Date: Wed, 10 May 1995 21:37:55 -1000 From: crowell@teleport.com (Carl Crowell) Message-Id: Organization: Kites By Carl Crowell Subject: What fabric to use when making a kite? After years of using Challenge cloth, last spring I switched to Icarex cloth. I loved it. It was easy to sew, colors did not fade, and seems to be quite strong. Sure it looked like hell by the time you finished building the kite, but it reached a level of 'patina' and stayed there. Then I began to notice 'THE PROBLEM'. The white on my kites began to develop blothches that I thought were mold. Over time, the 'mold' resolved into a pattern. The pattern was that of the kite reflected on itself while rolled for storage. It turns out what I had assumed was a mold tainting my kites was the bleed of colors transfering from dark to light. So Icarex is a great cloth for kites as long as you do not use high contrast colors on the same kite, or allow different colors to touch. So Icarex is basicly useless...... Well, I ordered some Carrington. I figured the stretch would be tollerable. Stretch would be fine except that so far I have noticed that white is 50 stretcher than black. Consistancy would be nice. What I would like is a nice UV resistant low fade Polyester cloth that is under 40g/m2 and available in 10 colors or more. Stretch? None is my prefrence, low is acceptable. Are there any recomendations? Oh yes, the fabric must be available in the US. carl ___________________________________________________ email: crowell@kite.com FTP: ftp.teleport.com/pub/users/crowell WWW: http://www.teleport.com/~crowell Kites By Carl Crowell - O.S.F.M. World Headquarters = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Date: Mon, 15 May 1995 05:33:09 -1000 From: mss@das.harvard.edu (Marty Sasaki) Message-Id: <199505151533.LAA05880@endor.harvard.edu> Organization: Harvard University Office of Information Technology Subject: Re: What fabric to use when making a kite? Date: Sun, 14 May 1995 12:59:57 +0200 From: john Subject: Re: What fabric to use when making a kite? crowell@teleport.com (Carl Crowell) writes: > > After years of using Challenge cloth, last spring I switched to Icarex cloth. > I loved it. It was easy to sew, colors did not fade, and seems to be quite > strong. Sure it looked like hell by the time you finished building the kite, > but it reached a level of 'patina' and stayed there. Then I began to notice > 'THE PROBLEM'. > > The white on my kites began to develop blothches that I thought were mold. > Over time, the 'mold' resolved into a pattern. The pattern was that of the > kite reflected on itself while rolled for storage. It turns out what I had > assumed was a mold tainting my kites was the bleed of colors transfering from > dark to light. > I am now into my third season using Icarex on my 4-liners, and there isn't a better material that I have have used yet. I like both Toray and Carrington for my one-liners, for most wind conditions because it bellows nicely. For the four-liners e.g. Revolution, I must have the none stretching Icarex, which is Spinnaker Polyester. I know the problem you are mentioning as I had this happen to me on Dark Blue to white. I CAN BLAME MYSELF for the bleeding of the blue onto the white. I packed the kite away when it was wet and DID NOT UNPACK IT later TO DRY OUT. I have quite a number of Icarex four liner with multiple colors and the one mentioned above was the only one that has this problem. I SHALL USE ICAREX until something better, with in reason, is available. > So Icarex is a great cloth for kites as long as you do not use high contrast > colors on the same kite, or allow different colors to touch. So Icarex is > basicly useless...... > .... if you don't dry it properly. > > Are there any recomendations? > ICAREX but let your kite dry before you pack it up. > > Oh yes, the fabric must be available in the US. > And it is. > Over-the-Rainbow, John Mitchell Munich, Germany Int. Swiss and Germany Quad line Champion 1994 DCD and STACK member STARRC committee member = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Date: Tue, 16 May 1995 02:45:12 -1000 From: miel@knoware.nl (Emiel Stroeve) Message-Id: <3pa6o5$o9d@news.euro.net> Organization: Euronet Internet Subject: Re: What fabric to use when making a kite? dieter@fununltd.han.de (dieter sattler) wrote: >Hello Carl, >in Article "What fabric to use when making a kite?" you wrote: >> What I would like is a nice UV resistant low fade Polyester cloth that >> is under 40g/m2 and available in 10 colors or more. Stretch? None is >> my prefrence, low is acceptable. >Have you ever tried out "Toray" ? It's available in 42, 65 and 92 (?) >grams/m^2. The fabric is coated on both sides. Stretch = 0 (nearly...;). >There are about 20 colours available and only a few of them are not UV >resistant (i.e. hot pink etc.). The price is (in Germany) higher than >Carrington and a little bit lower than Icarex (about 14,- DM/m). >> >> Are there any recomendations? >> >> Oh yes, the fabric must be available in the US. >Pooh, i don't know. >Breezy greetings, >Dieter Have you got any experience with Toray used for tracktion kites (f.i. Sputniks or other foil-like kites) ? Emiel Stroeve E-mail: miel@knoware.nl = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Date: Tue, 16 May 1995 03:37:20 -1000 From: griebeno@athena.mit.edu (Kai Griebenow) Message-Id: <3pa9qg$qja@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU> Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Subject: Re: What fabric to use when making a kite? Hi, I have a Delta made with Icarex, strong contrast and had so far no problems with any bleeding of colours. I have blue, lilac, yellow, black, red, neon-green... in the delta. You can see it in my WWW-page: http://web.mit.edu/griebeno/www/homepage.html My two problems with Icarex are the following: 1. Icarex seems not to be very forgiving when the kite comes into close contact with one of those kite-eating trees. Probably the minor stretch compared to ripstop nylon is responsible for it. 2. I get a lot of wrinkles in the kite that don't really go away when flying it, maybe also a result of the minor stretch. To Toray Ripstop: To my opinion Toray stretches more than Icarex! Especially over the years ;-). Icarex stays (except for the wrinkles) better in shape. Since I am more into making single line kites, I don't use Icarex any more with the exception when I make kites for extremly low winds needing a minimum weight. Always Good Winds and no kite-eating trees Kai = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Date: Mon, 15 May 1995 11:22:00 -1000 From: dieter@fununltd.han.de (dieter sattler) Message-Id: <5lw5x-P-JYB@fununltd.han.de> Subject: Re: What fabric to use when making a kite? Hello Carl, in Article "What fabric to use when making a kite?" you wrote: > What I would like is a nice UV resistant low fade Polyester cloth that > is under 40g/m2 and available in 10 colors or more. Stretch? None is > my prefrence, low is acceptable. Have you ever tried out "Toray" ? It's available in 42, 65 and 92 (?) grams/m^2. The fabric is coated on both sides. Stretch = 0 (nearly...;). There are about 20 colours available and only a few of them are not UV resistant (i.e. hot pink etc.). The price is (in Germany) higher than Carrington and a little bit lower than Icarex (about 14,- DM/m). > > Are there any recomendations? > > Oh yes, the fabric must be available in the US. Pooh, i don't know. Breezy greetings, Dieter [dieter@fununltd.han.de] Hannover, Germany ## CrossPoint v3.02 ## = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Date: Mon, 22 May 1995 06:32:00 -1000 From: dieter@fununltd.han.de (dieter sattler) Message-Id: <5mN8aJ0VJYB@fununltd.han.de> Subject: Re: What fabric to use when making a kite? Hello Emiel, in Article "Re: What fabric to use when making a kite?" you wrote: > dieter@fununltd.han.de (dieter sattler) wrote: > > >Hello Carl, > > >in Article "What fabric to use when making a kite?" you wrote: > >> What I would like is a nice UV resistant low fade Polyester cloth > >> that is under 40g/m2 and available in 10 colors or more. Stretch? > >> None is my prefrence, low is acceptable. > >Have you ever tried out "Toray" ? It's available in 42, 65 and 92 (?) > >grams/m^2. The fabric is coated on both sides. Stretch = 0 > >(nearly...;). There are about 20 colours available and only a few of > >them are not UV resistant (i.e. hot pink etc.). The price is (in > >Germany) higher than Carrington and a little bit lower than Icarex > >>(about 14,- DM/m). > >> Are there any recomendations? > >> > >> Oh yes, the fabric must be available in the US. > >Pooh, i don't know. > > >Breezy greetings, > > >Dieter > > Have you got any experience with Toray used for tracktion kites (f.i. > Sputniks or other foil-like kites) ? No, i've 'only' built Dart Kites with that fabric. But a friend of me (Andreas Jdhnke -> 'Knubbel' and 'Jonas' the whale kite you could see on Fan0) uses this fabric for his softkites. Breezy greetings, Dieter [dieter@fununltd.han.de] Hannover, Germany ## CrossPoint v3.02 ## = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =