Model Boat Mayhem
The Shipyard ( Dry Dock ): Builds & Questions => Yachts and Sail => Topic started by: BlueWotsit on July 16, 2006, 08:30:38 pm
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On one of my older schooners the sails are very faded and blotchy looking, and I am considering changing the colour to spice them up
Questions I have, never having tried this are
1. What are the best dyes to use for sail cloth which is similar to bedlinen quality
2. Is there anyway that dye can be applied without derigging everything.
I know derigging would be easiest, but on this particular boat and how it is constructed such a task would be a nightmare to undertake and could cause even more problems for me, with how some of the sails are stitched on
cheers
Andrew
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Andrew, coloring sails was also a theme at the IG-Minisail in germany where I was a regular visitor.
Depending on the material of the sails they had found out by experiments that if you want to "clean" the sails- means making them lighter you can use peroxid which will be used at barbers for bleeching the hair or a chlorid cleaning agent. Both can pe applied if the sails are still rigged, but need to be neutralised with soap-water.
To give them a colour is more difficult, but not impossible, even on the new Dacron-materials.
If the sails are made out of a usual cloth (i.e. cotton) you can take mustard for a more yellow touch, or overcooked tea or coffee. Also some natural juices or (if pleased) red wine for a red touch can be used.
For the modern High-tech sails like i.e. dacron you have to use the colours of a barber shop. The trouble is, that these modern materials are sealed with silicone and they don`t take any other colour. The barbers-dyers are the only stuff which work on them.
I hope this was out any help.
J?rg
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Many thanks for that - nothing to lose by using a cheap bottle of wine I guess on it. If things dont go to plan, I can drink the rest :D
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Hi Bluewotsit, I recommend (by making them red) to start with a red juice, i.e. cranberry, currant, cherry or a wood-stain. Buy a bottle of wine anyway, to shorten the drying-time. ;D
By using juice please note that the juice needs to be cooked, to dehydrate him. And use a rag to have a try before, probably to change the mixture or the colour.
Would be glad for any reply.
J?rg
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Ended up using Machine Permanent Dye and brushing it on - worked well.
Key thing was to prewash the sails using warm water with a brush
Applied 3 or 4 coverings of dye again by brush then allowed a 5 minute token drying time
Then used 3 washing up bowls full of hot tap water and boiled kettle water to rinse dye through. followed by a soaking using the hosepipe.
The only dodgy moment was after mixing the dye with table salt and applying the first coat it looked black rather than dark brown, then it settled down to the right colour. The washing out helped fix the dye and lightened it slightly
Fruit juices and wine was a bit too watery a colouring so gave up on that
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you know of course that the real things sails were coated every two years with human urine and red ocher, so ?
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Yes, but I think the sails were removed from the boat first. ;)
Welcome aboard by the way.
It is good to have another scale sail enthusiast.
regards
Mark
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Urine was widely used as a fixative in dyeing fabric. My daughter, who has a small crafts business, uses the technique today.
Roger in France.
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Hi Andrew,
If you really cant take the sails off then try wood stain,it comes in different colours.it may pong a bit after.
Len.
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If memory serves the old sails were treated with a broom, acting as teh paint brush. So the sweeps could be quiet wide. And from a recent post, the bolt ropes woud also get treated att eh same time by default.
It should be possible to carfullly mask the mast and deck, and then treat teh sails with a tooth brush.
For Dye.
For cotton, there is Dylon cold water cotton dye, wich comes with a fixer. You could brush on the dye with said toothbrush and, when dry, brush on the fixer.
Dylon also do a dye for synthetics, but this i think is warm wash. you need to check.
For synthetic Nylon sails (Don't know about Dacron) one of the members on here (Romainpek) succesfully dyed sails using a water down acrylic paint.
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Hi Andrew,
If you really cant take the sails off then try wood stain,it comes in different colours.it may pong a bit after.
Len.
Second that, I used the left overs from the garden fence, but didn't do it in situ, I would imagine keeping the stuff of the deck would be an issue
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k116/ChilliK/barges/P2190017.jpg
Mike
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If anyone is interested I used to help make up sail dressing in the traditional manner, to dress thames barge sails. It was fish oil, red ochre, yellow ochre and years ago reputedly stale urine. Mixed up in an old 50 gallon drum, using an old broken oar and applied with a deck scrubbbing bush. The yellow ochre is used to darken the red effect.
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(Hopefully) recent pic showing wood stain sails :}
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Nice job Mike :-))
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Aw shucks :embarrassed: :embarrassed:
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He is beautiful :-))
chacho.
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I use a light Oak wood stain on my sails and find it fades nicely with use...I also use Jacobean Oak stain on standing rigging and bolt ropes. A good supplier of strong light weight Cords, Strings & Threads,( in natural & artificial fibers and in var. colours) is Quicks the Archery Specialists its used for making Bow strings --- Serving--&--Seizing they also sell some nice waterproof glues and have a free catalogue on request...
D.G.QUICK
18-22 Stakes Hill Road e-mail quicks@quicks.com
Waterlooville Portsmouth
Hampshire PO7 7JF quicks@quicksarchery.co.uk
:-)) :-)) Freebooter
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That must be the same business that some club members get arrow shafts from for jib booms ??
Mike
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Mike
Often use arrow wood, glass fiber & occ. carbon fiber shafts for top masts and spars. the wooden shafts are 32" long and 5/16" or 11/32" IN DIA with a very fine grain if you get P.O.C. (Portland Oregon Cedar) . YOU CAN also get horn (mostly black Buffalo) which can be carved & or molded like plastic and can be useful for making tiddle bits.
Freebooter
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Thanks for that FB. Will put that address in my notebook for future use
regards
Mike
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Hello MikeK,
Lovely sailing barge :-))
Sorry to derail the thread slightly but . . . .
may I ask, does the foresail run on a steel horse just in front of the main mast and if so how have you rigged up the sail control?
My sailing trawler build has a foresail running on a horse and I would like to run on the horse scale but still be able to connect the sheet to a winch.
I'm collecting various options on how to do this. How have you tackled this?
Many thanks
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Hi Greggy, sorry to disappoint you, but the foresail is not winch controlled. It does run on a horse (wood dowel) curved to follow the deck camber with a ss wire loop traveller to the sail. It is permanently set on a reach and seems to draw satisfactorily on most points of sailing. It had crossed my mind to include that sail in the winching circuit but its position ahead of the winch loop meant all sorts of leads running forward and I abandoned the idea.
regards
Mike