efficient.

What I do is drip it on the board, smooth it out with the iron without any pressure at all, let it cool, then lower the heat a little bit and go over the wax again with a a bit of pressure from the iron then let it cool off again and scrape away. I've tried the crayon method but it takes too long in my opinion.


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## Bones (Feb 24, 2008)

I like the touch and smear method, just seems that there's a little less to scrape. I use big shop blocks so it doesn't take long. It would be a pain with the little cubes.

Either way is good, just get good coverage


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## brownSnow (Jan 7, 2009)

KIRKRIDER said:


> drip, melt, spread, cool.(beer) spread, cool, (beer) spread, cool scrape, brush, cork. Shower, dinner sleep. wake. Drive, shred. Smile. Repeat.


AMEN! /\ :thumbsup:


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## jyuen (Dec 16, 2007)

melt wax on iron and smear on the board. any wax that happens to drip from the iron to the board, i try to spread it asap before it dries. if you drip and let it dry before you iron the base, you'll be stuck ironing the thing forever in an attempt to get an even coat. then you'll be scraping for ages after


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## honeycomb (Feb 6, 2011)

I just take the block of wax and rub it all over the board, I don't even melt it againt the iron first. After enough has rubbed off onto the board I melt it in with the iron then buff it with scotch brite, I don't bother scraping.


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## judoant (Jan 18, 2010)

I like to rub against the iron and rub on the base. I will then iron it out. Way less scraping.


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## vwbrian (Apr 16, 2011)

First off I don't scrape after waxing. When I get home from riding I bring my board in the house and let it warm up. The next time I go riding I wipe off any road grime from the ride home. Turn on the Iron and spread whatever wax is left on the board and warm the board up once you feel the heat on the top sheet your ready to add wax then spot wax whereever needs it usually the edges. I use all temp wax so no need to check snow conditions. Then go ride.


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## Tech420 (Jul 1, 2011)

vwbrian said:


> First off I don't scrape after waxing. When I get home from riding I bring my board in the house and let it warm up. The next time I go riding I wipe off any road grime from the ride home. Turn on the Iron and spread whatever wax is left on the board and warm the board up once you feel the heat on the top sheet your ready to add wax then spot wax whereever needs it usually the edges. I use all temp wax so no need to check snow conditions. Then go ride.


You take an Iron to a dry board?


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## Nefarious (Dec 26, 2010)

jyuen said:


> melt wax on iron and smear on the board. any wax that happens to drip from the iron to the board, i try to spread it asap before it dries. if you drip and let it dry before you iron the base, you'll be stuck ironing the thing forever in an attempt to get an even coat. then you'll be scraping for ages after


sooo...you're against doing it right?


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## WetWork999 (Jan 9, 2012)

How often do y'all wax?

~A


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## judoant (Jan 18, 2010)

about every 2-3 days out.


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## WetWork999 (Jan 9, 2012)

Thanks for the info



judoant said:


> about every 2-3 days out.


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## vwbrian (Apr 16, 2011)

Tech420 said:


> You take an Iron to a dry board?


Exactly you need to warm the board up to open up the pours in the base. This allows the wax to penetrate deeper into the base.
Also there is wax left in the center of the board from the previous waxing that you can spread around and fill in the edges again. Then just add a little wax for any dry spots left. I wax every time I ride a board. I have got 20 days or more out of a small bar of wax 65grams.
Not that wax is expensive or anything but why waste it by scraping every time I ride the edges get scraped dry by the snow. Not like I am racing or anything just out riding with friends.


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## honeycomb (Feb 6, 2011)

You've got a good idea, but you might want to use a blowdryer instead of the iron to heat up the board. If all you have is the iron I'd get the board a bit wet then iron it or use the steam on the iron if it has it so it's harder to accidentally melt the plastic. Wipe dry then wax. You can also wax like normal but keep the iron a bit low on the temp and do it longer, let it cool for ~10mins then iron at normal temp, this should get teh base to absorb all the wax it can.

The last couple times I waxed I touched it to the iron then smeared it on, went faster(2mins vs 10-15) than rubbing cold but used a bit more wax, still not enough to bother scraping.


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## jyuen (Dec 16, 2007)

Nefarious said:


> sooo...you're against doing it right?


i don't see how what i'm doing is wrong....

unless you misinterpreted what i wrote, and you are assuming that i scrape off the wax when it is still warm.


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## Argo (Feb 25, 2010)

I do a combo of snowolf and kirkrider. I bring my board inside to warm up a bit after riding, drip wax from iron, spread it evenly, let it dry, have a drink, spread it once more, set the board to the side until the morning then scrape and texture before heading to the mtn while breakfas is cooking. My 12 year old usually does the first half since I work evenings and I do the second part in the mornings.

We wax once a week, every 5-7 days in soft powder/packed powder conditions. Once every 2-3 days if hard pack or Icey. We do use temp specific wax for anything under 25-30 degrees, all purpose if it's forecast warmer usually in spring. We have been pretty good about waxing for quite a while. My son just passed 1 million vertical feet with lots of park over 55 days this season and is boards, 3 of them, are still in great shape.... He normally uses his Rome though, probably 80% of the time. I use my smokin kt-22 but barely passed 30 days and 350k vert feet, it's in great shape, I had 20 days on it from last spring/summer too.


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## xotix (Aug 25, 2011)

Snowolf said:


> For best results, drip the wax on and don't be stingy. It takes heat to expand the pores in your base and to expand the bottom layers, it takes time. Use that iron to slowly bring the base temperature up enough so your wax stays liquid for 15 to 30 seconds on your base. Start from one end and work to the other. The most important part of the job is the ironing and getting your entire base to soak up all of the wax it can. Typically this takes me 10-15 minutes tops.
> 
> Let board cool to just room temperature (70-80) degrees then scrape, buff and brush texture. Letting the board get cold like outside temperature makes the wax really hard and makes your scraping job way harder than it needs to be. The cool down takes about 10 minutes and scraping, butting and brushing about 15. For a very thorough job, I can usually do it in a half to 3/4 hour. If I am riding ice or firm corn snow, I don't bother even scraping it.


That's bad for nature. Why not just scrap it?


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## Leo (Nov 24, 2009)

I really wish the sports science guys would scientifically test all these waxing methods and various waxes. Something tells me that we are all over-thinking this whole wax thing. Who wants to write them a letter?

I clean my base with citrus cleaner... don't buy into the myth about base cleaners being bad. I forgot what site it was, but they debunked that myth due to the nature of snowboard bases.

After my base is completely dry, I drip wax thoroughly on my base taking extra care to cover my edges nose to tail (you don't need to wax tips, its just something I do because I press a ton). I then spread the wax nose to tail. I don't do it in sections because although it takes longer for me to spread the wax, I know that I'm warming my base up good while the iron is re-melting the wax to spread.

I let it cool, then get scrape happy. Do a light nylon brushing and then scotch brite it. Boom, I'm done.

Oh, and I do use rub on method for touch-ups. No point in rewaxing the whole base when it's still mostly covered. If you use the rub on method, you need to cork it. I even used an old wine bottle cork to do this. Rub on waxing gets a bad rep. It's not terrible for touch-ups when you cork it after.


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## xotix (Aug 25, 2011)

I have had a link to a really godo article, going into details. It was written by some pro skiing, boarding whatever technical guy. It was really big, like 20 sites...There you can learn a lot about waxing, if you are willing to read. I didn't. I think i got this link from this forum, i can search it at home if someone would like to have it.

Do you guys use different waxes for the base? Like on the edged put wax X and in the middle wax A?


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## Leo (Nov 24, 2009)

xotix said:


> I have had a link to a really godo article, going into details. It was written by some pro skiing, boarding whatever technical guy. It was really big, like 20 sites...There you can learn a lot about waxing, if you are willing to read. I didn't. I think i got this link from this forum, i can search it at home if someone would like to have it.
> 
> Do you guys use different waxes for the base? Like on the edged put wax X and in the middle wax A?


I know which one you're talking about. They say not to use base cleaners. I stopped reading at that point. I don't care what you do, if you haven't scientifically tested the whole wax thing, your 100page guide to waxing is irrelevant to me.


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## honeycomb (Feb 6, 2011)

I mix the wax sometimes if I'm not sure what temp it will be at the hill, cold temp wax along the edge about 1"-2" wide, then medium temp wax in the middle. If it's warm I just use all temp or warm wax on the whole thing if I'm feeling lazy, if not I'll still put cold temp wax along the edge, it's harder so it stays on the board better.

I use kerosine as a base cleaner, never had any issues with it, I could see problems with the base drying out if you do it too often. I only clean the base at the start and end of the season.


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## Shazkar (Dec 14, 2011)

When I wax a new board, am I supposed to use cleaner first, or is it fine since it's never been ridden


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## Leo (Nov 24, 2009)

Shazkar said:


> When I wax a new board, am I supposed to use cleaner first, or is it fine since it's never been ridden


Ride it first then you'll know if you are the type that want to wax new boards or not from that point on.


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## xotix (Aug 25, 2011)

What are you experiences about base cleaners? Pro Contra?


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## Leo (Nov 24, 2009)

I only use citrus based cleaner and it works really well. I also use it if I feel like my topsheet needs cleaning.

Hot waxing is pretty good too, but that doesn't completely pull up the grime.


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## Smokehaus (Nov 2, 2010)

Do any of you guys throw car wax on the tips of your board to make the snow not stick? I do this sometimes because I am a nerd.


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