scrub wrote: ↑Wed Oct 09, 2024 7:29 am
It seems like all y'all are loving the Hertel, maybe I should try it.
Here in the PNW, I have mostly been using Uncle Stanky's wax (no longer available), which is fast on the flats but a pain to scrape, or Booger Red's wax, which is all around great but doesn't smell, which I find a bit odd when I'm waxing!
One more really happy user of Hertel, over here Hot Sauce is all I use these days, regardless of conditions or temp. I saw @pow_hnd has a closet full of them, lol. I didn't go that far, but when it seemed that Terry was going to close the factory, I bought like 6 bricks of the stuff.
Note: The video is posted 3 times with different time links for each of the things I'm ranting about in my post.
Anyone have anything to say about this paper towel hotwax technique? Couple comments seem to validate it. New to me.
Here is his explanation of the ptex "pores" absorbing wax. That's the conventional theory...BUT...BUT... materials expands when heated and so I believe the heating the base would actually shrink the "pores" and then they would open up as the material cools. It's all backwards.
But also, this guy says that if you don't completely scrape the wax off the board and then ride it, it damages the board because "chunks of base get ripped out by wax that sticks to the snow"...
WTF. Has anyone ever heard this bro science before? I can't understand how that would happen. Wax is softer than ptex... how would wax have the strength to rip off chunks of base? But wouldn't then scraping also then damage it by the very nature of it being the same thing?
Is riding an unscraped base the new free basegrind? /s
Idk why I'm so irrationally irritated by this. What do I even care?
No base material is getting ripped off by wax.
I like to let the mountain scrape my board for me. I barely scrape, just enough to remove the high spots.
C.Fuzzy wrote: ↑Tue Oct 29, 2024 11:11 am
Anyone have anything to say about this paper towel hotwax technique? Couple comments seem to validate it. New to me.
i use swix "paper towel" when waxing.
i think it spreads the wax smoother and also thinner than just the iron so its easier to scrape.
duno its part of my waxing ritual.
Edit: i didnt watch the video so maybe its a different technique. =P
he lost all credibility for me saying you need to wait hours for wax to cool. if i'm waxing more than one board, the first is usually cool enough to scrape by the time i'm done applying wax to the second one.
I've seen him pop up before. I don't want to be a dick and I'm sure he's a nice dude, but channel seems kinda wacky. I'm getting "recent snowboarder who showed up with youtube era in full swing and came across knapton."
@C.Fuzzy Your "backwards" idea makes sense. If the material has voids and expands with heat, but otherwise occupies the same total space, then the material must be expanding into those voids - ie pores would be shrinking. It's not as if the base gets thicker or otherwise "grows" to allow the voids to enlarge. If the voids grew within the material, which continues to occupy the same space, it would mean the material itself is contracting, not expanding. Don't know why I never thought of it that way… probably too focused on the other false details. Not only are there no "pores," but the long-running explanation of material expansion doesn't even make sense.
There is only microscopic structure that wax fills. I really wish the website were still up that showed the science, electron microscope imaging and all. Among other things, it showed that even if pores did expand, the amount of heat required to affect base material enough to change potential pore size from closed to open (regarding size of a wax molecule) would have long since vaporized the base material.
It's always just been a misleading metaphor for structure that the industry never bothered to fix. Even the manufacturers of ptex are on record stating this. You can find remnants of this information & website scattered around, like a thread on TGR, but there's not much out there anymore for whatever reason.
Really, the same thing that happens with structure would happen with pores anyway… wax melts, and the molecules can find their way into smaller spaces, after which they cool and stay in place. No expanding/opening required. The role of heat is only to melt wax and flow it into base structure.
Edit: to be fair, he does note that when he says pores, he doesn't really mean pores. Okay, so... stop saying pores? Just call it what it is - structure. The "expanding with heat" idea is all the same regardless. How the industry has kept this alive for so long is beyond me at this point.
Last edited by Spenser on Tue Oct 29, 2024 4:25 pm, edited 5 times in total.
I have screenshots of the website on an old hard drive that I can no longer access, which is a bummer.
"Next time, I'll bring screenshots – so many screenshots - believe me, I have the best screenshots – screenshots you wouldn't believe. They look at me, and they say, 'this guy, wow, look at these screenshots.'"
Oldhead wrote: ↑Tue Oct 29, 2024 11:41 am
No base material is getting ripped off by wax.
I like to let the mountain scrape my board for me. I barely scrape, just enough to remove the high spots.
Idk dood. You might be riding a baseless board and not even know it. Shit was chunked out by little flakes of snow scraping it instead of a big hunk of plastic with dakine printed on it. It's science.
Hot Sauce is all I use these days, regardless of conditions or temp. I saw @pow_hnd has a closet full of them, lol. I didn't go that far, but when it seemed that Terry was going to close the factory, I bought like 6 bricks of the stuff.
