Re-Roll Your Duct Tape
Duct tape (the canoeist's best friend) is invaluable to have along on every trip. However, a typical roll is about 80% air space because of the size of the large cardboard 'spool'.
Re-roll your duct tape around a short piece of broken pencil or dowel one night while you're sitting around watching Seinfeld reruns and you'll find that a full roll takes up a quarter of the space of the original roll
Richard Munn
Hitch hiking on the idea submitted by Richard Munn - I re-roll duct tape into a flat, flexible pack. This lets it be stored anywhere from a pocket to a pack or a dry bag. Starting with a cardboard milk carton, (made of stiff cardboard impregnated with wax) cut a flat piece from one side. Make it, say, about 1½" X 6". Wrap tape around it lengthwise until it gets about 1/4" to 3/8" thick. I usually divide a full roll of duct tape into three or four of these sub-packs. Then I can store tape in several strategic locations. When empty, the waxy cardboard makes pretty good kindling.
By the way, not all duct tapes are created equally - some are a lot more equal than others. I found a net site for duct tape indicating that "Marusco duck tape" and "3M A/E ventilating duct tape" were better than others.
Jack Voss