Ski Builders Forum

Skis that come out twisted. I know this is a fairly common issue that people have and I know how to avoid the issue, but what I don't know is how do skis with a twist ride? Horribly, right?

I had the brilliant idea to mold a pair in an old school x-country style press for some reason, didn't really work but the natural early rise is beautiful. One ski came out with a 7mm twist in it, not sure what the issue was as it was so long ago but if I had to guess I would blame the core and the post cure. One of my friends suggested that I try them out, but I'd have to grind the bases, edges, and finish the veneer topsheets on them first. I don't want to put the effort in for a single run of "yep, they are awful".

So if any of you have experience on twisted skis please let me know.
Here is a picture of the M. Night Shyamalan's:

Mount a binding, ride it and tell us

My early builds had a little twist, maybe 5 mm or so. I just skied on them anyway and don't think it really mattered. I was more interested in learning the craft and empirically deriving my composite recipes and ski shapes. I traced the source of the twist to a wonky lower steel I-beam in my press frame. Should have bought a heavier section steel beam when building my press but was going cheap not knowing if the whole ski building experience was going to work out.
After dialing in my process I upgraded the lower I-beam to a much heavier cross section. Found a local fabricator with plenty of stock. They let me cherry pick the beam I wanted. They cut it to length, drilled the necessary holes to my sketch, delivered it to my house, and hauled off my old beam; all for dirt cheap. I made all new forms and templates and started to build really nice skis, check out my journal.

-Shif

Someone needs to make a "send it!" emoji.

Any twist I’ve seen is from wonky handmade molds. Once all of my tip/tail and camber were cut on the cnc any slight twist was eliminated.

I would definitely ride them. You'd be amazed how many similar defects are in retail skis/boards and they are still sold in stores.

Even if you can feel the twist in one ski, your skiing will probably adapt to it pretty quickly.

Sounds like a pair of Elan Amphibio's... https://elanskis.com/eu/mens-skis/all-mountain/amphibio