Caldwell Sport Pro Scraper 3mm

These custom scrapers are manufactured for us by our good friend and collaborator Ulysse Ramsey. Ulysse is a materials genius who also runs a grinding service in Quebec, and does notably excellent work on skis.

Plastic scrapers are the most used and abused tool in ski prep. There is nothing worse than a dull scraper, and most of the scrapers on the market don't hold an edge for long enough to be worth using. Most wax companies produce scrapers as throw-away accessories that are a convenient place to put their logo - more of a promotional item than a tool. Overwhelmingly, they are produced to be as cheap as possible, without any regard for function.

So, what about function? When we finish glidewax we want to remove all the wax from the surface as efficiently as possible. We have heard people recommend using dull scrapers to protect the base. That is flatly wrong - like using a dull chef's knife so you don't cut your finger. Absolutely not correct. A plastic scraper will not damage the base unless you dive off the edge of the ski at full pressure. Just keep the thing on the road and everything will be OK! We've also heard the suggestion that scraping with a sharp scraper can "remove base material" because you can see black shavings come off the ski. If that is happening, then the damage was already done when you ironed the wax onto the base. Incomplete scraping does not make that situation better. The bottom line is that a sharp scraper works faster, and makes faster skis.

Plastic scrapers are made of acrylic (plexiglass is one of the original trade-names). Acrylic is readily available, and quite variable, coming from many different manufacturers and in many different grades (and colors!). The cheapest acrylic just isn't worth working with. Ulysse has spent an insane amount of time sourcing different material (we found that recycled acrylic can be excellent, which he points out is also good marketing) and in different thickness. Ulysse also came up with ways to vary the stiffness through reinforcement. In the end, we have settled on two thickness - nominally 3mm, and 4mm. Both are excellent and worthy of being called "pro" tools.

Among the things that we tested in the development process was different sharpening protocols. We found that material quality is critical, and that many different sharpening methods create a good edge for working on skis. We chose to pursue an edge finish that also makes it easy to resharpen the scraper. If you're not sharpening your scrapers, then you should be. And if you are, then you know that only about 2% of the life and function of any scraper is defined by the factory-produced edge.