BASE FLATTENING THEORY
RAY'S WAY is safe for both you and your skis (or board) because it removes material in a controlled way. A file by contrast can gouge your edges or your hand with one stroke. The home tuner's prime goal is to bring the ski/board into spec without risk to self or ski (or board). Because RAY'S WAY was designed wth a maintenance goal in mind, it may take a little longer to remove a lot of material, but it will be easy work, it will be accurate and it will be risk free (did I forget to mention you will save money).
RAY'S WAY employs two key features: (1) special, non-loading abrasive paper- abrasive particles are much harder than file steel, inexpensive and readily available, and (2) special tools to amplify sharpening pressure (our famous, LINE CONTACT technology) and control geometry to make tuning foolproof.
The key to RAY'S WAY is the tuning tube. Abrasive paper is wrapped the tube. When this combination is applied to the ski bottom, the tube contacts the bottom of the ski along a very thin straight line creating very high cutting pressure using very little effort. Actually less than 1/10 th the effort required with a BRAND NEW file.
Rotating the tube as it is pushed along the ski bottom allows you to continually apply sharp unused abrasive particles to the sharpening process. The result is a perfectly flat ski base, edge to edge with consistent, high quality, stoneground-like results achieved in a very short time and requiring minimal skill and effort.
HI-glide THEORY
This product performs a finishing operation after flattening, it removes microhairs better than any other product on the market and polishes the base to further improve glide. Hi-glide is intended to be used with the base flattening tube. A low cost PVC tube allows you to use this product as a stand-alone tool.
Grinding or sanding creates structure but does nothing for smoothness of the base. To add smoothness (think less friction), we need to eliminate the microhairs created by grinding or sanding and we need to polish the surface.
The product consists of a special fabric and a polishing film used with either a RAY'S WAY tuning tube (or our low cost, slotted PVC support tube). The fabric is wrapped around the support or tuning tube and held in place with a wedge. This assembly is rubbed along the base to remove the microhairs. Then a piece of polishing film is wrapped around the fabric/tube assembly and rubbed on the base to polish the unstructured portion of the base. Because this operation doesn't affect base flatness, we can use a less expensive PVC material for the support tube.
This product is also a very effective wax stripper if you happen to get stuck with a temperature change and need to change your wax. It is also good for cleaning the base as a prep for waxing.
BASE BEVELING THEORY
This product maintains a one-degree base bevel on ANY ski or snowboard. This product uses economical, replaceable, non-loading, double edged abrasive strips and RAY'S WAY line contact technology for accurate, effortless bevel maintenance. The product uses positive stops to control the angle thereby preventing over-beveling. The abrasive does not extend into the P-tex thereby limiting the bevel to the steel edge unlike some competing products. The abrasive is held in place by a black quick-clamp exposing only enough abrasive to bevel the steel. When the abrasive is used up you open the clamp and flip the abrasive to the unused edge, reclamp and continue. Most folks don' realize that to redo the base beveling, you must first reflatten the base because the tool uses the base as a reference surface. As a result of this fact, you can only have one occurrence of a one degree bevel unless you lower the base. That is the reason the tool has stops on it otherwise you would start to extend the bevel into the P-tex which you don't want to do!
SIDE BEVELER THEORY
This product uses economical, replaceable, double edged, non-loading abrasive loops and RAY'S WAY line contact technology for accurate, effortless side bevel maintenance. This design is unique in that it makes maximum use of the cutting material in tuning today's deep side-cut skis or boards. In contast, if you are using a competing handheld edge beveler just look at your file or diamond stone insert. They will be worn on the ends with no contact in the center because they are flat and the skis sides have an arc! Our product uses positive stops to control the angles thereby preventing over-beveling. When the abrasive is used up you flip the loop to the unused edge and continue. This product maintains 0, 1, 2 or 3 degree side edge bevels on ANY ski or snowboard.
waxWHIZard THEORY
Just rub your favorite wax sparingly on the ski base, then forcefully, rub the waxWHIZard tool back and forth along the base. The high pressure (caused by the line contact of the fabric/tube assembly on the flat base ) melts the wax and drives it into the pores of the P-tex (unlike "corking" which only melts the wax onto the surface). The waxWHIZard is so effective that there is always a residue of wax deep within the P-tex after a day of skiing. This fact virtually eliminates the need, risk and time associated with hot waxing except for those times when you need to reflatten your base.
Our tools are designed to rely on the fundamental laws of physics for their effect. This fact guarantees accuracy and foolproof usage.
Page links for PRODUCTS using RAY'S WAY "Line Contact" technology:
base flattening tool
Page links for INFO on testimonials, background, tuning and ordering: