Sailmaker's Needles?

KenMcCulloch said:
I have never seen a stainless steel sail needle. Just keep them dry and a bit greasy and they will last for ever, well almost.
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Isn't it supposed to be tallow you keep them in? But it's all a bit academic really, they were designed for use on canvas sails for windjammers, not modern fine Dacron weaves or Kevlar laminates. :D

I mostly just use darning needles for hand stitched repairs & minor mods.
 
I was going to reply, but its pointless.

Ok, enough of the silly puns. Sail needles are ordinary fine steel, which can be sharpened to a very sharp point. The triangular cross section doesn't harm the cloth. They are very good for sail repair, sewing leather but more commonly for whipping ropes, and as I've seen a lot of chafed whippings on headboards and bolt ropes come into the loft over the years, people could save time and money learning how to do this for themselves. It takes a moment to do and you'll save the cost of a car journey and a bill for "half hour +VAT".

Best kept in that greased paper they come in, in that little plastic tube, with 3 in 1 oil and a squirt of WD40. (other brands available). Surface rust (hence the WD40) can be removed with 400 grit wet and dry used dry or with WD40. Keep needles sharp and rust free and they will last for ever as far as you are concerned. Best used with small pliers and a palm with waxed twine, but thats a different "thread".
 
Well, for general sail repair (if not using a machine), the Waxed No.2 thread by Marlow sold on little spools is fine for small hand repairs. Bear in mind that you will make life a lot easier if you make the sail dry and free of salt, even by dipping a wet sail into a bucket of fresh water, this is worth doing. Make sure the area to be repaired is dry. Also having a roll of double sided sticky tape - even the stuff from craft shops- will make the repair a lot easier to handle.
For whipping, I now generally use Hand-sewing thread made by Hemingway and Bartlett which I get from Kayospruce. Technically this is V462 guage thread but I use it for everything.

Always make sure you get waxed thread, and have some beeswax handy to run thread round and re-wax as you go. The wax is for mainly keeping the finishing knots tight so the repair doesn't unravel. Hope this helps.
 
Short answer is I don't know. However I think there's a rough assumption that a spliced eye reduces the breaking strain of the rope by about 10% and long splicing (not that anyone does it anymore) by 30%.

As for "whipped" (sewn and whipped?) eyes, I never actually use them for anything with any real load on them. Although I have used a sewn eye on a smaller mainsheet which never gave way, sitting down with a mug of tea in front of YouTube and watching a 'how-to' video whilst learning to actually do a splice in your own rope is by far the best way.
 
Selma fids

Thanks again for the replies. The reason for my question about needles and twine is because I've recently bought a set of Selma fids, and I love playing with them; I even bought another set to play with at home!

It took 3 attempts to do the first hard-eye, then I got the hang of it and went round the boat putting eyes on everything that needed them (and some things that didn't!) Next job is the fender lanyards, but there are 12 of them, so I'll take my time.

I found a few videos on using the fids, but I found out a lot by just doing it. There are several tips I discovered by trial and error, one of them is that putting a needle through the first tuck stops you from pulling it out by mistake.
 
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