cross country skis

[zach mahlum]

has anyone here ever built a pair of cross country skis? what material would you use for a base? what about general design? how much camber etc.? i couldnt find any information searching the internet.

[sammer]

Never built a pair but i have spent a fair bit of time on them
probably did 6 years of touring on my old karhu xcd-gt's.(they had metal edges).
i would look at a few pairs to get an idea of camber, most waxable xc skis have a double camber.
waxless would be really hard to get base material for.
i say go for it. then let us know how it turns out.
sam

[Greg]

Just an idea here, but for base material, you could probably use standard P-tex, just like for downhill skis. Then if you roughen the base under the boot, you should be able to get almost the equivalent effect of waxless skis. I haven't experimented with it, but from experience of my homebuilt skis, when the base is only rough sanded, they go really slow, which would give plenty of traction going uphill.

[rockaukum]

I have been thinking of how to put the fish scales on the base of a set of skis. So far the best option is to use a dremel and cut the bases after the pressing. I tried to talk to a few shops with cnc machines and they don't want anything to do with it because it is a small job. I have friends who have cut their bases to increase the traction to their touring skis and say they have had good results.
rockaukum

[breid19]

I've done some test samples with a router and a core profiler with straight rails. Just put a wedge shim under your router bridge and route perpendicular to you base. You have to move the bridge at approx. 10mm increments then route again. You can angle your bridge enough to leave very deep fish scales... much more aggressive than what's on my xc skis.

Bill