Post by Philip on Nov 21, 2011 23:54:15 GMT -9
Do you have some climbing skins that just have lost their tackiness either due to the glue drying out or water being entrained in the surface from spring corn snow slogging? This is a quick and easy way to possibly rejuvenate those skins without having to apply liquid glue or glue sheets.
Get some baking parchment paper at the supermarket. This stuff has a lot of uses, and here is just one other. Tear off a piece a bit wider than your climbing skin. Lay the skin flat on a CLEAN work surface, plush-side-down and glue-side-up, and pick any obvious twigs/grass/cranberries/Snickers-wrappers out of the glue before proceeding. Preheat your waxing iron to about 1/2 or 3/4 max setting (I set my Swix iron to 120 C). This will be a somewhat cooler setting than you use for waxing. Make sure to wipe the iron clean of wax residue with a paper towel once it warms up. Lay the piece of parchment over one end of the skin, pressing it lightly against the glue, and then use the iron to heat the paper against the glue. Pretend like you are waxing and use mild pressure with circular movements to heat the glue under the paper. Do this for about 20 seconds per parchment paper section.
It's easy to tell where you have worked since the parchment will get semi-translucent as the glue wakes up.
Wait a minute or two and then carefully pull the parchment up. It should come free with no glue adhering.
Lay the parchment over the next section of skin, overlapping maybe half an inch and repeat the process. Do this down the whole length of the skin, reusing the same piece of parchment unless it gets dirty or gummed up. Hang the skin to dry and cool completely. It probably even makes sense to put it in a cold place like outside before applying cheat sheets or sticking it to itself since the glue may be as aggressive as it was when new. You can store your skins with parchment attached or rejuvenate them repeatedly using this technique. Happy ironing.
Anyone else have a favorite bit of ski/snowboard tech advice? Post it up.
Get some baking parchment paper at the supermarket. This stuff has a lot of uses, and here is just one other. Tear off a piece a bit wider than your climbing skin. Lay the skin flat on a CLEAN work surface, plush-side-down and glue-side-up, and pick any obvious twigs/grass/cranberries/Snickers-wrappers out of the glue before proceeding. Preheat your waxing iron to about 1/2 or 3/4 max setting (I set my Swix iron to 120 C). This will be a somewhat cooler setting than you use for waxing. Make sure to wipe the iron clean of wax residue with a paper towel once it warms up. Lay the piece of parchment over one end of the skin, pressing it lightly against the glue, and then use the iron to heat the paper against the glue. Pretend like you are waxing and use mild pressure with circular movements to heat the glue under the paper. Do this for about 20 seconds per parchment paper section.
It's easy to tell where you have worked since the parchment will get semi-translucent as the glue wakes up.
Wait a minute or two and then carefully pull the parchment up. It should come free with no glue adhering.
Lay the parchment over the next section of skin, overlapping maybe half an inch and repeat the process. Do this down the whole length of the skin, reusing the same piece of parchment unless it gets dirty or gummed up. Hang the skin to dry and cool completely. It probably even makes sense to put it in a cold place like outside before applying cheat sheets or sticking it to itself since the glue may be as aggressive as it was when new. You can store your skins with parchment attached or rejuvenate them repeatedly using this technique. Happy ironing.
Anyone else have a favorite bit of ski/snowboard tech advice? Post it up.
