Have you seen the latest machines NZCol. The old Wintersteiger that just gave a flat base with two possible finishes is a thing of the past. Why would you want an “edge high ski”. Edge high is considered a defect solved by grinding the base then dropping the edges by between .5 and 1.5° and then sharpening to taste. Always put edge-high skis through a stone, or bin them.
Yes i have seen them and worked on them as well as the Wintersteiger and Montana factory spec machines as well (We actually had a Montana factory machine in our NZ shop). There are a myriad of base combinations available depending on how you dress the stone and what speed you dress it at.
I said you didn’t want an edge high ski, the only ski you will ever be able to turn efficiently is a completely flat ski and grinding it flat doesn’t work, filing it flat first, then structuring the base on the stone and then finally applying a bevel to the edge is how you should do it. At that point you have a well structured ski, that will take wax, which can have proper turn initiation and a nice edge bevel. Structuring edges and mashing skis through a machine with sparks everywhere is a totally pathetic way to prepare skis (not to mention quite expensive on stones). The heat generated on the stone in a heavy grind (to try and flatten it) makes the base expand with the heat (even with a very high emulsion content in the hopper), then when it cools it tends to contract and make the ski ‘rail’ again really badly. So base file them and then prepare them properly. I’m not even going to bother willy waving and listing why I believe it should be done like this but all i’ll say is we prepared all our skis like that and kept them like that all year and I consistently fouind it easier to teach people on those skis than railed skis. We did blind tests where we used the same ski (model, age and days use even) prepared ‘normally’ i.e. ploughed through the automated wintersteiger that we never used, and one that had been hand flattened (takes about 5 minutes a pair) then given a light pass to structure it. Even the reverse camber skis should be done like this. Try it, you’ll be surprised.
