DIY XCD help.

[mikesee]

I came into a trashed pair of Hannibal's this fall. Basically bought the bindings and skins for fair market value and the seller threw in the skis. One ski had a blown edge that needed repairing, and I needed a set of beaters for early season.

After a few days on these skis it became obvious that I just wasn't going to spend much time on them. Largely because I also got some Kom's and they've really been tickling my fancy. We have so much Kom-worthy terrain out the back door and within an ~hour's drive, they're mostly what I've been skiing this winter.

I have a few friends that are XCD-curious, and (while waiting for one of them to transition to skins, again...) I decided to try to make these trashed Hannibal's into a loaner XCD set.

An hour with the dremel and a stone produced these:

Kom's on the left, Hannibal's center, Objective BC right.

It had been a ~month since I'd skied them and I couldn't remember which wax had been on them last. So I opted to just take them out as-is for the first go round. Temp was +30* with some wet, heavy, fresh snow on top of a rain crust. They had heaps of grip but very little glide. Think "skins-still-on" levels of glide. Sub-optimal.

That night I scraped them really well and waxed with a blend of yellow and pink, knowing that the forecast for the next day was 40* and full sun. Scraped and buffed and turned out the lights.

Straight out of the gate the next AM -- already +35* and climbing -- they felt every bit as grippy going up the first hill on a semi-packed track. I shuffled out of the track to attempt making turns down a 30* untracked slope. Dropped in, got a little speed, then when I went to make my first turn I almost went over the handlebars. I think the skis basically stopped. I was able to "glide" to the bottom of the hill, but while shuffling back to the starting point realized that I had ~14" of snow stuck to the base under each foot.

So I pulled 'em off, put my Kom's on, and proceeded to have a wonderful day of skiing.

Next chance I got I took some 400 grit sandpaper to the bases -- basically to smooth out the transitions/edges of the spots that I'd dremeled. Buffed 'em nice and smooth such that I couldn't feel any catches or irregularities anywhere when rubbing the palm of my hand over the traction area. Then hot waxed with a blend of pink and yellow again.

Took them out this evening. 35*, with 1/2" of new snow over yesterday's rain crust. Outglided the wife (on her Kom's) right out of the gate, then as we transitioned to climbing I realized that I didn't really have much traction on our packed track. Lots of slipping and backsliding as she pretty much ran away from me.

I did better if I left the packed track and broke my own trail, but still only at lesser grades. The wife was pretty much gone up the hill while I struggled to make consistent headway.

So, that's where things stand right now. I'm trying to narrow down the variables each time out, but I'm not sure where to go from here.

I don't expect that these will ever approach the uphill/downhill performance of the Kom's, but if I could get them to ~80% as good they'd be a good gateway drug for friends to be able to see the XCD light before spending the money on their own.

Any suggestions on where to go from here appreciated.

[fisheater]

Remove all the glide wax and wax with Swix Polar (white) Grip wax. Polar glide swell, in temperature warmer than it grips. If you still slip, use the other grip waxes.
I know wax works. There is a bit to learn, but if you decide to learn you will. It’s not difficult. You home made scales probably help quite a bit, so you probably will get wider temperature range out of your kick waxes.
I don’t use glide wax at all any longer. I generally do not ski in temperatures where Swix Polar white acts as a grip wax

[mikesee]

Are you essentially telling me to grip wax my DIY scales?

[fisheater]

Yes, at least with Polar. See how it goes from there. I didn't suggest filling the scales with wax. I did offer that the scales are most likely providing some grip, just not enough. Wax will work, I don't have any other ideas to help. I wish you success.

[sjc]

I've done a similar pattern to a few pair. One with many small cuts, another with bigger ones. The bigger/wider works better. Your cuts look to be about mid size in comparison. Full width cuts for a few inches under the toes help.
Some snow types they are slow... one pair was too slow and grabbed weird in turns, so I melted p-tex into several cuts, which helped.
And ya, the grip wax... below freezing, dry, powder, unpacked snow grip wax works better than scales. The 'scales' on mine are usually full of hard wax and grip wax over top. Wet snow in the spring, remove the wax and use the scales.

[mikesee]

I've done a similar pattern to a few pair. One with many small cuts, another with bigger ones. The bigger/wider works better. Your cuts look to be about mid size in comparison. Full width cuts for a few inches under the toes help.
Some snow types they are slow... one pair was too slow and grabbed weird in turns, so I melted p-tex into several cuts, which helped.
And ya, the grip wax... below freezing, dry, powder, unpacked snow grip wax works better than scales. The 'scales' on mine are usually full of hard wax and grip wax over top. Wet snow in the spring, remove the wax and use the scales.

Interesting. Wider works better for which -- gripping or gliding? Both?!

The bases and edges on these skis are so thin that I couldn't go any deeper into the p-tex. I actually tried at first and the dremel went straight through to the core. Oops. So that's why they ended up the width they did -- that's as wide as I could go with the grinding stone attachment I have.

Sort of too late to go wider at this point, unless I were to fill in all those cuts with p-tex and start over.

Which I'm definitely not going to do...

[sjc]

Wider cuts worked better for grip. The glide on mine was only slow in cold, dry snow when grip wax worked better so that's why I filled the holes with polar grip for that condition. The mistake with the many small cuts I tried was that they were longer than wider, so climbing grip was poor and pivoting/side-slipping was grabby. Then I got the big idea to make the cuts wider, and full width every other row under foot, which helped. You may be able to add cuts between what's already there. I'd suggest doing that under foot and see how it works. I was moving the dremel sideways to make wider cuts. A steady hand and good eye is key, ha. Too bad about the glide on yours... I'm surprised how slow they seem from your description. Filling with p-tex is a special job that takes a lot of time and thc, ha.

The dremel cutter I used was cone shaped, so it results in the scale having quite a sharp grabbing edge... maybe that helps grip too, dunno. I had hoped to find a sleeve to fit over the shaft to keep the tool from cutting too far into the base, but never found anything to fit.

So I dunno... for cold, dry days I'd say add polar and grip wax of the day. Maybe fill in holes closer to the ends of the traction area with glide wax and see how they go.