Tarred nylon seine twine. Knots, whipping, paint varnish....

[BETTY-B]

I'm making a new boat hook for BETTY-B. And I'm making grips with whipping and Turks head knots for it. All I have on hand is tarred sein twine.

Will paint, varnish or shellac stay put on tarred sien twine? I painted the wood white and want to keep the grips black is why. I really want to use paint.

My last nice one was stolen.:( The storage spot on top of the aft cabin is just the perfect height for a boat hook theif. I was thinking instead of cutting a groove to be able to feel the position of the hook in the dark, I would carve a nice little BETTY-B. Sound stupid? Stick with a more traditional?

Thanks for any tips and answers.....

DAN

[George Ray]

I have had no problem painting over tarred net twine.

[Bob Triggs]

A few drops of Japan Drier added to the overpaint might give it a kick. The oil paint will bond to the oil in the twine. Warm and dry will help too. Whats wrong with doing it your way? A little creativity is a good thing. Im going to line my boat hook with plastique and a remote trigger so I can find the guy who steals it.....

[Thorne]

Assuming you have tarred nylon seine twine in black, the varnish should keep it black. Nylon won't hold paint or varnish really well, but since you are only trying to keep it black it shouldn't take much.

The turks heads (made from tarred nylon seine twine laid in PL Premium) on my boathook and spritboom have faded a little from the sun, and I just varnished them today to keep them as black as possible. We shall see how well it works...

[BETTY-B]

Thanks guys. I'll take pics...

DAN

[Ron Carter]

Thorne, I've used PL Premium extensively. I'm also pretty proficient at the turks head. I'm having visions of you liberally covered in PL Premium at the end of the job. What's the trick???

[Thorne]

Thorne, I've used PL Premium extensively. I'm also pretty proficient at the turks head. I'm having visions of you liberally covered in PL Premium at the end of the job. What's the trick???

No, that would more of a "Decapitated Rotting Turks Head" if you catch my drift...

;0 )

Yeccch -- imagine what the yellowing blobs of PL would look like coming through the black nylon. It looks bad enough just around the edges, probably should have used a clear epoxy or just varnish to bed the heads.

PL was used because in both locations it is essential that the turks head not slide or move -- the boathook is sometimes used as a push-pull tiller and the knot bears on the varnished transom top, and the spritboom bears on the mast where I want the leather against the varnished mast.

I smeared a thin layer of PL Premium on the wood, then slid the tied-but-not-tightened turks head onto the PL and then tightened it and tucked the ends.

I'm no knot expert and have to re-read the manual every time I do turks heads, so I'm mostly guessing here -- but since I'd done nearly the same thing to the same piece of equipment, I thought I'd chime in. You are looking at literally the first three turks heads I've ever tied -- I'm not displaying them for admiration, more of a "horrible warning"...(grin)

Actually, using PL Premium might be a way to keep the boathook from being stolen -- there's an idea!

My boathook -
http://www.luckhardt.com/boathookturkshead1.jpg

My spritboom -
http://www.luckhardt.com/spritboomturkshead1.jpg

[Gary Bergman]

Hmm, lemmee look in the head....yup, there's at least eight spools of various diameters in stock...we use a heckova lot of this stuff, and I just cover it it the same boat sauce as everything else; pine tar,(Stockholm tar) turps,linseed oil, japan drier...works great after it sets up...amess to go aloft when wet, but welcome to the jack tar world, eh?...hence the nicknames, like 'Tarr of India'....