Cringles

[DispleasedOwl]

Hi everyone! I want to know where do you buy/how do you make cringles for your model sails. Thank you!

[allanyed]

DO,

A cringle is a hole  along the edge or in the corner of a sail, rimmed with stranded small line. Metal grommets are sometimes used as part of this as well.  The fact that you are asking if someone sells holes (cringles)  makes me wonder if you are asking about the grommets or something else altogether.  Probably just a little bit of language confusion so just thought maybe you can clarify.

 

Hope all is well in Madrid!!

 

Allan 

[druxey]

In 18th century terms, a cringle is a rope loop at the corners of and along the edges of sails, either as part of the bolt rope or secured to it. Are you thinking, perhaps, of a grommet? That is a ring of metal fixed within the edge of a sail.

Edited December 3, 2021 by druxey

[DispleasedOwl]

6 hours ago, allanyed said:

if you are asking about the grommets

 

4 hours ago, druxey said:

Are you thinking, perhaps, of a grommet? That is a ring of metal fixed within the edge of a sail.

 

Yes! Sorry i mixed up the terms, my bad. Do you make them by cutting a brass tube?

[mtaylor]

Lots ways to make them.... cut tubing, copper wire wrapped around a drill bit.   They can also be purchased from hobby suppliers as "rings".

[druxey]

There are several ways of making grommets. One way is cutting thin slices of brass tubing (heat-soften it first!) Place the ring on a hardened surface and  flare one side using a center punch, if the ring is small enough. Push the ring through a hole in the sail and flare the other side to lock it in place.

[Bob Cleek]

The nomenclature here is really confusing. First, the applicable period  has to be defined.

 

A hole attached to or worked into a sail or other piece of canvas to attach a line is called a "cringle."

 

In earliest times, cringles were made by sewing a rope "grommet" around the hole in the canvas. A rope grommet is made up of a single strand of unlayed rope laid around itself to produce a three-strand circle with only two loose ends worked back into the circle.

 

 

In later times, a metal ring might replace the rope grommet.

 

The cringle could be worked into the canvas without any additional reinforcement...

 

 

or additional secondary cringles could be added in order to spread the forces over a wider area of the weaker canvas and, later still, a metal grommet  with hammered flared edges might be inserted in the finished cringle to provide extra strength and chafe protection.

 

 

Much later, I'd expect beginning sometime in the 19th Century, but I'm just guessing, harder manufactured metal grommets were used. These required less handwork for the sailmaker to install. Later still, so-called "English grommets,' two piece grommets installed with a patent press, were also used, as in the secondary holes in the below picture.

 

 

 

 

Modernly, synthetic webbing machine-stitched into the canvas which secures a metal ring has become a simple approach, as are sophisticated grommets pressed into place with high-compression equipment.

 

 

 

 

 

So, the period of the model sail will dictate whether the cringle is made with a rope grommet or an metal one. At smaller scales, a dark-colored dot with the line passed through with thread on a needle should be enough.

 

 

 

 

 

[DispleasedOwl]

Thank you all! Very usefull information, and gorgeous pictures! Theres not a day i dont learn something new.