Do you India ink your threads?

[Dave_E]

Hi All,

 

The Lady Nelson kit came with some black thread and what they call natural. I’ve seen a few completed builds of the Lady and the rat lines are natural. The kit says to use India ink and use a paint brush to paint it on after your done constructing the rat lines. What’s the forums opinion on this? It won’t break the bank to purchase some .1 mm black rope.

[Kevin]

i am making my own rope for the Amerigo Vespucci, and have been using India ink to stain, using the serpia for the brown

[Bob Cleek]

There's nothing wrong that I can see in using India ink to blacken rigging thread. That said, an inadvertent drop or splatter of India ink landing on the model could ruin your whole day, no? I'd suggest applying the ink off the model, rather than applying it with a paintbrush directly above your bright finished decks. The common technique is to put the India ink in a small straight-sided bottle, like a pill bottle, for example, containing the India ink and sliding a piece of wood the width of the inside of the bottle with a slight "U" notch cut into it down into the bottle just short of the bottom with the string to be colored run around the bottom of the wooden piece and held in the center of the wooden piece by the "U" notch. The wooden piece holds the thread down in the India ink as the length of thread is pulled up out of the bottle. The "dry" uncolored thread is drawn into the bottle by pulling the "wet" side of the length of thread. You can devise your own method of wiping the excess India ink as the "wet" thread comes out of the bottle, if need be. The length of string can then be hung up to dry. India ink is very useful, but wicked stuff. When the bottle says "Permanent," they mean it. You want to be careful to keep it where you want it and nowhere else. 

[Kevin]

agreed all mine is stained prior to use

[allanyed]

You bring up a point about which I have been curious for some time.     I have seen contemporary models with untarred ratlines as well as some models that are tarred.  Does this have to do with the era or could it just be that the models have been re-rigged over the years and are inconsistent?

 

Also, if they were tarred, wouldn't they be very dark brown like the rest of the standing rigging rather than black?

 

Allan

 

 

[Kevin]

34 minutes ago, allanyed said:

You bring up a point about which I have been curious for some time.     I have seen contemporary models with untarred ratlines as well as some models that are tarred.  Does this have to do with the era or could it just be that the models have been re-rigged over the years and are inconsistent?

 

Also, if they were tarred, wouldn't they be very dark brown like the rest of the standing rigging rather than black?

 

Allan

 

 

Chuck goes into a lot of detail here about colours 

 

 

[Dave_E]

5 hours ago, Kevin said:

agreed all mine is stained prior to use

Hi Kevin,

 

I like your idea best. I would be soooooooo crazy upset if I slopped India ink on the deck and see trying to mask as a real pain. May I inquire as your technique please? 

[Dave_E]

My other thought remains. Is .1mm black thread available? If so, why go through the hassle of inking?

[Justin P.]

At least you are using the Calligraphy solution and not the drawing.   The calligraphy is considered "lightfast" so you can at least be sure of a consistent color over time.   However it is not waterproof and will reactivate so best be sure you dont somehow get your model wet or it will be a mess!    Any glue use can possibly reactivate it as well, particularly PVA - so be careful!

Edited March 16, 2022 by Justin P.

[Dave_E]

47 minutes ago, Dave_E said:

My other thought remains. Is .1mm black thread available? If so, why go through the hassle of inking?

I’m not finding any. 😕

[Gregory]

.1mm Is smaller than a lot of sewing thread..  It would seem black thread would pretty easy to source.

[Dave_E]

I looked at the Amati .1mm “natural” rigging thread. It is actually twisted. I haven’t been able to find back .1 mm rope anywhere. I know I’m asking a question that I haven’t researched yet, but what is the scale size for rat lines of a typical 1:64 ship? I’m guessing everyone isn’t using .1mm twisted rope dyed black from Amati.

[Gregory]

I would be surprised if the typical ratline were bigger than 1/2" diameter =12.7mm..  At 1/64 = .198mm

Sryen's .008 = .2mm would work at 1;64

 

Probably not done to scale for most projects.

 

When all else fails, go with what looks good..  Smaller is better.

 

Edited March 16, 2022 by Gregory
Corrected math

[Gregory]

P.S.

 

Checked, and see that Chuck used .012" = .3mm for ratlines on Cheerful at 1:48  which would be .576 " full size..   Close to 1/2 " and looks good.

 

.008 = .2mm is the smallest size Chuck sells.

 

 

Edited March 16, 2022 by Gregory

[georgeband]

Has anyone tried water-based wood dyes to colour rope? I bought a tiny bottle of 'pink' to mimic Bermudan cedar and it works well on wood. Various shades of browns, greys and blacks would allow the creation of ropes in various stages of tarring from fresh to aged. I suspect that natural fibres will take the dye better than artificial but it needs some experimenting. Unfortunately our house is in chaos at present with major renovations so my experimenting will be delayed for a while. Can anyone relate their experience with wood dyes?

 

George

[Gregory]

Depends on the material.  I think water based dyes would be a problem with polyester. Natural fibers should be OK..

 

I have used alcohol based leather dyes successfully with polyester.

[Kevin]

i am making my own ropes for the Amerigo Vespucci,

using the Domanoff VR3 rope maker

to make the 8 sizes required i went for different thicknesses of the Gutterman Mara threads available in the UK by William Gee i could not get the colours i wanted so went for white and staining as required by india inks

to stain i use the messy procedure of pouring the content into a jar, coiling the thread and dropping in, ensure it is fully soaked, and then pull one end back  out through the fingers to remove the excess

to get the tan colour i am just using serpia colour

 

[Dave_E]

Hi All,

 

I went to Syren and purchased some .2mm. 

[Roger Pellett]

Many years ago I bought several spools of rigging line from Model Shipways.  It turned out to be “Cuttyhunk” hard twisted linen fishing line.  Very nice stuff! I recently used some to rig a rigged longboat model.

 

I had read Rob Napier’s book about restoring a Dutch East Indiaman.  He used this same material as well as some that he got from Holland.  He used a cold water dye to color his line.  He includes detailed instructions for using this dye in his book.  I bought some of this dye and followed his instructions.  It didn’t work!  I suspect that I didn’t properly remove the sizing in the linen line.  I still have the dye and if I build another rigged model I’ll try to use it again.

 

Out of frustration, I stretched out a length of line and wiped it down with dark brown Feibig Leather dye.  It worked great.

 

Roger

[AlleyCat]

On 3/19/2022 at 11:14 AM, Dave_E said:

Hi All,

 

I went to Syren and purchased some .2mm. 

 

Good evening Dave , just to add another possibility for you to look at is Ropes of Scale , which I've read mention of by at least 2 other members here ,

and while I only did a fast surf on their web site - it looked interesting enough to bookmark it for future shopping possibilities ?  

as it's a Canadian company I may be a little bit biased ? as I'm also a Canuck 😉 

[Dave_E]

Hi Cat… Yes I know of them and have looked them over. Being a Canadian company will never have any affect on whether I shop there or not! 😀

[wefalck]

Have a look at fly-tying threads. The thinnest is 16/0 two-ply from e.g. Veevus, which is available in various colours. From this you can make a proper 'rope' using a ropewalk, which would be about 0.1 mm in diameter. 

 

Personally, I like to give all standing gear a light final wash in diluted acrylic burnt umber paint. During rigging I secure any splices and knots with a solvent-based varnish so that I can undo things, if needed.