As title really, looking for a cheap (key word there) iron with no holes in the base for waxing my board, anyone seen any around?

Ta, Duane.

Somewhere like Currys/Comet should have a very basic one for about a fiver. Or you could try charity shops for an old non-steam one.

Travel irons are usually of the non-steam variety

OK cheers, apparently it doesnt matter if it has holes, and if its steam iron, just dont put water in it. Any one confirm this?

I use a £5 Tesco value one and it works a treat, the holes don’t matter, just don’t put any water in it. Simples!

EDIT: PS don’t try to iron your clothes with it afterwards as it has a habit of dripping molten wax onto your best shirts! Our regular iron broke and thought the one I had used for waxing would be fine as I couldn’t see any wax on it, oh how wrong I was!! 🙂

Used a bog standard one for years with no problem – all it has to do is melt and spread the wax so it doesn’t matter about the holes.

Cheers all. Any input on what wax to get? Board is pretty beat up, some deep gauges, but dont want to spend too much, just get the board vaguely OK. Any makes to go for/avoid?
And anyone know anything about working on the edges?

Id agree with that, cheap irons do heat up and cool down quicker too, keep it moving.

Holes will not matter unless you plan using it to iron clothes in the future.
Back in my ‘ski technician’ days I used a wax iron that was basically an aluminium box that you put wax blocks into, they then got melted and when you operated the switch the wax came out of holes in the bottom of the iron onto the ski/board.
Quite satisfying turning a dry/dull/scratched base back into something sharp and slippery .

As above – Tesco £5 job works just fine.

For wax I just use Datawax… the green stuff’s fine for multipurpose use. I get through about a quarter / third of a stick per wax.

What do you mean “working on the edges”

I assume you mean sharpening so for that you would need a file and an angle tool, which keeps the file at the correct angle whilst sharpening the edges.

Also ideally for wax you want to use the correct one for the temp snow you intend to be boarding on! Different waxs melt at different temperatures and thus react differently depending on the snow type they’re used on.

some deep gauges

Melt in some p-tex then scrape off.

I did a class i snowboard maintenance – they guy said you could get edges OK with a normal file and some care.

And anyone know anything about working on the edges?

Two choices:
1) get a proper ski file (very open/coarse teeth) and do it freehand although it does take quite a bit of practice to do a nice job and you’ll lose some skin!
You basically want a nice sharp 90 deg angle along edge, then you want to get some emery cloth/wet&dry and remove the sharpness at the tipand tail otherwise you’ll catch an edge very easily.

Also ideally for wax you want to use the correct one for the temp snow you intend to be boarding on!

I wouldn’t bother….. this really is the realm of racers.

2) take it to your local shop and get them to do it – it will come back better for it. We ended up with a wet belt grinding machine that bought bases up a treat, but you still had to melt new ptex into the gouges by hand.

I got one for waxing my snowboard from currys

they tried to sell me a 3 years warranty for it that was more than the price of the iron

if you want to do the edges get a new file and wrap some tape around it, maybe 2 or 3 times, to give a slight angle away from the centre of the board

1 more tip, if youre going to do the edges by hand wear a glove, I have some great scars from sharpening the edges of my skis!

they guy said you could get edges OK with a normal file and some care.

The file needs to be very sharp otherwise you’ll end up with a ‘hairy’ base! The proper jobs do not have handles and gloves took too much feeling away so you hold them bare handed. When you get to a part of the edge that has become hardened (by hitting a rock) the file can sometimes stop but your hands keep moving……. tends to remove the skin very quickly!

edit: as you’re talking about a board I’d defo get it machine ground as the width of a board makes doing it by hand quite tricky.

I’ve got a £5 iron from Woolworths that I use.
It has steam holes, but it makes no odds really – just don’t put any water in it!

Sharkbait – are you saying do or dont wear a glove for sharpening edges?

Thanks all. How essential is Ptex for deeper scratches? Will wax work at all?

Oh and with Ptex, is the candle or iron on stuff better?

Sharkbait – are you saying do or dont wear a glove for sharpening edges?

I didn’t…yep…. mad!! Just didn’t like the feel with a glove 😯

Duane: wax in deep grooves will not last long so to do a proper job you need to fill them but I can’t for the life of me remember which ptex we used…. pretty sure it was iron on stuff.
Whichever you go for you need to put a bit too much in and then it’s time for the ‘sharp’ file – this is where big open teeth help as they’ll slice the excess ptex off very neatly. Did I mention that the file needs to be sharp? 😀

Oh just remembered, if the gouge in the base is quite smooth (i.e. it does not have any sharp sides and is more of a depression caused by running over a smooth stone rather than a jagged edge) – then you need to get a sharp stanley knife and cut a crosshatch into the grrove that the melted ptex can get into/grip. Otherwise your nice bit of filler will just peel straight off………. and degrease before putting the ptex in!
It’s been about 25 years since I last did a repair so these memories are having to be retreived from deep storage 🙁

Edit: another bit of info just reached the surface……. to test if the edge was sharp enough (in the middle of the ski) I used to scrape the top of my fingernail lightly down the edge – if a shaving of nail came off then the it was sharp enough!
And when you’re doing the waxing your basically aiming to remove pretty much all of the wax you carefully applied with a plastic scraper. You just want enough left that will polish up nicely.

If it’s bad enough to need multiple ptex repairs and the edges have heavy pitting or corrosion – you’d be better off getting a shop to do the repairs. It would probably benefit from a base grind.
A coarse file takes far too much material off your edges, a set of diamond edging stones is a much better option.
Home waxing with a value iron and a bit of citrus degreaser to clean the base is fine though. There really isn’t that much difference in waxes.

If your going to a European resort it will work out cheaper and easier to just drop your board in for a service in the resort. Modern machines can pretty much grind the base and fill, sharpen the edges and wax in one go.

I would always recommend getting your edges sharpened on a machine first, then at least you know the edges are square (all be it not necesarily that sharp) then set too with a file if you need extra sharpness.

I dont know how you can sharpen an edge with a glove on. Part of it is being able to feel how sharp the edge is by taking the back of your nail off.

If you are going to DIY, make sure you scrape enough wax off afterwards, most people leave too much on the base.

… then of course you could get in to what base grind to have done, what wax for what temperature, tweaking the sharpness/bluntness of the edges dependant on snow conditions etc etc

Its easy to sharpen with a glove on, thin glove on your right hand, nothing on your left and then use check the edge with the left.

A few years ago I ended up having an op on my hand after going through it with the edge when sharpening, think thats why I am a little more inclined to wear a glove now!

A coarse file takes far too much material off your edges, a set of diamond edging stones is a much better option.

Not necessarily… depends how you use them. Most ski’s that came in for a service had been left until they were pretty rough, by which point they needed a fair bit taking off them.
Stones are fine for regular tidy up though. Don’t listen to me though as I only did about 250 pairs/season for 5 years so could well be talking poo.
As already said, today, machines do a better job for 99.5% of people anyway and I doubt very much I’d service my own skis

Get yourself a Proper edge tool and when you are considering your wax, maybe try and get some eco friendly hot wax too?

An edge tool will pay for itself in a week as it keeps the edges honed and removes any small burrs. A very light run up and down after a day on the slopes is all it needs – think keeping a knife sharp as opposed to letting it get completely blunt and then having to grind the edge back.

No substitute for a professional service/edging but does extend the time in between.

Can anyone recommend an edge tool ?

Hi all,

OK, so my board is white, my wax is red. I waxed the board (badly), and it now looks like its been stained patchily (sp?) with blood, is that normal? Or should it be the same thickness of wax all over? Or No wax visible (once scrapped)?

Ta, Duane.

Duane, take it round to StuM or Hamishes, they’ll sort it.

Keep scraping until nothing comes off, then brush it till your arms hurt.