Necessity of wax-iron

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lolo
Posts: 10
Joined: Wed Jan 08, 2020 11:38 pm
Location: Southern Utah
Ski style: Pragmatic?
Favorite Skis: Madshus XCD trio; Asnes Ingstad BC WAX!!
Favorite boots: Alpina Alaska; Garmont Excursion
Occupation: Wilderness Guide / Outdoor Educator

Re: Necessity of wax-iron

Post by lolo » Wed Feb 26, 2020 3:37 pm

Hi. I don't have an iron—not even a household, clothes iron—either. But do you have a cast iron pot or frying pan or somesuch?

On an earlier waxing thread someone mentioned how, if you DO have a clothes iron but don't want to ruin it foreverafter for clothes, you can use a sheet of aluminum foil between it and the wax job. They reported it worked well.

I can vouch for the general concept working quite well. I recently just used my cast iron skillet and the aluminum foil trick to accomplish the same thing, both with ironing polar wax on the ski base and also ironing Glopstopper into climbing skins. You could heat the skillet up on your kitchen range but in my case I just set it on my woodstove. (Sure, you need to use common sense and mind the temperature, but that's how irons were heated up for centuries!)

I folded the aluminum foil in half for a double thick layer for a little durability. I expected to have to use two hands: one to move the cast iron and one to move the foil along with it, but I found that the foil wants to move/stay with the pan and so did not need extra guidance. Easy to keep the pan in continuous motion.

All in all it was way easier than I expected and seemed to work very well. (Perhaps a bit feral and anachronistic but I'm sure there's absolutely NO ONE on this forum that identifies with THOSE adjectives....)

Cheers!
L
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Johnny
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Location: Quebec / Vermont
Ski style: Dancing with God with leathers / Racing against the machine with plastics
Favorite Skis: Redsters, Radicals, XCD Comps, Objectives and S98s
Favorite boots: Alpina Alaska XP, Alfa Guards, Scarpa TX Comp
Occupation: Full-time ski bum

Re: Necessity of wax-iron

Post by Johnny » Thu Feb 27, 2020 8:31 am

lolo wrote:
Wed Feb 26, 2020 3:37 pm
All in all it was way easier than I expected and seemed to work very well. (Perhaps a bit feral and anachronistic but I'm sure there's absolutely NO ONE on this forum that identifies with THOSE adjectives....)
BRILLIANT!!!!!!!
I always put a cauldron full of 3/4" rocks on the woodstove to put in a bag to heat our bedroom at night... A few rocks into a small pouch would be perfect for anachronistic waxing...! 8-)
/...\ Peace, Love, Telemark and Tofu /...\
"And if you like to risk your neck, we'll boom down Sutton in old Quebec..."



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lowangle al
Posts: 2731
Joined: Sat Jan 11, 2014 3:36 pm
Location: Pocono Mts / Chugach Mts
Ski style: BC with focus on downhill perfection
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Favorite boots: Scarpa T4
Occupation: Retired cement mason. Current job is to take my recreation as serious as I did my past employment.

Re: Necessity of wax-iron

Post by lowangle al » Thu Feb 27, 2020 5:07 pm

Skulls, ski boots and cooking on the wood stove, you got it goin on there girl. Nice place.



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phoenix
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Location: Northern VT
Ski style: My own
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Re: Necessity of wax-iron

Post by phoenix » Thu Feb 27, 2020 5:46 pm

Just like Al said ( I wrote a long post 10 minutes ago, but must have forgot to hit "submit"). Lots of bones, stones feathers, and a warm hearth here too. That's some magical country you live in, too... I've spent some time around there.
A warm belated welcome, Lolo.



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