3-Pin Nordic Ski Shoes

[Ankar Sheng]

I have a really nice pair of wooden ski's that I refurbished, but no ski shoe's that fit. I've been looking around at 2nd hand shops and ebay, but no luck.

Any suggestions? Should I think of just getting new bindings + boots?

[Keith Bassett]

I found some great Asolo Snowfields on ebay for $35. There are also some cheapo brands in every size on there, but I have no idea if they are good. Look for telemark, 3 pin, nordic as keywords.

I see about 300 boots right now under 3 pin boots.

Backcountry also has 3 pin traditional boots, but I think only one style with mixed reviews.

Good on you for restoring those old skis. I am in the process of restoring a bunch of old nordic and backcountry skis too. :)

[David Thomas]

First off, measure the width of the front of the binding – the width of the front of the toe piece. It is either 2" or 3". 50mm 3-pin or 75mm 3-pin more precisely.

75mm 3-pin is older, and was used later especially for backcountry skis.

50mm 3-pin was more typically for in-track, touring use.

I find thrift stores in the big city to shy away from ski gear for liability reasons. Especially skis. And since they don't accept or sell skis, they typically don't accept or sell boots. In more rural areas and smaller, non-national thrift shops do handle skis. My local Salvation Army in Alaska does as does the private thrift shop, and the church-associated ones. So post your shoe size (euro size, too, if you know it) and I'll look tomorrow when I drive by.

Also, check out Craigslist. Possibly garage sales in snow country as well.

[Ankar Sheng]

Thats weird, I got hardly any results when I searched on ebay for "3-pin" or "nordic", maybe I was on ebay.ca or something…

Restoring these old pairs ski's was a pleasure. It was quite a lot of work getting them prepped for applying pine tar, and a little tin of pine tar is terribly expensive, but it was definitely worth it. These old wooden ski's work great. On one of Ray Mears' BBC programs he travels to Lapland and learns to make wooden ski's. Watching them make their own pine tar and transform a dead tree into a beautiful pair of ski's with nothing but hand tools is what inspired me to bring these ones back to life.

The thrift shops here seem to have piles of crappy ski's, but no ski boots/shoes for some reason.

Thats really kind of you Mr. Thomas. My shoe size is 10US/42euro, but I go for a bigger size for winter foot wear. I'm not sure the width of the bindings, the ski's are in storage right now. If I had to guess I'd say they're 75mm. They're pretty old ski's, I don't seem to recall the shoe's I have being particularly tapered, and when I borrowed a pair they happened to fit, so they're probably the more common configuration.

Cheers!

[Author]

Posts