Myles couldn’t resist the opportunity to learn how to edge and wax his Armadas for the same price as having me do them, so he brought them along to the man cave for a lesson. It was pretty cold so Myles gets to use the thermal coveralls and he sensibly brought his own World Cup beanie.
Although the skis were bought from a mate there was no evidence of them ever having tasted wax and the grinder striations on the base and side edges made it clear they were still waiting for their first tune up:
Armada don’t bother to put any tuning info on their website but good old Jon Coster at the Piste Office has done his homework and reckons base 1/edge 2. It’s good to check so out with the trusty Sharpie to colour up a length of edge.
Once that’s done a couple of light swipes with the file in the 1 degree guide take the ink off completely indicating that the base edges are indeed 1 degree.
The base edges have very little marking or gouging so all we do is a few passes with the steel file to take off the mechanical markings then a pass with the 200 grit diamond file for luck. Base edges only really need attention after you have gouged them on rocks so this should see them good for a couple of trips.
The side edges present a slight issue – Armada have somehow managed to make the plastic tops of the skis protrude very slightly over the steel edges and they have added a load of extra plastic at the binding area. We can’t see any good reason for this but it means leaving a lot of colourful curly plastic on the floor with the sidewall planer.
Once we have access to the edges they are also checked and 2 degrees it is. Armada manage to score a point for marking the skis L & R so we know which edges to give the extra attention to. One edge has very slight scratching but it comes out completely with some elbow grease. After the steel file, 200 grit and 600 grit diamond files the edges are gleaming like a samurai sword and too sharp so the gummi stone is used to bring them back to sharp but safe rather than hazardously sharp.
There are a few minor gouges on the bases but nothing too serious so it’s time for base wax. The skis are quite wide & long so it is, frankly, a laborious process to iron in then scrape off the wax but the bases really needed it. Myles is planning a trip to the Alps in January so as the crystal weather ball doesn’t stretch that far we opted for Zoom Universal which is supposed to be good for -10 to 0 degrees C.
Scraping the bases highlighted the slight concavity we had measured right at the start of the process but like the base gouges we put the lightly railed base into the “maybe later” tray.
After a thorough brushing the skis looked like new, minus half a pound of superfluous sidewall plastic. It was so cold we ran back inside and even forgot to do the “proud owner shows off skis” photo at the end.
Don’t forget if you want to learn how to manage your own equipment it is the same price as a normal service. Edge and single hot wax should take 2 1/2 to 3 hours, base & top wax slightly longer. Get in touch here.
Had a great Thursday evening in the man cave!
As you gather from the above I turned up at John’s with some 2014 Armada TSTs that had seen no action with their previous owner and only a week with me. I needn’t have worried whether it was going to be worth it – it was.
If, like me, you have not tuned and waxed skis before, I highly recommend having the work done as a lesson – which means working on the skis yourself with Johns demos, guidance and help. Don’t expect an easy night, you wont be leaving until the job is as professional as John would do himself!
But it’s well worth it as you’ll gain the understanding required to keep skis in prime condition yourself or instruct work for specific conditions to any ski techs that are lucky enough to handle your skis in future.
John’s expertise and passion for the technicalities was apparent from the minute I set foot in the door and I came away with as much of that knowledge as my brain could handle!