Ski Builders Forum

I'm in a dilemma. Pressing my first pair of skis in a week or two. Should I put in a recess for the edge for the core or not? I've searched many times and have reread many threads over and over again and it seems like there are builders who do and don't. I'm confident in my dims, in my core to some degree (we'll see), and my ability to do the layup. I'm just hung up on the whole concavity thing.

FWIW, it'll be a pretty wide pair of skis for pow and mixed conditions in the Wasatch, so concavity might be minimized by the width and the fact that I mostly tour and when in the resort don't ski groomers very often. EDIT: And I'll be doing wood sidewalls, so it'd be super easy just to profile the core without having shaped it for the sidecut. I'd just just trim it along with the rest of the stuff later during the finishing.

Any opinions/feedback are much appreciated.

Add me to the list of people who didn't put in any sort of edge recess and came out with a flat(enough) base. My cores have just been rectangles with wood sidewalls. They came out a bit "base-high" over the edges, but a base grind easily took care of it. It wasn't like the whole base was concave. The base material I've been using is sort of thick, almost 1.4mm. The stuff I just got from Crown is thinner, which has me a bit concerned. But, my skis are 116mm under foot, they're going to be used in the Wasatch, I don't really care if they are a bit base-high.

powderho wrote: The base material I've been using is sort of thick, almost 1.4mm. The stuff I just got from Crown is thinner,.

I talked to Crown the other day trying to get my hands on a full roll of 4001, and was told that all they manufacture in the u.s. now is the 1.4mm and that the 1.2 is all made in China . I was also told that the major manufacturers now are all using the 1.4 with 1.2 edges so that they don't have to worry about minor base dimples, etc... They just grind off the .2 mm. This made think that they also may be eliminating the step of recessing for the edge, as any indentations left by the edge would be easily ground off in that .2mm.

I guess I am going to be trying to get a good wet grinder so I can use the 1.4 or going to have to see about getting 1.2mm durasurf somewhere. I don't want to use anything made in China.