Dharma Trading's 5mm Habotai silk
07-26-2007, 02:16 PM
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Dharma Trading's 5mm Habotai silk
[link=http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/3586-AA.shtml?lnav=fabric_silk.html]Dharma Trading 5mm Habotai[/link]
I ordered an 11 yard bolt of this silk the other day.
[ul][*] Dharma's price is/was excellent $2.05/yd for an 11 yard bolt (Sig and local fabric shops get ~$20/yard for 5mm Habotai silk). [*] Total shipping cost was very reasonable - $4.90 out the door. It shipped in a plastic bag in a bubble pack envelope.[*] I ordered online. Seller's communications were outstanding. Instant automated email confirm of order, another confirm email a few hours later saying they'd received the order and were filling it, and another email stating the day it shipped. It took 3 days to arrive in FL from CA. Product was in perfect condition. The bubble pack envelope and plastic bag protected it nicely.
[/ul]
The pre-shrunk status of the product was unknown, so I just did a trial panel on an old wing I had laying around. I dry covered the panel leaving only a few minor wrinkles. On wetting the material visibly relaxed a tad, but shrunk medium tight when dry and the minor wrinkles shrunk out. I'll do another test panel tonight trying the wet cover method. I imagine that will shrink up real tight.
UPDATE
OK, I've covered several test panels with this stuff now using wet/dry methods and different combinations of Nitrate and Butyrate dope.
I put two thinned coats of nitrate on the medium tight dry covered panel mentioned above to seal the weave and it stayed kinda loose after that - however the next coat of fuel proof butyrate shrunk it up "drum tight". A wet covered panel stuck down with butyrate rather than nitrate proved problematic in the FL humidity, but shrunk drum tight easily. The butyrate just doesn't handle as well as nitrate for sticking the silk down and it was blushing badly in the current FL humidity. When I use this stuff for real, I'm going with a nitrate prep, wet cover, two thinned nitrate seal coats, then start in with the butyrate heavily dosed with retarder to control the blushing (south FL has been like a sauna lately)
UPDATE
The weave of the Dharma product was a bit more consistent than the stuff I remember using 35 years ago too. It is soft and very easy to handle. If you'd like to try covering something using "old school" methods, I recommend Dharma's product as a way to do so that won't break the bank. They were a pleasure to deal with and the product was better quality than I expected.
UPDATE
The Dharma product on a wing I'm working on
I ordered an 11 yard bolt of this silk the other day.
[ul][*] Dharma's price is/was excellent $2.05/yd for an 11 yard bolt (Sig and local fabric shops get ~$20/yard for 5mm Habotai silk). [*] Total shipping cost was very reasonable - $4.90 out the door. It shipped in a plastic bag in a bubble pack envelope.[*] I ordered online. Seller's communications were outstanding. Instant automated email confirm of order, another confirm email a few hours later saying they'd received the order and were filling it, and another email stating the day it shipped. It took 3 days to arrive in FL from CA. Product was in perfect condition. The bubble pack envelope and plastic bag protected it nicely.
[/ul]
The pre-shrunk status of the product was unknown, so I just did a trial panel on an old wing I had laying around. I dry covered the panel leaving only a few minor wrinkles. On wetting the material visibly relaxed a tad, but shrunk medium tight when dry and the minor wrinkles shrunk out. I'll do another test panel tonight trying the wet cover method. I imagine that will shrink up real tight.
UPDATE
OK, I've covered several test panels with this stuff now using wet/dry methods and different combinations of Nitrate and Butyrate dope.
I put two thinned coats of nitrate on the medium tight dry covered panel mentioned above to seal the weave and it stayed kinda loose after that - however the next coat of fuel proof butyrate shrunk it up "drum tight". A wet covered panel stuck down with butyrate rather than nitrate proved problematic in the FL humidity, but shrunk drum tight easily. The butyrate just doesn't handle as well as nitrate for sticking the silk down and it was blushing badly in the current FL humidity. When I use this stuff for real, I'm going with a nitrate prep, wet cover, two thinned nitrate seal coats, then start in with the butyrate heavily dosed with retarder to control the blushing (south FL has been like a sauna lately)
UPDATE
The weave of the Dharma product was a bit more consistent than the stuff I remember using 35 years ago too. It is soft and very easy to handle. If you'd like to try covering something using "old school" methods, I recommend Dharma's product as a way to do so that won't break the bank. They were a pleasure to deal with and the product was better quality than I expected.
UPDATE
The Dharma product on a wing I'm working on
05-15-2012, 06:09 PM
#4
RE: Dharma Trading's 5mm Habotai silk
You've sold me. I have a old timer that is probably 40 years old. (and still flying) The Sig silk I used back then is getting brittle and I need to recover it. I thought about getting the Dharma, but now I know I will.
Still working on the dying method so I can go back with the original yellow.
Frank
Still working on the dying method so I can go back with the original yellow.
Frank
