Waxed Laces

[FigureSpins]

Sooooo...in my zeal to start the new year off right, I spent an hour making sure my skates were in tip-top condition.  I checked the screws, waterproofed the soles then cleaned, touched up and polished the uppers.

I use neutral shoe polish on the uppers.  Usually, I just do the parts that might get wet from skating, but this time I went above code and polished the tongue and the eyelet areas.  Which, of course, resulted in my getting polish on the laces themselves.  It's neutral (clear) - who cares, right?

The boots are a little narrow and in hindsight, I should have bought the wider-tongue option, plus they have the thick foam backing that all work together to make tying these skates difficult.  I usually have to retie the skates when the laces slip.

Tying these skates has NEVER been so good!  The laces slip through the eyelets easily, I can pull tighter when tying and they stay tight. 

My next experiment will be to use beeswax on the ends of the laces, where they go around the hooks.  If it works, that would be a boon to all the grandparents who struggle to get the laces tight.

My plan is to use a sewing notion to apply the wax:



Tailors and seamstresses use this to wax their thread for hand-sewing, which prevents tangling and makes sewing easier.

I'll post later with the results.

[tstop4me]

Commercial waxed laces are readily available for hockey skates and roller skates, but they are too wide for figure skates.  Jerry's makes waxed laces for figure skates, but they are not widely distributed.

Here's an informative video comparing waxed and unwaxed hockey laces.  Note:  In these commercial waxed laces, the laces are pre-stretched before they are waxed, which provides advantages over DIY waxing of unwaxed laces.  I don't know whether the Jerry's laces are pre-stretched.  I believe some commercial waxed laces are impregnated with wax, rather than just having wax rubbed on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM4uW1VqRUU

[Query]

If you just wax the portion around the holes or hooks, and the lace shifts position a bit, you will lose your advantage.

Equivalent approach: Since I have switched to wider (round) laces, made from nylon utility cord, the tight fit prevents slippage.

Where I used to have to work hard to prevent lace slippage was in the holes. I find it easy to keep tension on the lace while it is around the hooks. I create and maintain tension by pulling across, rather than up. For extra tension, and to prevent lace bite on my fingers, I wrap the lace around my hand. When I still used flat lace, I was also careful not to let the lace twist, because twisted flat lace bites more against fingers.

Anyway, good luck. Nothing wrong with finding your own solution!