duct tape!

Benjamin,

You could just wind it around something else you're taking like a trekking pole, pencil, tick tool, torch, match, etc.

I have Q-Tip cotton swabs where the cotton is wound on a plastic "stick". I cut off the cotton and wind the duct tape onto the stick. I generally wind only about 5-6 feet onto a stick, because that is only as much as I will use in one or two seasons. After that, and the duct tape begins to get stale and not so sticky.

Cross country skiers, in particular, carry duct tape this way. If it is wound in a tight package, you can keep it in your pants pocket where it can stay warm in the winter. If you let it get too cold, it doesn't stick well.

I generally carry 3-4 sticks of it in the winter, and 1 in the summer.

–B.G.–

Thanks for the responses, Joe and Bob. So are you saying that it doesn't lose its stickiness even when you unroll it and then roll it back up?

I won't claim to the the king of duct tape, but I have certainly used my share of it over the years.

If you wind the duct tape on tightly, it will tend to stick to itself more. If you wind it on loosely, the trapped air will tend to make it go stale and brittle. Some skiers store the roll in a thin plastic bag to keep some of the air out.

If you subject the stored roll to lots of heat, the adhesive tends to stick a lot worse. It goes bad pretty fast if you leave it in the trunk of your car in a warm season.

There are good grades of duct tape, and then there are bad grades. I used to have the good ones identified, but that was years ago before modern brands were marketed. You'll have to experiment.

If you are patching something like a hole in a tent, then you can apply the duct tape to the inside and the outside. That way, the duct tape is sticking to itself slightly through the hole.

–B.G.–

I've never had a problem with it losing it's stickiness when transferring a small length to another 'roll' like the top of my hiking/ski poles. Working as a ski guide in winter I get through a lot of the stuff and having short lengths wrapped around my ski poles means I can fix all kinds of small problems suffered by my clients quickly. Hire ski/boots/bindings being what they are I often have to repair everything from small blisters to total binding failure. Duct tape is wonderful stuff!

Cool! Thanks!

Also, they sell small duct tape rolls that don't have any cardboard at REI.

$4.00 for 100 inches of duct tape?

I'm too cheap for that.

–B.G.–