Red Creek FAQ: Questions and Answers

General

This page is intended to answer the most common questions about using Red Creek roto-brushes and roto-tools.

Questions

Yes. Scraping with a plastic scraper allows for the bulk of excess wax to be removed quickly. Remember do not press down hard or this will force wax from the base and alter the structure of the base. The roto-brushes will remove the thin excess wax layer gently.

No the brushes won't harm your bases as along as you follow the direction to DO NOT PRESS DOWN and keep the brush moving at a steady pace long the base. The tip of the bristles are what do the work. Pressing down means the sides of the bristle run across the base making the brushing ineffective. So always focus on the tips of the bristles, regardless of the brush, just touching the base.

You can do an effective job by hand-brushing and/or roto-brushing. Roto-brushing will be a lot faster and a lot less tiring as the number of skis (or snowboards) needing brushing increases. What takes a few minutes by hand can take a few seconds by roto.

If you are only going to buy one brush and no others, then the Black roto-brush is the most general purpose. If you are going to acquire 2 or more then the Hard Brown is the roto-brush to buy.

If you have already purchased the Hard Brown, then we'd recommend the Grey roto-brush,

If you have Hard Brown and Grey, then we recommend the Velcro with fibertex. This will allow you to quickly and safely remove any hairies (micro-lengths of base P-Tex) dangling from the base. Hairies are a significant factor in drag.

Absolutely the brass or fine metal roto-brush. This brush will be used to open the structure base for maximum wax absorbtion. The fine bristle size of these brushes means the base is penetrated deeply to clear out old wax and dirt.

The brass roto-brush helps clear the structure of the base. The brass bristles are a fine diameter which give a deep reach into the "valleys" of the base structure. This deep reach will help remove fine amounts of dirt, old wax and raise small PE fibers that have started to dangle. Removing dirt and old wax means the new wax will be able to penetrate the base or bond better to the underlayer wax. Raised PE fibers can now be trimmed by roto-fibertexing or by a steel scraper with a skilled hand. Then the PE fibers will not drag in the snow and will not enhance/worsen the water film drag.

It performs the same job as the brass roto-brush described above. The difference is the bristle diameter is smaller allowing for an even deeper reach into the base structure. The stiffness of each bristle is maintained by steel being stiffer than brass. The fine diameter of the bristle means that the brush is very soft and will not scour your bases. This means your base structure is left unchanged. The Ultra Fine Metal brush is one more step up from the Fine Metal brush for it's fineness of bristle diameter.

You should start each pass at the tip of the ski (or snowboard) and work to the tail. Each of these passes should take about 10 seconds.

This depends on the brush you are using. Here are some general suggestions that are by no means hard rules. Experience will allow you to make the judgement calls.

• Hard Brown: Until there are no flat pockets of wax still on the ski and the base structure is starting to be exposed. This usually takes about 3 or 4 passes.
• Brass: If you are doing regular wax preparation make 2 to 3 passes. If the bases have been skied "dry" then make 6 or 7 passes. Remember to followup with roto-Fibertex.

The snowboard brushes are constructed the same as the regular brushes. Snowboard brushes are 300mm in length instead of the regular 100mm because of the large base area on each snowboard. The larger brush helps make the job go a lot faster.

If you are going to use a Brass brush, hand or roto, during the post-scrape phase you should use it lightly. The intent is only to remove a little of the excess wax and/or roughen the wax so that the Hard Brown can be more effective. Never try to use a Brass or Metal brush for polishing. As mentioned above, the Brass and Metal brushes will clear the base structure of wax and dirt. After using a Brass brush there should still be film of wax over the structure of the base.