I plan on using silk covering but am somewhat confused as to the different types of silk available and which are the best to use considering price and quality, ie. Esaki, K & S White Aero Silk and Thai silk. Esaki silk seems to be the best but very expensive. K & S is less expensive but how does it compare to Esaki. Thai silk is sending me some Chinese made samples... Cost much less but how does it compare to the other brands? Finally, has anyone attempted to go directly to Esaki in Japan to order silk? If so, how did you do it?
Thanks for any and all feedback.
Lon

Lon, there are several threads on this. I am using China Habotai from Thai Silks. It does not shrink much--you must put it on wet and then use tautening dope, i.e., with no plasticizer--do a Google RCU search and you will see more about it. I find the wrinkles take about two weeks of drying time to come out even if I do it right, but then I get a nice drum tight covering. Do some experimenting on a scrap frame first.

Not as light as Esaki, but the weave is tighter and probably takes less dope--and it's WAY cheaper. It is lighter than Sig Koverall, but not as easy to use because you can't just heat shrink it. But it does compound curves very well--you can easily cover a wing in four pieces without doing separate pieces for the tips. The 5 mm is half the weight of Koverall and is only available in natural white. The 6 mm and 8 mm are proportionally heavier, i.e., only a little lighter than Koverall, but the 8 mm comes in a dazzling choice of colors. They are all plenty strong for a typical RC model--in fact, I'm very impressed with the strength.

I'm doing a Sig Four Star Sixty in yellow and red silk, a Quickee 500 in emerald green silk with orange and ivory dope trim, and a small bipe in 6 mm natural white which will get some color trim. I love the look. The colors darken some when doped--my emerald green is darker than I would like. In the future I'll mostly go for the lighter colors. Jim

One more thing--many have referred to an excellent article on silking in the AMA archive. The author used Esaki, and I have noticed that I am using much less dope than he did. It makes sense because the weave is so much tighter--another cost savings, and almost certainly makes up for some of the extra weight of the Habotai. Jim

If you are going to do silk, this is the article, and well worth the print out.

https://www.modelaircraft.org/Member...ge_article.htm

October 1993

Les

I use the 5mm Thai, and it "feels" to me about like the K&S that I have.

I'm doing my first "cloth" covering job and I was wondering if you could recommend a good dope. I was going to use Sig nitrate but they're out of it right now. Any suggestions on another brand?

Andy

Be sure that what you get is "taughtening" nitrate. I buy mine from Aircraft Spruce. Made by Certified or Randolph, either one.

Les

No kiddin' ? I was wondering if there was a difference between what you use on a full scale and a model.

Thanks!

Thanks Les and Jim. I am going forward with your suggestions.
Lon