Tuning and Final Modifications

This year I had a buddy at work, Matt, who happened to work at a local shop, help me tune the skis and mount the bindings.  Once this was done I waxed the skis; I used Swix all temperature universal wax.

Once waxed, I sealed the edges with epoxy; I do this because the sanding and tuning process can remove enough material near the edge to expose wood.  The epoxy prevents any water from entering the base.  I also repaired a few areas on the tails that had pulled up during the process of trimming the flashing.  To do this, I put epoxy under the top sheet using a toothpick and then used packing tape to hold the top sheet in place during the repair.

While I was at it, I patched up the top sheets of a few other pairs of skis that had been nicked during previous use.

The final step I took was to cut a small notch in the back of the ski to allow my climbing skins to hook onto the ski better.  I did this by measuring the hook on my skins and then marked the ski with a permanent marker.

 

I then used a belt sander to grind out the notch; once the notch was cut, I coated the exposed core area with epoxy to seal it.

The skis are now ready for use:

 

 

 



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: