I think that most of the list members here are confused about igneous.  Here it
goes:
They have been making ski for like 7 years but the first like 4 of those they
made them for all their buddies and JH locals.  Now they are releasing to the
public so people can actually ski on a quality ski.  They are not trying to
capture the market, nor are they looking for huge profits. Beleive me, the owner
and rest of the workers just wanna be able to eat and ski.  The main builder,
niki skis every day out there.  They spend more time on one pair of skis then
burton spends on like 20 boards.  That is why they are so good quality.  I am
sure they have spent less time per ski then the years before because of the high
number of orders but the quality is not lacking.  The main thing that make
igneous rock is the hand selected maple core.  The characteristics of maple are
far better then the other cheap woods that most ski companies are using now.
The basic thing here is that they are not trying to go out and sell like
x-screams do, they are trying to show skiers how much more fun skiing can be if
you are on a stick that was made for quality, not graphics, not some big name or
huge commercial advertising.  Thats all.
~CHris

Ed Malczyk wrote:

> This is Jerm commenting from a different phlatland.
>
> >      Maple wood core remember! I think that's the main key to any and all
> of
> > the qualities I've seen thus far (though the extra wide steel edges
> probably
> > are responsible for that awesome,  full sounding, eminating screach).
>
> What kind of wood are skis usually made of? Pine? Fir? Ash??
>
> As someone who's seen the process of making sliding toys (three weeks in the
> Burton factory, where you don't EVER want to wear a MRG shirt to work) I can
> see how a ski from someplace like Igneous would be more beefy and last
> longer. When you have a huge factory pumping out hundreds or thousands of
> skis per day, it's cheaper to make a ski less durable (though maybe just as
> well performing out of the box) and just replace them when someone breaks
> them. From what I heard Burton's Supermodel series is less durable than
> their regular sandwich construction models, but because of the cap it
> eliminates a couple of steps in the whole process, thereby allowing them to
> make them faster. Better to get out 9000 boards with 3000 returns in the
> same time it take to make 900 boards with 10 returns.  In the end the
> materials cost dirt, the labor costs $$.  If Igneous is serious about that
> warrantee, and being as small as they are, they must be paying very close
> attention to the construction of each individual ski rather than having
> inexperienced temp workers shove it along an assembly line.
>
> 99% of the public doesn't abuse equipment like we do so there is no
> incentive for the mass-producers to make something that can last. It's
> exactly the same thing that's going through car manufacturers heads. They
> could make them last.. but then you wouldn't buy a new one next year right?
> I think it would be far more useful to me if a ski mag published the return
> rate and general warrantee history on certain companies and models of ski.
> That would tell me a lot more about their construction techniques and the
> quality of the ski than a paid off ski tester. Until you can come up with a
> 100% quantitative way of testing skis (meaning no humans involved) I'm not
> even gonna read those stupid articles.
>
> FWIW about 80% of the time and effort spent is on purely cosmetic details.
> If you could settle for a ski with a blemished topskin or less than perfect
> graphics. the ski would cost many hundreds of dollars less. It takes Burton
> about 20 minutes to make the board itself in its ridable form. After that
> they spend about 2 hours just tweaking the paint job.  I suspect it is a
> very similar situation with skis.
>
> Jerm
>
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