Why wont my K2's hold their wax....?

Thanks for the comment I appreciate your thoughts. But as I have only 2 thumbs not 10, have watched most of the videos regarding repairing tuning and waxing, we ski in total about a month of the season in all conditions, there's four of us and I don't have bottomless pockets I am prepared to learn as we all start somewhere. But thanks for your suggestion.

It is kinda fun to learn. Also, you become even more popular. So I wish you luck!!

Could always do with being more popular! You may well be right in the long run but looking forward to learning something new, giving it a go and getting a bit more space from the kids in the shed!!! Lol. Thanks Canadianskier.

If waxing is all you want to do and assuming you've got a workbench in your shed, all you need are two pieces of wood thick enough to support the skis so that the bindings are off the bench, a bungee cord luggage strap to hook onto the bindings and the bench so that they don't move about, a couple of strong rubber bands to hold the brakes up, some wax, an iron and a roll of Fiberlene. A basic waxing iron can be had for about 30 quid. If you can lay your hands on an old dry iron it will work just as well.

Get a biggish block of universal wax (ca. 150g) dab the wax on the hot iron and crayon it onto the base, when the base is covered iron it in. Be careful not to get the base too hot or the bond between the base and the ski will break and the base will blister, keep the iron moving! Then pull off a length of Fiberlene and place it between the iron and the base, whilst holding the iron pull it along the base with the Fiberlene, this will remove most of the excess wax.

You don't need to bother scraping or brushing the bases afterwards as the excess wax usually comes off on the first run.

Why do you only want to wax them? To do a proper job you need to sharpen the edges as well.

Now my method,after years of youtube research, is to gently heat the sole of the ski till it quite warm and then give them a good clean using a mild solvent or wax cleaner. I then repair the soles if needed..ah the smell of burning P.Tex in the morning, then give the edges a sharpen . I then warm the soles up again and rub a generous helping of wax all over: I find this is less messy than melting wax onto the sole then spreading it.. I then run the iron over the wax until its melted and allow to cool then scrape off the excess and then brush vigorously with a stiff brush ..I use an old travel iron and a plastic scraper with a stiff scrubbing brush also some fine wet and dry sandpaper to smooth the soles after administering the PTex

Pretty much Nailed it Daved!

The only thing I would add is playing with the angles of sharpening. If you let the racing kids do your edges, they like to put them really close to flat and super sharp tip to tail. Most rec skiers get better results with up to a 30degree angle as well as dulled tips and tails. My bastard file has tape wrapped around one end that rests on the ski to produce the angle that I feel works well for me. I was turned on that that trick while patrolling in Canada years back. We had a community bench that we could use when waiting for something to happen. I have to add, and thus agree with SwingBeep, wax is good, but the biggest bang for your buck isn't always wax. If you want to do a quick field fix, it's much more often edge sharpen (after an untoward encounter with the natural terrain) or a hang nail causing drag. Going back to Daved's comment, when you have the time, tools and skill, do it all! And use his waxing method, just pouring it on and hoping for the best will do more harm that good, also it will just all scrape off in the first few runs. I would add, you can learn sharpening on YouTube, but works better if you can get someone to show you in person, it's a bit of an art.