Fuck Kelly.

[ghost_towels@sh.itjust.works]

Haha, my brain does the same thing all the time.

Kevlar is a funny one for me as I’m now allergic to it. Yay occupational disease! If I have to use it for a quick job it’s fine, but anything longer than an hour I get what feels like a sunburn. Usually on my arms and cheeks, basically where I touch when I push up my sleeves or whatnot. Doesn’t get red, just feels like a bad sunburn. One of the ways it’s used is in big rolls with an adhesive backing, for patches. So we’re not really sure if it’s the Kevlar or the adhesive, but I can use any other product with an adhesive back and it doesn’t happen.

Anyhoo, Kevlar is really tough, so it can be a pain to cut. That toughness makes it great for backing patches or chafe patches. On Genoas we’d use it to make spreader patches. It’s really only used like that on laminate sails. Though I’ve seen Kevlar leech line used on Dacron sails. Another common use is in kayak hulls along the keel for abrasion resistance. It also has a very high melting point and will char more than melt, which also helps with chafe. Its UV resistance isn’t the best so it will deteriorate over time. But racing sails don’t last as long as cruising sails so it evens out. You can recognize it on a sail as it’s a golden yellow.

The fibers and technology in racing sails are pretty crazy. There’s some neat videos online if you want to dive a bit deeper into it.

[kboy101222@sh.itjust.works]

A kevlar allergy is definitely an interesting one!

I gotta ask what you mean by patches. Judging by the fact you seem to mostly work on racing ships and other very expensive sailing ships, I’m guessing you don’t mean patches in the sense of filler material to fix holes?

[warl0k3@lemmy.world]

I think it’s down to most people not having used modern high end shears, which usually have convex bevels (and some pain in the ass exotic steels). If you can sharpen that without destroying the tension/edge finish using a hardware store stone (like someone in this thread was claiming), I’ll be properly reverential.

[lovablesidekick@lemmy.world]

Grampa still uses incandescents - he saw a meme about how you need a hazmat team if you break one o’ them newfangled bulbs and he’s not letting Obama jam those things down his throat!!!

[lifeinmultiplechoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

So you know how when you cut something and the object was to hard for the scissors and the object turns sideways between the 2 blades and makes it so the scissors never function as well again? I’m way to good at doing that… Other than pulling my head out of my ass and using a different tool, any suggestions on how to fix those tools? My kitchen sheets are like that now after using them to prune my strawberries plants outside. (Clearly I need to have designated sheers/scissors for different things, but sometimes I’m just that idiot that thinks 1 hammer fits all jobs

[baaahb@feddit.nl]

Use the right tool for the job. If you can’t figure out what the right tool is, you are the wrong tool.

[oatscoop@midwest.social]

Scissors work because the blades are tight against each other – there’s no gap between them when they’re cutting. When they “go sideways” it’s usually because the hinge is loose.

If they’re good quality scissors, you probably need to tighten the screw holding the blades together.

[lifeinmultiplechoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

Yeah, old scissors used to have those, my kitchen sheers unfortunately do not, need to just get a nice pair and only use them for the kitchen.

[liz@midwest.social]

You can still probably tighten them. Here’s a couple techniques. What you’re trying to do is squish the rivet holding the two halves together in order to tighten it back up.

[liz@midwest.social]

Yeah maybe with a belt sharpener, but I just use my stone. I guess my scissors have a flat bevel. It never occurred to me anyone would put a convex edge on a pair of scissors. Unless you’re talking about how the blades bend inwards slightly, in which case, I haven’t had any issues getting my scissors back to fabric-sharp.

[liz@midwest.social]

Compact fluorescents are so last decade.

[lifeinmultiplechoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

Thanks, I’ll see if I can give that a try. I’ll be back to trying to cut down am oak tree with my kitchen sheers in no time! Haha

[warl0k3@lemmy.world]

That single (or doubled) convex blade profile is the big defining difference between shears and scissors. There’s some other things like grip sizes and thickness of the blades relative to each other that separate things like tailoring shears and dressmaking shears, but those aren’t nearly as codified. And that’s ignoring all the complexities you get with beauty shears, or the absolute hell that is trying to sharpen pinking or thinning shears, especially if the blade has a nick in it that requires reprofiling. Its fascinating how complex such simple tools have become as we’ve adapted them for ever more specialized tasks.

[ghost_towels@sh.itjust.works]

Well, kinda. Imagine there’s a tear in the sail, you’d put a patch on it. And on a laminate, or plastic, sail it would be like a big sticker. Of if there is a place where you know something is going to rub constantly, you’d put a chafe patch. And as laminates aren’t very strong when they’re punctured, like with a sewing needle, you’d put reinforcing patches under whatever you want to sew down.

Tbh, I haven’t worked with laminate sails in a long time. I did service and repair work in my shop mostly, for regular sailors. Honestly I used to get a fair bit of work from the bigger lofts where small repair work wasn’t worth it for them it do. And really, these sails aren’t just for big fancy race boats, any sailing club with racers (which is pretty much all of them) will have people with laminate sails. The general public only sees the big races, like the americas cup or vendee globe, but every Wednesday night around the world, there’s regular people out racing.

[kboy101222@sh.itjust.works]

Thanks again for all the answers! One more “one more question” if I haven’t scared you off yet -

What are the odds I could get a picture or something specific to Google for what your sewing needle(s) look like? I’m guessing you don’t use the tiny ones people use on clothes.

[thefogan@programming.dev]

tl;dr: they’re no longer pure and must be replaced with new virgin scissors.

Damn that’s a horrible punishment. (I’m at least assuming if fabric scissors are only to be used on cutting fabric).

[macrocarpa@lemmy.world]

Vendee global is amazing! I feel like it's the closest thing to a pure "all rounder" sailing - solo sailors, robust and well-engineered boats that are just smashing it every condition and loving ayvoace as well. I'm subscribed to their updates on YouTube.

So as to the madness of the americas cup - if you look at the sails they each have two wide counter coloured bands on them. when doing boat testing they use upwards facing LIDAR on both sides of the boat to calculate the best sail shape, live, and adjust accordingly. I feel a bit odd about that, I think trimming is one of the fine arts of sailing and to see it automated out is a bit sad. But if you're doing 45 knots on foils, I guess the fewer jobs the better.