The Beloved Wax Box
This is my beloved waxbox
What is in your wax box?
We just had our first Nordic Meisters of '07 and it is always fun for me to walk around the wax room and take a peek in to other skiers (open) wax boxes. To see how the old dull scraper still gets the position next to the new sharp one, or the tube of prized kick wax that is down to nothing but the width of the cap. The beloved wax box. Ok, so it's a tool box with stickers on it, but if you are a racer or a serious fitness skier, you have one. Why do we put stickers on them? Is it like the 3-ring binder in Junior High, do we do it to make them our own? What does it say about your personality; I have Hello Kitty and Piglet mixed in with ski organizations, brand and areas, (of course GGT).
My wax box is precious to me, both in attachment and the literal sense, if I were to sell all the items in it, I could probably use the money to take a vacation to some far off exotic place. But I wouldn't do that because I have spent many years building it up to what it is now. I have the full spectrum of hydrocarbon, low, and high flouro waxes. I have brushes for each type of wax and I keep them in separate baggies. Did I just let you in on my nerdiness? There are groove scrapers, plexi scrapers, a scraper sharpener, iron, iron cozy and P-Tex; a respirator (I don't mess around with flouros) a riller, travel vises, klisters, and hard kick waxes. I even have one box of glide wax that was in my Dad's wax box that I wouldn't even use (it stays in for novelty). And although there is one brand that dominates, I am not a one brand kind of girl. There is Swix, Start, Rex, Star and Toko. I try to ignore the fact that it is heavy enough that I lean to one side when I carry it. But it all stays in there because I know that if I need it, there it will be. So, what is in your wax box? Let us know.
-Amy
Comments
Re: The Beloved Wax Box
by Ryan @ Great Glen Trails
on Jan 18th 2007, 4:28 pm
I'm not sure why we put stickers on them. I guess it's so they don't get confused with real toolboxes. In my case, it would never be confused with an actual toolbox, since I have great fear of tools.
My favorite wax box item is an old tube of Rex brown klister. My all time favorite klister. Why? Because it's Rex brown, that's why!
BTW, Amy's wax box is bigger than her.
Re: The Beloved Wax Box
by SoCo Skiier
on Jan 18th 2007, 5:37 pm
I love my wax box. Though not quite as extensive as Amy's, I too could take a vacation with the sale of what's inside. Just not an exotic one! I have wax that dates back to 1987 and wax that was bought last month. I want to give a word of warning to every amateur wax box owner, DO NOT store your liquid base cleaner in the box. I did and it leaked into a brand new box of Swix LF. After a roll of paper towels and a sharp scraper, I was able to salvage about half of the wax. My stickers include Smith, Rossignol, Fischer, and of course, GGT!
Re: The Beloved Wax Box
by Ed
on Jan 19th 2007, 7:50 am
What's a wax box? What's a sticker? I saw Amy carrying a box that I thought must be containing the biggest lunch in the Valley.
Re: The Beloved Wax Box
by Ed's Buddy
on Jan 19th 2007, 10:41 am
Personally, I carry a wax bag . . . i.e., zip lock. I have enough weight to carry around with me i.e., ME !! Anyway, those zip lock babies can carry what I need for a Meister day and if I don't have it, Nate is more than happy to help me out !! Well, I guess you can tell I'm not a serious racer. But I bet I have more fun then all you speedy guys and gals.
Re: The Beloved Wax Box
by Howie
on Jan 19th 2007, 11:21 am
Hmmmm.....what to comment on, the items within or the stickers on the outside. There must be a psychological reason for the stickers and which ones get picked to adorn the outside. I don't race enough for mine to be seen by anyone but me and Sue so I just use ones I like or are funny or remind me of ski adventures we've been on. My favorite is the knickered skier with bamboo poles from Seefeld, Austria - ahhh those were the best days of skiing... Inside the box one of the best items is the steel putty knife for easily removing kick wax before applying the wax of the day, a great time saver. And a tiny little butane heater for warming klister if we find ourselves at an area that has no indoor wax room. Also I've found that if I pretend I need to work late, Sue will have the waxbox loaded in the car before I realize it - negating the issue of the weight of the box!
Re: The Beloved Wax Box
by Sue W
on Jan 19th 2007, 6:39 pm
Hoho . . . so that's your strategy! The working late strategy also works sometimes for Howie to get his skis waxed. I like to wax skis, particularly glide waxing. So when Howie and I have carpooled to work together, (often) and I've finished work and am waiting for my ride home, what better use of time than to hot wax skis. Including Howie's. (He never seems to mind.)
Kind of reminds me of how I used to jump on all the pre-skiing chores with my family on weekend mornings as a kid--walk the dog, do the dishes with my sister, load the skis in the car, etc., so I could get my family off to the ski slopes as fast as possible.
My parents were no dummies!
