Bindings, Grinding, Sharpening, and Wax

The final steps in the ski building process are to mount bindings, grind the base, sharpen the edges, and wax the skis.  I have done all of these steps in the past, but didn't have time to do them all myself this year.  I took the skis to Cycle Sport and Ski in Greensburg, PA and had the skis finished off there.  Using a professional grinding machine and expertise does have its benefits.

One additional step I needed to complete once the shop was done with them was to seal the edges of the skis.  In the process of finishing the skis, I ground the tip and tail round and ground the edges.  This process exposed some of the wood core.  In order to ensure that the core was safe from water I mixed up a little extra epoxy and went around the edges.

The ground and waxed base:

 The finished skis:

The bindings I used are shown below; note that none of these were bought at full price.  There is typically a significant discount for bindings from previous seasons.

Marker Free Ten Binding (MSRP $210)

Head Gold Thang Binding (MSRP $215)

Marker Baron Alpine Touring Binding (MSRP $445)

A final cost assessment shows that for three skis it took approximately $816 and 101 hrs of labor.  Per ski this is $272 and 34 hours of work.  Some of the final cost of the skis went into building the molds and templates; this would reduce the cost of the skis into the $240 range.  If I were to make $20 per hour working on this skis I would have to charge $920 per pair.  Ordering materials in bulk and automating machining processes would save additional costs.  Note that bindings, grinding, sharpening and waxing are not factored into this price.  A full cost and labor report is below:

For price and ski style comparison two Volkl skis are listed below.  I'm not saying that my skis are just as good as Volkl skis, but just comparing the price for a similar style ski:

Panjshir:  Gotama $825
Arlia:       Kenja $775

 Three generations of HOLUTA skis: