Need some wax for your next skate session? Sure, you can buy some from specialty skate stores. But you can also make it at home for a fraction of the price.
Not sure where to start? We’ve done the hard work for you – evaluating the various methods and providing you with detailed instructions on the best.
Skate Wax Ingredients:
- A few cheap candles
- Clean empty food can
- Kitchen pot
- Vegetable Oil
- Butter
- Soap – optional
- Moulds – ice cube moulds work well but an old container is OK
There’s no hard and fast rules around the measurements. The vast majority of your mixture will comprise of candle wax however you’ll want to play around with measurements of the other ingredients until you land on a formula that works for you.
Start off with a few shavings of butter and a tablespoon of oil and work from there.
Process:
- Remove any metal or paper container that your candles are in.
- Remove the wicks
- Scrape/chop the candles down into small pieces/shavings
- Put the candle shavings in the can
- Fill the pot up ⅓ with water
- Put the water on the stove and heat until hot but not simmering
- Put the can with wax upright in the pot of hot water
- Stir the wax as it starts to melt
- Add the butter, vegetable oil, and soap
- Continue to stir
- Once mixture is melted and consistent turn the heat off
- Using oven mits to handle the hot can, pour the mixture into your moulds
Warning: The can and wax get very hot during this process. Use all safety precautions that you would usually use when cooking. Kids, get your parents to help.
Why Use Skate Wax?
Many skate tricks require parts of your board, wheels and trucks to slide on surfaces such as rails and ledges.
However, the friction between your board and these surfaces can often be problematic.
The purpose of wax is to reduce friction by creating a smoother surface for your board to slide on.
How To Use Skate Wax?
Generally speaking, the more slippery the surface prior to waxing, the more slippery it will be after.
Naturally smooth surfaces like polished concrete and painted or metal ledges will slide very well with wax applied.
It is also possible to make rougher surfaces such as bare wood or concrete skateable by applying wax.
The trick is to only wax the parts of a surface that you need to reduce friction on. This means you use less wax, and reduces the chance of you placing wax where others may not want it.
Once you know what trick you will be trying on a ledge or rail, determine where your board, trucks and wheels will come into contact with the surface. Apply wax to this area only.
Make sure you clean the area as best as possible before applying your wax.
After application you may want to slide your board along it a few times to help work the wax into the holes and cracks. Remember the aim is to make a smooth, consistent surface.
Make sure you let other skaters know when you are applying wax to features in a skate park.
It can make the feature very slippery, which can be dangerous if others aren’t aware, especially if they have been using it previously and have gotten used to the stickiness.
One way to avoid this is to wax your board and trucks as opposed to the feature itself.
Happy skating!
