Proper way to make rope hanks

[glennb17]

I find a light coat of dilute PVA works well. It soaks in and does not form a glue film. I also think it depends on the material your ropes are made of. I owls not saturate the ropes.

Rob

Thanks Rob, much appreciated. Maybe I just need to experiment more. I'll set up some trials with different concentrations of PVA and give the shellac approach a shot. The nice part about PVA is that it is so safe and fumeless compared to things like shellac. My fire cabinet is filling up with solvent-based finishes and whatnot. But it's whatever looks best (within reason).

 

[Bob Cleek]

I bought the smallest thing they had but it's still too large for ship modelling. It seems to be prediluted but there are solvents other than ethanol. I bought thinner as well but it might be more of the same.

I don't think Zinsser Bullseye shellac comes packaged in anything less than a quart can. It's running around $25 a quart these days. It has a good shelf life if you seal the can tightly. Just in case I didn't explain it well enough, the "thinner" for shellac is alcohol. Just plain old denatured alcohol. Buy it at the paint or hardware store. It's a staple solvent and has lots of uses around the shop. It's inexpensive. It's mixed to a three-pound cut straight out of the can, which is fine for modeling use. That's "thinned shellac," actually. You can thin it more with alcohol, if you wish, but it's not necessary for the purposes we're discussing.