Tom’s Musings | 2022 Grind Testing

Grinding and testing. Plenty of structure ideas ping ponging in my head. Structure ideas that I would punch into the NC in between working on customer skis. The bulk of on snow ski testing this season was done in Uni- and Uni-plus range grinds.

The new CNC machine gives me a wider scale of mm depth to explore when creating a structure. So my intent this season was to try to prove and lock in a more accurate mm depth for a given snow type. Then continue to play with compound layer line shapes around those depths to discover best performance. Understanding thickness of moisture film created under a gliding ski in cold snow* (ain’t much to nothing at all) is a good starting place when developing a grind for our area in the Upper Midwest. Think of bicycle speed when pedaling vs dragging your feet. Structure depth can affect glide positively or negatively. With moisture film minimal at best, that’s why you feel and see little when looking at a Uni structure.

*approximate upper Midwest snow temps

Cold grind = 10*F and down

Uni grind = 10*F to 25*F

Uni Plus grind = 25*F to 32*F

Warm grind = 30*F to 35*F