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How to Reglue Your Climbing Skins | UNITED STATES, OREGON | 12/31/2008, by powderjunky

ready to reglue your backcountry skiing skins.


After about five good years of skiing and skinning, I find myself having to reglue my Black Diamond Ascension Skins. It is definitely a time consuming process, but not difficult and saves you at least 150 bucks.


Video on how to reglue your skins. Be patient for the buffering.


Average Time from start to finish: 3-4 hours

What You Need:
  1. Gold Label Glue
  2. Scissors
  3. Brown Paper Bags (about 3-4 medium sized bags should be enough)
  4. Masking Tape
  5. Old Credit card/Hotel Key
  6. Iron
  7. Newspapers
  8. Old Skins with correlating skis.
  9. Beer

Step 1 Preparation
  1. Throw some newspapers down to protect against glue damage.
  2. Attach skin to ski upside down so the adhesive is facing outwards.
  3. Put newspaper between the skin and ski to protect the ski from glue.

Step 2 Cleaning the Skins
  1. Cut paper bags into strips just wider than your ski.
  2. Place strip on skin and run iron over to soak up old glue.
  3. Run credit card over skin for final clean up.
  4. Do this for the whole  length of the skin, until all the dirty glue is gone.
  5. The cleaner the better.

Step 3 Apply the Glue
  1. If you have Black Diamond Skins that have a covered center strip, put masking tape over it to protect it from getting glued on.
  2. Very thinly apply the glue.
  3. Make sure to get the edges and do one thin coat. Go as thin as you can.
  4. Let it dry for half an hour and apply a second coat.
  5. Let it dry for half an hour and apply a third coat.
  6. Let it dry for 12 hours.

That's it- you are now good to go!

Things to remember
  1. Put the glue on thin. It is too easy to go too thick and get globs.
  2. Make sure you do not bend the skin when it is drying.
  3. When feeling frustrated have a sip of beer.
  4. Although the glue comes with a brush, and I use the brush in the video, I would recommend applying the glue with an old credit card/Hotel Key only. It goes on faster and smoother and the brush leaves hairs on your skin.

If you have any other questions, better ways, ideas, let us know in the comments section, we are by no means the experts on this and want to hear your ideas.  Happy New Year!






That's Our Opinion. What's Yours?

awesomepatrol wrote on 12/31/08 at 10:29:18 pm pst:

I have also heard warming the glue in a pan helps it go on smooth.


rick wrote on 03/16/09 at 3:02:05 pm pst:

I found another trick somewhere on the web. ie. use PARCHMENT paper (i.e. cookie sheet paper) as release paper after you have put on a thick coat of glue and it has dried. Use strips of parchment paper and your iron to smooth out the glue. after it cools, the parchment paper nicely peals off. I tried it and it works..


Editors wrote on 03/16/09 at 9:03:05 pm pst:

Thanks Rick for the great tip!


christopher pearce wrote on 06/03/09 at 1:06:40 pm pst:

Have you tried cleaning the glue first before re-gluing? I used cellulose thinners containing toluene (care, rubber gloves etc)on Ascension skins which have good,thick glue and which were well covered in pine needles(lower stretches of alps) and heather (Iceland)and other junk. Lay skin flat, wipe with a clean, lint free rag soaked in thinners/toluene, maybe twice to ensure top surface of glue is runny and then scrape with a craft/stanley knife to remove junk on top layer. Wipe knife frequently with another lint free cloth. Finally wipe again with thinners/toluene soaked cloth and allow to dry- glue comes up all shiny and sticky again!!


powderjunky wrote on 06/04/09 at 09:26:30 am pst:

Sweet! Thanks christopher! In the video, we cleaned the skins by ironing a paper bag on top of the skins, which works really well, but you have to reapply glue afterwards, usually anyway.

Your method of not having to reglue, sounds interesting,I'll have to give it a try!


Editors wrote on 01/27/10 at 09:01:58 am pst:

Check out these great tips on Andrew McLean's blog! Evidently, if you take your skins to a dry cleaner they will clean your skins and stip the glue for about $5!

http://straightchuter.com/2010/01/glue-renew-guru/


WarPigSinFin wrote on 11/19/10 at 4:50:40 pm pst:

I just freshened up my skin glue the cheapest, easiest, laziest way. Skins are so sticky I can barely pull them apart!

Strip just the top layer of filthy glue like pearce mentioned. Instead of chemicals just use the iron and newspaper method but only remove the top layer of glue.

Usually it takes me 5-6 ironings to remove all the glue from a section of skin. By doing two ironings, the skins are stickier (and lighter). Good as new.


powderjunky wrote on 11/20/10 at 8:40:20 pm pst:

i love the way they look once you iron them. No dog hair is key.


Gorbolicious wrote on 12/23/10 at 11:45:52 am pst:

You guys rock super awesome help here great video and info sick season to you all!


Bill wrote on 12/26/10 at 10:50:05 am pst:

What is the best way to remove skin adhesive from skis?


WarPigSinFin wrote on 12/27/10 at 08:33:43 am pst:

Use an old iron and brown paper bags. Cut the bags into strips slightly wider than the skis.

One bag strip at a time, iron them into the glue. While it's still liquid hot, peel the bag strip off, taking some glue with it.

Repeat a whole bunch of times until all the nasty old glue is gone.

If you get rid of the nasty glue and find you've still got good glue underneath, don't bother stripping that glue off. Just put a little frsh glue on top.


powrider wrote on 01/16/11 at 6:48:15 pm pst:

I don't want to bash your method or claim I'm an expert but I followed the instructions on the BD skin glue, now in tube instead of a can, and it was much faster and easier.

Use a hair dryer and scraper to remove the old glue, no bags. I don't think it pulls out all the glue but enough.

Use a scraper instead of the brush to spread the new glue back on. The layer was much more even and I didn't have to coat it three times.

Hope that saves someone some time.


powderjunky wrote on 01/17/11 at 09:11:35 am pst:

Thanks powrider! I think the only difference between your method and ours is that you used a hair dryer to remove the glue?

I agree with the scraper, the brush sucks!


Kevin Hanrahan wrote on 11/28/11 at 11:36:39 am pst:

I have skin glue adherent to the bottom side (yes, the furry side from the skin being rolled up instead of glue edges opposed) and I am trying to find a good method of getting it off. Is there some kind of solvent with a rag or something?


powderjunky wrote on 12/06/11 at 08:56:05 am pst:

Try taking a a brown paper bag, like from a grocery store, and ironing it off (kinda like the video above, just different side of the skin). If it's really in the fibers, you might be s.o.l. But it seems when you heat this stuff up it becomes more manageable.


Nige wrote on 01/05/12 at 4:40:16 pm pst:

After the first ironing of newspaper I scraped the hot glue off with a credit card. This saved a lot of time by only needing one more ironing after!


gsanders wrote on 01/11/12 at 10:52:45 am pst:

So, here are a few more skin re-glue tips. Purchase a roll of brown wrapping paper at an office supply or packing store. Super cheap and it doubles as really classy and heavy duty wrapping paper for gifts. Cut a length long enough for your skis. I was able to cut this piece in half lengthwise which then gave me two nice wide strips (one for each skin).

Put the brown paper onto a workbench, piece of plywood, kitchen table etc. and clamp it at both ends or masking tape it down. Now, you've got a sweet work surface that won't move. Put your skin GLUE SIDE DOWN onto the paper and iron back and forth over the top. It will take a few minutes to warm the glue. This will clean off all the surface dirt and some glue. You should be able to flip them over and see them getting cleaner and the dirt and top layer of glue will soak into the paper. If you just want to clean them stop there. For the best looking skins you've ever seen, continue on.

Look nice? Want to strip off all the glue? Go back and forth with the iron for about 10 more minutes. I recommend a medium-high setting. After this, flip the skin over onto the clear side of the brown paper so the glue is up. Grab a hair dryer or heat gun and a plastic paint scraper (again, cheap from a hardware store and doubles as a wax scraper -- much better than a credit card and costs about $1). Use the clamps that clamp down the brown paper to also clamp the skin to the table. I put one clamp on the fold section at the tip and one right on the tail hook strap so the clamps weren't sitting in glue. Start at the tip and heat the glue until the scraper literally pushes it off the skin. Now, SLOWLY (about 2"/minute) move down the skin and scrape the stubborn glue and remaining dirt. As it builds up on the scraper just wipe clear on empty patches of the brown wrapping paper. Go SLOWLY! Not good enough? Hit it up again, nice and smooth.

Allright, your skin should now be clear. Now to reglue. Use BD Gold Label glue and grab a roll of parchment paper. Cut a piece of parchment that will cover the length of the skins. Again, fold in half lengthwise and cut along the nice straight edge of your work table and now you have strips for both skins. Cut those strips in half lengthwise again and now you have two strips for each skin (b/c you need to do two coats of glue!). Apply a strip of Gold Label glue down the middle of the skin -- use SPARINGLY. Most people use too much glue too quickly. Apply glue, cover with parchment paper. Again, use iron and move from tip to tail. Heat up glue to spread out from center to edges of skin. Go SLOWLY! Move back and forth which will spread the glue and let it soak in.

Pull skin off table and let it hang dry with the parchment paper attached for about 15-30 minutes. During that time glue the other skin and repeat. Each skin will require at least two coats, three if you really want to. Let them air dry WITHOUT parchment paper 8-12 hours in a cool place. Dry garage works well or mudroom.

I just completed a nice reglue and the skins looked almost brand new. Took them out for two days of 3-4 skin laps and they worked almost better than new. All in all, you can probably do a great job in about two hours.



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