Family is gathered around grandpa in this exact situation. He raises his head off the pillow and squints around the room.
That you, Bill?
Yes, dad, it’s me.
Is Carol here?
Yes, I’m here dad.
Jimmy? Sally? Are they here too?
Yes dad, the kids are here.
Is Walt here?
Yeah dad, I’m right here.
You’re all here?
Yes, we’re all here dad.
Everybody’s right here?
Yes, dad.Then why is the goddam kitchen light still on???
So I am definitely the odd person in the sewing world who cuts everything with my scissors. I’ve been a sailmaker for 30 years and we cut paper, Mylar, Kevlar, carbon fiber, fabric (of course), rope, tape, adhesives, you name it. I’ve been using the same pair for 20 of those 30 years as well. We do get them sharpened but not all the time.
Dyneema is the one thing that will mess up your scissors though. My buddy at work had a dull spot on his that wouldn’t sharpen from dyneema webbing. We ended up getting a special pair for that and Kevlar, with micro serrated teeth.
I will say though that a person’s scissors are sacred, you don’t touch another sailmakers pouch and tools. What they do with them is their business, use your own tools.
Mind if I bug you with questions about sail making? That sounds like a super interesting job!
For sure! Though I apologize if I don’t answer right away! I will answer though.
Hey did you follow the americas cup this year?
What did you think of the wingsails / twin skins / no boom configuration?
Hi! I didn’t at all tbh, but your question just made me go on a deep dive looking at the boats. So crazy! I’d seen pics of them but hadn’t looked real close. I have to say, it makes sense for the racing they are doing to have that boomless shape. You’re getting every bit of wind with no waste. Those boats are engineered to the hilt, I can’t wait to see what they do next year. I’m going to watch some videos later, thanks for the rabbit hole!
The race I have been following is the Vendee Globe. The website is so good. I highly recommend!
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.
How do you get into a job like that? I figured they would mostly be made by machines nowadays.
What’s the biggest sail you’ve worked on?
Best/worst material to work with?
What kind of equipment does your job require?
You mentioned a knife but I’m guessing it’s not a common knife. I’m imagining more of a hook shaped blade to pull easier, but would love to know if I was wrong
Great questions!
I kinda fell into it tbh. My buddy worked at the local sailmakers and got me the job when I was 16. Never looked back. A lot of people will start because they race or sail but there’s an equal amount that just do it as a job and don’t sail at all. I did grow up sailing but it wasn’t on my radar for a career. I still talk with my buddy every now and then, I credit him with a long a varied career!
Quick edit: They are made on sewing machines, but you still need humans to do the work.
The biggest sail I’ve ever worked on was the spinnaker for the HMCS Oriole. It was 6000 sq/ft if I remember correctly. Freaking massive. We never saw it fully open until it got raised on the boat as we were in a very small shop! My coworker sewed all the panels together and I did all the rest, my boss painted the oriole on it and did a fantastic job. We were very proud of ourselves. I was so worried there was going to be a tub of pins somewhere in it and they would rain death down on the deck when they raised it!!
Hmmm, that really depends on what you like to do best. My specialty was racing sails, so I guess I’d have to say laminates were my favourites. Though if you were a traditional sailmaker than you’d like the heavier and softer fabrics and ropes. My coworker likes the spinnakers best as all she did was sew so getting those under the machines is much nicer. Being a shop with big sewing machines you end up sewing things other than sails and the job I hated was the boat house curtains. So big and heavy. The material wasn’t terrible it was just a crap job lol. And they were usually filthy.
You do need some specialized equipment, but it’s all the different parts on the sails that really make it niche. So there’s the obvious sewing machines, and you’ll need at least 3 different ones to cover what you might come across. The main one being a long arm walking foot. Then a straight stitch for canvas, a lighter zigzag for dinghy sails and sail bags, and a triple stitch for seams and resewing. But you can resew with the zigzag so that one is optional for a small repair loft. Hand tools like a hot knife, grommet punches and dies, palm for hand sewing, big hand sewing needles. Big rulers, carpenter squares, and lofting battens. I know I’m forgetting stuff but that’s what’s jumping out at me. The stuff that adds up though is all the things you need to repair or make sails. Different sizes and types of webbing, slugs, slides, rings, batten hardware, batten material! Oof, you end up collecting a lot of random stuff. I had a small repair loft and I couldn’t keep every little bit in stock so would save what was still good for that random sail that would come in.
Another edit: Pins and awls!! That’s how you flatten the sail on the floor to work. And I forgot the most specialized piece of equipment of all! The shop. That one can be hard. You need a space that’s big and open that you can pin into the floor and lay out as much of the sail as possible. Also the ideal is to have the machines in pits that are flush with the floor so you don’t have to lift the sails up to the table, and instead just slid them along. But that’s a hard one. My shop didn’t have that and the pinched nerve in my shoulder can attest to that.
I’m not sure about the knife you mention? Did I say that? We would use a hot knife for melting and sealing all the time.
Let me know if you have any other questions! That was fun.
Thanks a ton for the answers!
I’m honestly unsure where my brain got the knife thing if I’m being honest.
One more question for you if you don’t mind -
How’s kevlar to work with?
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.
Edit: I think it’s fallen out of favour over fibers like dyneema and carbon. I haven’t been in that part of the industry in a long time.
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.
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?
Well don’t leave them where they are accessible in cutting things that aren’t fabric.
Or maybe keep them with your fabric things.
Or maybe get a whetstone like your grandma did, grandma
Well don’t leave them where they are accessible in cutting things that aren’t fabric.
You have so never had a little girl Kelly in your life.
Whats the deal with fabric scissors? Do they break when used on other things?
fabric scissors need to be sharp to do their job effectively.
cutting other things, even paper, can (and will) dull the blades enough so they’re no longer suitable for their original intended task.
then when gramma, or whoever, wants to use ‘their scissors’ to cut some fabric, and they aren’t functioning properly… let’s just say it may not go well for the guilty party.
tl;dr: they’re no longer pure and must be replaced with new virgin scissors.
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).
Can’t you just sharpen them? Won’t fabric dull them? You can’t tell me that paper dulls scissors faster than fabrics.
I highly doubt using fabric scissors one time for cutting paper will do anything to them
You are hereby banned from the sewing room.
You think cutting through a tree won’t dull scissors? Fabric is made from plant fluff or hair.
More seriously - Yes you can sharpen them but many fabric stores no longer offer the service regularly. Some knife sharpeners will do it but others won’t. My scissors can be sent back to the maker to be sharpened but then I would be without my fabric scissors for weeks. If you do it yourself you will fail.
This is one of my favorite comments of all time. I have sent a screen shot to three different people that get pissed when I won’t let them use my shears.
on the one hand, other people should respect your shit.
On the other hand, you should know better. I’m usually against victim blaming, but if the scissors that are the easiest to find are your fancy expensive ones, then what did you expect.
The best way to protect your fabric scissors is to ensure that other scissors are more easily available to the idiots who’d wreck yours without a second thought. This also means keeping track of the shitty tools you never use because they exist purely to keep others away from your good shit.
I’ve been on the receiving end of this, and I’ve learned from it. I like candles, and have lived with potheads most of my adult life. Lighters go missing faster than I can buy them. Now i keep an electric lighter that can’t be used for smoking but can be used as a taser.
