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Working with Swix HS7 wax

Neelis

Booting up
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Oct 12, 2022
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Netherlands
Hi all, a one-week-a-year-skier here from the Netherlands, first post on this forum.

Since 2015 I sharpen and wax my skies myself. For waxing I use Holmenkol universal wax and Betamix Red and a Holmenkol 850 Watt smart waxer.
I want to try something different/better so I went into the dark world of ski waxes. Liked the idea of non-fluoro skiwax and decent performance, so I went for the Swix HS7 skiwax.

Set the iron to 150 degrees C as per package and holy smokes, what an amount of smoke/vapor/fumes came of the iron when I started to melt the wax. Learned that wax should not fume, so I lowered the temperature, but I have to go to 130 degrees to not have the wax fume. What should I think of this? I cannot find any statement from Swix that wax should not fume/smokes when applied, but to me this is common sense.
The wax is not very predictable when melting it onto the base of the ski, sometimes you need to move very slow and go back with the iron, other moments you need to speed up to not overheat the base.
What was also different then what I am used to, is that when you drip the wax onto the base, the drops that fall on the base and cool down gets cracks in them.

I don't know, it was not a good experience, the Holmenkol wax is easier to apply for me.

Is it me or is indeed the Swix HS wax more challenging to apply? Anybody that has experience applying this wax?

After this experience I am very curious how this wax performs on the slopes, have to wait till end of march. Anybody that can share his experience with this wax on the slopes?
 

Primoz

Skiing the powder
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New non-fluoro waxes from Swix and Toko are "more challenging to apply" then old ones, mostly because they require much higher temperatures then before. Using 160 or 170c for colder TS waxes (TS7, TS6, TS5) is normal thing, and handling skis with iron at 150+c is a bit more "challenging" then using iron at 120-140c. But other then this, it's still same. No smoke is coming from wax for me, even if using 180c. But there's one thing, which I assume should be clear to everyone, but might not be. Clean iron properly before switching to such high degrees (it should be done when switching between waxes, so waxes don't mix), so no old wax is left there. Some old wax left there, could cause this smoke... or some dirt/water. PS/HS/TS waxes don't make any smoke if done properly, even at high(er) temperatures.
If feeling uncomfortable with high temperature (or waxing every day which causes more stress to ski with such high temperatures) one option is to grind wax into sort of powder and then you can go with slightly lower temperature.
 
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Neelis

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Hmm, interesting, thank you for your reply, this helps.

I did clean the base of the iron before working with the new wax, but I see smoke coming from the sides of the iron and that is probably old wax that got in between the base and the housing of the iron. And I only wiped the base when hot with some kitchen paper, before using the new wax. I should have cleaned it properly before heating up the iron with a wax remover.
I think we solved the 'mystery' of the smoke here.

Will ask permission to boss of the kitchen use the parmesan grater to make powder out of the wax :P
 

Zrxman01

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Save yourself from getting yelled at….Good idea to get a dedicated wax grater!!!
7E1375D2-4707-4387-9201-7225535BB01B.jpeg
8D038FCE-AD3A-4D5C-B6CA-7F6F49A3417D.jpeg
 

Primoz

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Same way as any powder overlay, except that here it doesn't hurt that much to add some extra as it might hurt someone to spend half of 200eur box of HF powder for single pair of skis :D Otherwise in short, prepare skis as for "normal wax", brush etc. then add this "powder" on ptex and go over with iron.
 
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Neelis

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Same way as any powder overlay, except that here it doesn't hurt that much to add some extra as it might hurt someone to spend half of 200eur box of HF powder for single pair of skis :D Otherwise in short, prepare skis as for "normal wax", brush etc. then add this "powder" on ptex and go over with iron
Out of curiosity: which wax do you use and why?
 

Primoz

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You really didn't ask right guy for this :roflmao: For alpine and touring, normally Swix CH/LF/HF 8, 7 or 6, depending on condition, and depending if I feel like waxing with gasmask (then HF) or not (then CH or LF). For xc, anything that goes on that particular day, with plenty of fluoro overlays, as with xc I want to have fast skis :)
 

anders_nor

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I'm gonna be the bastard here

for one week a year you dont need HS wax, nor so many ideas around it, its better to wax every day if its wet and slower snow.
if your trip is multiple days, ps6, or hs6 or similar HARD wax so it lasts a bit longer is what I find to be key for me, maybe a tiny can of vola liquid wax for hotel room fun if you ski tons of vert,

hs waxes are good if you race, and need that speed from first gate, doesn't matter much if you dont.


then again, gear is fun.
 
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Neelis

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I'm gonna be the bastard here

for one week a year you dont need HS wax, nor so many ideas around it, its better to wax every day if its wet and slower snow.
if your trip is multiple days, ps6, or hs6 or similar HARD wax so it lasts a bit longer is what I find to be key for me, maybe a tiny can of vola liquid wax for hotel room fun if you ski tons of vert,

hs waxes are good if you race, and need that speed from first gate, doesn't matter much if you dont.


then again, gear is fun.
I go for a week and ski for 6 days in a row, I do benefit from wax that lasts the whole week, on the other hand, I have 2 pairs of skies and I use both them, so in practice is ski 2 to 4 days on each pair and they receive new wax the next year.

Do I need the performance of the HS wax, maybe not. Do I like the idea and experiment with different type of waxes, yes.

I will be looking into a liquid wax for day to day maintenance.

And we agree, gear is fun!

Question regarding your preference for PS/HS6 wax: you more or less ignore the temperature range of the wax and focus on the hardness of the wax?
 

cantunamunch

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You mean this edge:


Previous owner of the skies hit a rock pretty bad.

I did mean that edge, yes.

There's also a weird whitish-grey pattern on the base of the same ski that indicates the previous owner of the skis may not have been as diligent as you have been about wax and temperature control.
 

Snuckerpooks

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Woah! Came to input about going for PS instead of HS (even as a racer I no longer use HS regularly).

Stayed for the cheese grater on waxing skis. I'll have to give it a try!
 

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