How/Why does waxing remove shallow scrapes?

[milestogo]

Just curious. I took a lazy route to my car over the weekend and skied over some barely covered gravel and got a few long scrapes in my base. I had to wax them anyway, and then noticed afterwards that the scrapes were basically gone. I thought after brushing they would reappear, but no. What's the deal?

[Timberridge]

Is this post serious?

The only thing I can come up with is your iron was set at 800F.

[milestogo]

Is this post serious?

The only thing I can come up with is your iron was set at 800F.

Ummm, yeah. Serious. Thats why I posted it. Iron was around 130(?), Hertels Hot Sauce all temp wax. Wax, scrape, bronze brush, nylon brush, scrapes gone except for a deeper one. Wax was clean when scraped (i.e. not discolored from cooking the base). As I said, they were really shallow, but scrapes nonetheless. Seemed odd.

[Mofro261]

Superficial scratches raise the ptex above the level of the base. Hot wax, but really the scrape and brush, knock down the raised bits and smooth the base flat again. If the bottoms of the groove were really shallow the scratches may be gone....

[Alpinord]

A super hard green or blue wax is great for filling superficial scratches and gouges after the high points are scraped or planed down. If your brush isn't firm or coarse enough, the wax won't come out of these areas.

A harder prep wax will also help to protect your bases on coarse snows and 'parking lot' or BC touring.

[neufox47]

Supefficial scratches are probably compression of the ptex rather than the removal of ptex. Plastic has memory, heat it up and add some wax for it to absorb and it will try to revert back to its original shape. Any plastic engineers here that can expand on my Holiday Inn Express explanation?

[milestogo]

Both those answers make sense. Thanks!

[TrueNorth]

Supefficial scratches are probably compression of the ptex rather than the removal of ptex. Plastic has memory, heat it up and add some wax for it to absorb and it will try to revert back to its original shape. Any plastic engineers here that can expand on my Holiday Inn Express explanation?

Cross country ski racers will often create a temporary base structure using a rilling tool which presses grooves into the base (in contrast with a stone grind which cuts grooves). These rilled grooves also disappear with the heat of waxing.

[milestogo]

Cross country ski racers will often create a temporary base structure using a rilling tool which presses grooves into the base (in contrast with a stone grind which cuts grooves). These rilled grooves also disappear with the heat of waxing.

I've seen my kids coach do that before a race, he called it a structure tool and told me the same thing. With two kids racing nordic this year, I'm spending a lot of time at the bench and learning about base prep, wax, etc. There's a lot to learn, and with only a few seconds between first and second place there's some pressure on this dad to get his kids' skis prepped correctly!