Bosun's Bag, What's In Yours?

[estarzinger]

Originally Posted by Scott Berg

Two (2) palms... One left and one right. Great for herringbone stitching when repairing a long tear. I use two needles and work from both sides.

[tongue in cheek on]

Scott, you are still sewing sail cloth!? . . . that's very 18th century . . .we are all using adhesive these days.

[tongue in cheek off] and yes Scott and I are friends (usually we are debating SSB's vs sat phones )

But seriously . . . while are onto fabric and off rope, a can of 3M or loctite high strength spray adhesive is very very useful The shear strength of an adhesive bonded patch is enormous. Even if you are going to sew it all around, the adhesive holds it smoothly in place making that much easier . . .The only tricks are just round the corners a little and tack them down with some stitching to prevent then getting caught and peeled up. as clean a bonding surface as possible and some smooth clamping pressure (dive weights on top of a book or board are perfect).

Note: North recommends fast cure 5200, it is potentially stronger, but a longer cure time and I find it much messier to work with.

Regarding sewing . . . . its just hard to beat a machine. Both if you want to make biggish stuff (I made a new sail cover two winters ago) and especially if you want to make 'safety related' stuff like jacklines (where the machine stitching is stronger and more repeatable (eg you can test the strength of samples and then make known strength parts).

For sewing, to align and hold pieces together . . . an office stapler with a deep throat is very useful. (get stainless staples just in case you miss one when you remove them)

I find the ability on board to to do nice high strength grommets is handy (not necessary but nice). I have a set of fabric hole punches that make really clean holes and a set of dies to set stainless grommets (much stronger than the hardware store brass ones).

For fabric work, SailRite are really terrific. They know and love what they are doing and are really helpful.

[Stumble]

All the normal stuff... But I like dyneema fishing line instead of whipping twine, a spool of wire to make improvised fids, superglue to seize cut ends of line, sailing gloves to prevent chaff while working with small stuff, ceramic sheers for cutting dyneema, a sewing tape measure, a led headlamp, Chibi needles (about $1 for a set at a cheap fabric store) instead of expensive stainless ones.

[captain58sailin]

Can ceramic knives be sharpened? If so how?

[captain58sailin]

This is the url for the Sheffield razor knife, I hope it works.

http://www.toolup.com/images/Product...ield-12331.jpg

Here is the url for the Swedish fid/hollow fid/Longliner's coke spoon.

http://www.knotandrope.com/Store/pc/catalog/0920.jpg

I'm not too swift about this link thing, so apologies in advance if it doesn't work.

[Stumble]

Originally Posted by captain58sailin

Can ceramic knives be sharpened? If so how?

They can be but it takes diamonds to do it, a typical knife steel won't work. I have a sharpener like this Kyocera Electric Ceramic Knife Sharpener | Williams-Sonoma along with Kyocera knives that work very will for HM line.

[minaret]

Originally Posted by estarzinger

[tongue in cheek on]

Scott, you are still sewing sail cloth!? . . . that's very 18th century . . .we are all using adhesive these days.

[tongue in cheek off] and yes Scott and I are friends (usually we are debating SSB's vs sat phones )

But seriously . . . while are onto fabric and off rope, a can of 3M or loctite high strength spray adhesive is very very useful The shear strength of an adhesive bonded patch is enormous. Even if you are going to sew it all around, the adhesive holds it smoothly in place making that much easier . . .The only tricks are just round the corners a little and tack them down with some stitching to prevent then getting caught and peeled up. as clean a bonding surface as possible and some smooth clamping pressure (dive weights on top of a book or board are perfect).

Note: North recommends fast cure 5200, it is potentially stronger, but a longer cure time and I find it much messier to work with.

Regarding sewing . . . . its just hard to beat a machine. Both if you want to make biggish stuff (I made a new sail cover two winters ago) and especially if you want to make 'safety related' stuff like jacklines (where the machine stitching is stronger and more repeatable (eg you can test the strength of samples and then make known strength parts).

For sewing, to align and hold pieces together . . . an office stapler with a deep throat is very useful. (get stainless staples just in case you miss one when you remove them)

I find the ability on board to to do nice high strength grommets is handy (not necessary but nice). I have a set of fabric hole punches that make really clean holes and a set of dies to set stainless grommets (much stronger than the hardware store brass ones).

For fabric work, SailRite are really terrific. They know and love what they are doing and are really helpful.

Talk about 18th century! Why use staples to hold stuff in place when you can use permanent basting? The one thing that is guaranteed to dramatically increase your sewing ability.




Seamstick 3/8" Basting Tape for Canvas (50 Yds)

[captain58sailin]

Thanks, I'll have to look into getting a couple, I was never sure you could sharpen them, so I steered clear.

[Bestathook]

Is nobody else going to 'fess up?

I keep a hard case with a pair of close up reading glasses in my bag.

I guess I am the only one with tired old eyes on this forum.

[Stumble]

Originally Posted by Bestathook

Is nobody else going to 'fess up?

I keep a hard case with a pair of close up reading glasses in my bag.

I guess I am the only one with tired old eyes on this forum.

For now the headlight works.... But then I'm only 36, so I have a few more years to go.

[captain58sailin]

I have to keep a pair of cheaters in my pocket at all times. So I don't have any in my bag, but I think that is a good idea, think I'll do that.

[estarzinger]

Originally Posted by minaret

Talk about 18th century! Why use staples to hold stuff in place when you can use permanent basting? The one thing that is guaranteed to dramatically increase your sewing ability.

Seamstick 3/8" Basting Tape for Canvas (50 Yds)

I have rolls and rolls of the seamstick tape (north recommended them around the margin on a 5200 patch). . . . But prefer staples when I can use them for sewing projects. . . . For a couple reasons . . . . They do not leave adhesive on the sewing machine needles, like the basting tape can. The stapes are more 'secure' when moving a big piece. . . . I find the basting tape will peel up and move around. And if I get a layout wrong, with staples I just pull them out and start over, but with the sea tape I have adhesive on the piece . . . Sometimes you can pull it all off cleanly but sometimes not.

But perhaps I am somehow not using the tape correctly . . . .

[minaret]

Originally Posted by estarzinger

I have rolls and rolls of the seamstick tape (north recommended them around the margin on a 5200 patch). . . . But prefer staples when I can use them for sewing projects. . . . For a couple reasons . . . . They do not leave adhesive on the sewing machine needles, like the basting tape can. The stapes are more 'secure' when moving a big piece. . . . I find the basting tape will peel up and move around. And if I get a layout wrong, with staples I just pull them out and start over, but with the sea tape I have adhesive on the piece . . . Sometimes you can pull it all off cleanly but sometimes not.

But perhaps I am somehow not using the tape correctly . . . .

Nope, I've had all of those problems with basting, except basting coming lose when moving a piece. I just can't see poking those extra staple holes in a seam. A little bit of Citrus removes adhesive without damage, on the piece and on your needle.

[estarzinger]

Originally Posted by minaret

Nope, I've had all of those problems with basting, except basting coming lose when moving a piece. I just can't see poking those extra staple holes in a seam. A little bit of Citrus removes adhesive without damage, on the piece and on your needle.

I guess If I were working with laminate sailcloth I agree.

but I have been working with webbing and sunbrella recently, where the staples are probably not doing any damage (you can even see any holes after pulling the cloth around a bit) And I suspect they also would not with woven Dacron cloth (which Scott was talking about).

[captain58sailin]

Given my dexterity with sail cloth, adhesive tape would be a bad idea for me, I can count on doing and undoing a piece several times before I get it right so I can sew it in. I use baby safety pins to help hold the work where I need it until I can sew in a spot. Safety pins are a constant in my bosun's bag. I once used them to fashion a serape out of a blanket when I was on gangway watch in Egypt with no coat, (Hey, it was Africa, I thought it would be hot.), the rest of the crew laughed at me, but at least I was warm in the wee hours of the morning when it rained.

[Ocean Girl]

Do you all wax the dyneema fishing line before using for lock stitching? Feels a bit rough and stiff.

Do you see any problems with using highlighters to color code my strands until I get the hang of some of these knots and splices? Can't imagine the ink would damage the line but thought I'd ask, just in case. I would color the entire length of splice or knot( diamond ) so I can see a bit better what I'm doing.


Thanks
Erika

PS
Just got Brian Toss's dvd for eye splicing, got lots of three strand and different types of braid to splice..sweet