Stone grinding can restore a ski base surface when damaged from normal use, scratches, and overheating from an iron. Repeated application of cold wax that needs to be applied with a very hot iron will over time seal the base of the ski. Our cold snow is abrasive and will wear the high pressure contact points of the ski. If the wax you are applying appears to be chipping off the base that means it is not absorbing into the base as it should and your base is sealed. Even new skis ground at the factory really were given time to fully cure and stabilize and are not flat.
Stone grinding will make your skis faster and more stable. It accomplishes a few thing. The process removes a very small amount of base exposing fresh base with open pores and flattens the ski edge to edge. It also applies a new structure or texture to the base.
Flat skis track straighter and transition to the edge with less side slip making them much more stable allowing for better power transfer into forward motion. The newly exposed base will absorb wax and glide faster. The structure can them be match for the primary conditions they are used for allowing them to slide more freely across the snow.
Many skiers grind their skis once every few seasons but would benefit from grinding them each year. Many racers grind skis before big races to maximize performance and some serious racers will stone grind shortly before their “A” race to match conditions and maximize ski performance. Skis can be ground many times if done regularly. On the low end (heavy damage to the base hence much base removal) skis can only be ground 4-6 times but there are cases of skis being able to take up to 40 stone grinds over the life of a ski. Most of the base removed is done to flatten a severely warn base. If done regularly the flattening step is not required.
Goldstream Sports uses a Wintersteiger Race Series machine that uses digital programming. This means we can recreate the same structure easily. Our machine is used only for Nordic skis and uses a Nordic specific stone and diamond for structuring the skis.
We have different grinds for different condition. More structure is needed for wet conditions to remove water and prevent suction from occurring. In very cold condition smother structure that slides freely across dry snow is needed. We have lots of options but have 4 go to grinds that work well in varying conditions. We offer discounts for skis ground multiple times per year. This allows skiers to get skis ground to match the conditions they are being used for just as they do with the wax they select to use.
Hand structure tools can be used to warm the structure that is currently on your base but is not as effective as the proper grind. Hand structures add more drag then the correct stone ground structure would. Adding hand structure when needed is better than not having enough structure. It is a short term quick fix.
Our basic grinds cost $55. Paired with our Thermo Bag wax saturation and Base hardening we can have your skis race ready in a couple days.
Our recommended process is as follows
1. Grind the ski
2. Thermo Bag the ski with low melting point base wax
3. Scrape and brush ski
4. Thermo Bag with cold wax to harden the base
5. Scrape and brush the skis
6. They are now ready to ski or apply race wax