lilcliffy wrote:Can we get confirmation about whether the updated 62 and 68 have full-wrap steel edges?
I have attached a picture of both the tip and tail of the new FT62. The Rabb 68 has the same steel edges.
I hear the discussion surrounding full-wrap steel edges quite often, and to be honest, there are as many pros and cons with this as with everything else.
In general, I would say that all the decisions we take when producing skis are well weighted and thought trough. We always consider all the factors we can, and always carefully consider the best option. In both the FT62 and the Rabb68, the option we have landed on is the best option to make the best possible skis and keep intact the properties we want in the skis.
Most important, it does not matter too much if you choose the one option over the other, but how the process is done and how focused one is on quality and the production process. Both options can be equally good as long as the craftsmanship is on the level it should be.
Of course, there will be several factors playing a role when we choose what kind of steel edges we want, but stiffness and weight always play a role. One can never get away from the fact that a full-wrap steel edge significantly stiffens up the ski, and that is not always what we want - especially in skis with a combination of Nordic Rocker and Camber.
Another factor is that you do not really need a seel edge in the full length of the ski, as the actual effective edge is often limited to a shorter part of the ski, this is a fact both on AT, Alpine, BC, and other skis.
From a ski builders view, wood is flexible, glue is flexible, fiberglass is flexible, carbon fiber is flexible and metal is not so much. This all plays a role when we build skis to meet the requirements we want. Hammered and abused steel edges will get stiffer over time and deform as well if one does not care for them.
Also, when making semi-cap skis (which is something we have chosen for a lot of reasons), the room for steel edges in the tips will be limited. Often when ski builders design skis with a specific tip and tail they avoid steel edges in these parts of the ski to prevent delamination and blow-out. A flexible tip is always better than a stiff and brittle tip in terms of breaking and blow-outs - which is quite logic.
Arguments by both sides have merit. As a consumer, I wouldn't really fuss over such details unless you have had problems with one or the other design in the past. Honestly, I would say it has more to do with who, when and how your ski was built in the factory when it comes to quality and durability, and that is something you can never really know or control.
Either way. It is up to us to make skis that work and do not break apart. And I believe we do that with a fairly high level of success. In the ski industry, we have generally a lot fewer problems with our skis than others have. But still, there are about 110 handheld processes while making our skis, so we can never be 100% sure that there is absolutely no human error involved - but we do our utmost best to make sure that does not happen.
