Hi all,
I don't know whether it was mentioned (my attention has been sporadic), but Matt Szostak (thank you for the bridge fix advice) mentioned at Chant De Vielles that wax formulated to surface cross country skis works very well on keys as well. I'm going to give it a shot as soon as I can find some.
Well, just to clarify, "waxable" cross-country skis (as opposed to the waxless, "fish-scaled" ones) generally require two different wax treatments. There is a slippery base preparation wax used along the whole length, and then a more sticky wax which is applied along some middle stretch of the skis' length. The sticky wax provides grip; different formulations are used for different snow temperatures. Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway), this is *not* the wax in question! The wax I mentioned to Dan is the slippery base wax; "Swix" is one brand name, I believe. You rub it onto the key where you want it to be slippery, and then take a rag and scrub off the excess and polish it to a nice shine and as long as things aren't so tight that there is binding, you'll have nice smooth-sliding keys. I have had no trouble with dust or other foreign material collecting on the waxed keys.
~ Matt
