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Sail materials for the Pinky Schooner

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Oct 31, 2021
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Greeneville TN usa
I’m working on the Pinky Schooner and thinking ahead about the sail material. I have seen a lot about Silkspan. I plan to rig the sails furled. There are three weights of Silkspan. Which might be best visually at 1:24?
 
Hey,, Dunkan. Did you read Olya's @shipphotographer.com detailed build log of her model of Pinky?


A wealth of information and masterly work including sails
 
Yes I have spent many hours watching her videos. She is way above my level. But her sails are unfurled. Tom Lauris has videos on furled sails using Silkspan but I am not sure what weight or if the Silkspan has any texture that might have a bearing on a 1:24 model.
 
Yes I have spent many hours watching her videos. She is way above my level. But her sails are unfurled. Tom Lauris has videos on furled sails using Silkspan but I am not sure what weight or if the Silkspan has any texture that might have a bearing on a 1:24 model.
can you make furled sails out of the existing ones, or the kit doesn't supply sewing sails or sails material?
 
I used Tom Laurie’s method with Silkspan on my Cala Esmeralda. (Link to log in signature block) Like you I was unsure of which weight to use so I ordered both the thin and medium and experimented. The medium looked best with deployed sails but was to thick at my scale for furled sails. I ended up using the thin material and still removed about 1/3 of the sail material for the furled sails on the bowsprit.
 
I’m working on the Pinky Schooner and thinking ahead about the sail material. I have seen a lot about Silkspan. I plan to rig the sails furled. There are three weights of Silkspan. Which might be best visually at 1:24?
I use lawn cotton, very fine with a high thread count. Ebay.
 
What is "lawn cotton" Bob? I am planning for furled sails on my Brig Phoenix.
Lawn fabric or lawn cotton is very fine shirt fabric used for “bespoke” made dress shirts among other things.
I get mine from Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PFYXH9C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

It works well for sail material as it dyes easily especially if you’re using tea or coffee type stain.

Sorry for the breech of etiquette Bob, I jumped in to reply to Jeep. :eek:;)
 
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Thank you all. This is just the info I was looking for. My schooner hull painting is almost finished and I can’t wait to start working above deck.
 
Fine linen or drafting linen works well as it has realistic texture. If you use drafting linen the coating which is starchy has to be washed off. Fine silk may be used as well usually wet it to form it into the shape you want and then apply diluted Matte Medium to retail the shape. I use any of the artist brands as they are of archival quality and remain flexible. Make sure you apply it over wax paper so it doesn’t stick. I use Matte Medium for rigging lines as well for the same reasons (not brittle) If it is good for museums and fine art it is good for me. Many years ago I wrote a short article for the Nautical Research Journal on making silk flags using this method.

Cheers
Roman
 
What is "lawn cotton" Bob? I am planning for furled sails on my Brig Phoenix.
I see you've had a reply. Try to find 'Superdetailing the cutter Sherborne' by George Bandurek. He does a good tutorial showing furled sails, and sails generally. I've seen it on MSW (sorry!) He also has a book but I don't think he'll have any left, he was running low when I got mine years ago. One tip is that you don't furl the full sail, it's cut down first. If you can't find it get back to me and I'll take some photos of the relevant pages
 
What is "lawn cotton" Bob? I am planning for furled sails on my Brig Phoenix.
There's a copy in Peter's books and Waterstones. £18 and £20. And of course postage to Canada!! But google the title and the name and it will guide you to the MSW post.
 
I’m working on the Pinky Schooner and thinking ahead about the sail material. I have seen a lot about Silkspan. I plan to rig the sails furled. There are three weights of Silkspan. Which might be best visually at 1:24?
Natural silk is my preferred fabric. Even if furled, sails look much better than other fabrics. You may add a slight color with a tea infusion or coffee for a darker color.
 
Natural silk is my preferred fabric. Even if furled, sails look much better than other fabrics. You may add a slight color with a tea infusion or coffee for a darker color.
There's a common habit using tea staining. In reality a sail would never last long enough. The considerable number of sails lost in bad weather is why large quantities of sailcloth were carried as well as having a sailmaker on board. One or two sails may get dirty, but a whole suit of sails?? To my eye it detracts from the reality of a build.
 
I use lawn cotton, very fine with a high thread count. Ebay.
Hope we can agree to disagree Bob - Lawn cotton that I have found is out of scale as it has a low thread count, 150-200. If cotton is your choice you can find it with TCs of 300 or more. Silk span is a favorite of mine, but for large scales (1:24, 1:12) high thread count woven cloth sheets or pillow cases work really well, being in the range of 600 and higher. It is not cheap though. Be skeptical of sheets claiming to be over 1000TC as they are not always measured in the same way. Another problem with cloth is sewing. The sewing machine should be set for the smallest possible stitch length in order to approach scale. Actual sail cloth or canvas has a TC of about 50 to 100. At 1:48 that means you need a TC of at least 2400 to be to scale and this cloth does not exist to my knowledge.
 
Hope we can agree to disagree Bob - Lawn cotton that I have found is out of scale as it has a low thread count, 150-200. If cotton is your choice you can find it with TCs of 300 or more. Silk span is a favorite of mine, but for large scales (1:24, 1:12) high thread count woven cloth sheets or pillow cases work really well, being in the range of 600 and higher. It is not cheap though. Be skeptical of sheets claiming to be over 1000TC as they are not always measured in the same way. Another problem with cloth is sewing. The sewing machine should be set for the smallest possible stitch length in order to approach scale. Actual sail cloth or canvas has a TC of about 50 to 100. At 1:48 that means you need a TC of at least 2400 to be to scale and this cloth does not exist to my knowledge.
I'm not sure whether the Tc is variable. The stuff I have is pretty good, but I bought it in fairly large quantities (white for US, off white for RN) quite some time ago, so I can't remember the count. Btw, I only sew the bolt ropes, stitching on a sail is always off scale so I suggest it with a grey fine pint (.003) graphics pen. The results are pretty reasonable.
WP_20170504_016.jpg
 
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