- 1). Inspect your wooden skis for any possible damage. A dent or a crack in the wooden structure of your skis can easily translate into a serious injury. You must thus make sure that the wood is in a good condition, smooth and without any visible flaws.
- 2). Sand down the bottom surface of the wooden skis with sandpaper. This way, the application of the tar layer will be much more effective. Make sure to move the sandpaper along the length of the skis, and along the grain of the wood, rather than across.
- 3). Apply a thick coat of tar on the whole bottom surface of the wooden skis. Note that it is always better to use pine tar and a small but hard fiber paintbrush. When heated, this tar will seal shut your cross-country skis, making them impenetrable to moisture.
- 4). Pre-heat the propane torch to a temperature suggested on the tar package. Check any other recommendations as well as the instructions.
- 5). Heat the tar with the propane torch, but do so carefully and precisely, not to burn the wooden parts of the skis. Work on a portion of the skis at a time and heat the tar surface until it starts to form bubbles. Then leave the tar to cool off for a few minutes before heating it once again. Move along the skis until you finish the heating process.
- 6). Leave your cross-country skis to cool off completely before continuing with the application of glide wax. Glide wax is the last step in the process of preparing your skis for the cross-country skiing terrain, since it minimizes friction.
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