Biodegradable sewing thread!

[ffiill]

Surely by now sewing thread for outdoor use should be in some way UV protected?
My stack pack sail covers are about ten years old with still some life left in the canvas.Its three years since the webbing loops which the lines are attached to disintegrated along with the zips.
This year there were a few little repairs needed doing at which point I realised that all the sunlight visible seams were rotten.
I have just spent the last two days oversewing them in between giving the sewing machine a long needed service.
I suppose its lucky that I can do it myself and not have to pay out!
Just how long will the sewing last on a well used sail?

 

[vyv_cox]

UV resistant thread is available, I believe the best is PTFE. But it is seriously expensive. When I had my genoa stitching redone I was advised that the cost of PTFE could not be justified on a used sail and acrylic was selected instead.

 

[ffiill]

I think the most annoying thing was having to redo the webbing loops which were it seems particularly vunerable-certainly if I put some new ones together I will try to protect them/go for a UV resistant webbing.
These were made by one of the Scottish reputable and respected manufacturers.

 

[lustyd]

I'm pretty sure the thread I got from Kayospruce is UV resist and that certainly wasn't overpriced for the cone I bought. I did then have to stuff a normal cotton reel into it to use on my machine but it worked fine.

 

[dulcibella]

UV resistant thread is available, I believe the best is PTFE. But it is seriously expensive. When I had my genoa stitching redone I was advised that the cost of PTFE could not be justified on a used sail and acrylic was selected instead.

The PTFE thread is called Tenara (made by Gore). According to C & J covers, it will last as long as the cover rather than the 5 years or so that seems to be the limit for conventional thread. Apparently it's a bit trickier to machine-sew but several websites indicate how to deal with it. The price is huge compared with conventional thread, but it could be worth doing to overcome the hassle of recurrent stitching failure on covers.

 

[HermanD]

UV resistant thread is for instance "TENARA", very expensive 7 -10 times to normal polyester tread
It survives the canvas.

 

[fishermantwo]

UV resistant thread is for instance "TENARA", very expensive 7 -10 times to normal polyester tread
It survives the canvas.

USA eBay is the place to shop for thread.

 

[onesea]

I used to work with cloth and sewing machines, we used to use the same thread/ webbing as the material Nylon for Nylon, Polyester for polyester, Cotton for cotton etc. Although allot of that was for chemical resistance...

The webbing and zips do sound suspicious to me that should be able to last the life of the Fabric...