: is that the same stuff in the "Watersticks" paddles that looks like
: the weave in cheap salad bowls,,where the warp/weft "threads"
: are big flat ribbons? Is that preferable for hand layups than the
: conventional CF fabric? What you describe with the filling/fluffing is
: what happens with the 2" unidirectional tape,,it puffs up,,different
: than kevlar or dynel cloths, then when it's squeeged it puffs back up with
: air inbetween the fibers.

Hey ya

I haven't seen a Waterstick paddle closely, so I can't tell you. The yarns on most CF are in cross-section flat, but the heavier layups are humpy things, but then again, just like ant other heavy cloth so it's relative. I talk with different reps and hear the most varied descriptions. The plain and 2 by 2 twill look different, the 2 by 2 has a "stepped" appearance when cured, the plain weave a bit less so. The twill has a looser weave and is able to be bent around curves easier then the plain stuff. When one use a vacumn bag to lay the cloth the best results occur, and the flatness is really apparent. I happen to like the twill because I have a roll of it in the house and there's nothing like something free to make it particularly so. But besides that, I like the twill for it's easy of bending, but I get hot when I snag a yarn, or deflect some of the yarns out of shape. The fisx is easy enough when dry by a paintbrush, or taking a patch and diagonally work it gently to coax the yarns back in line.

The tape and unidirectional material is a whole different and ugly monster. There seems to be something with tape anything. The stuff has a mind of it's own. I usually cut plain and make my own tape. The unidirectional stuff...I think it is really for formation around a mandrel, the stuff pumps up with a vengeance. I found the best luck in a hand layup by painting a bit extra epoxy gently, let cure a bit, then lay a strip of wax paper down on it and squeeze along the wax paper till it's "attached" meaning that there's to bubles and it's black and intimately in contact. Afetr a few hours when the epoxy is well on it's way to curing, you can peel the wax paper and be rewarded with a good layup.

Kevlar...my experiences with cloth hasn't been so good. I found it sucked up epoxy and all my efforts screwed it up even worse. The wax paper trick I didn't know about which I think would have helped immeasureably. I've talked with the people who built the hull of our boat and they were telling me that the kevalr layups were a pain in the rear, subject to voids which were then pressure filled after testing. In other words, more steps. I see that these days Hunter does the kevlar additions to small parts of their hulls.

I haven't used kevlar tape, and used dynel a few times and didn't really like it. What I'm waiting for is Spectra cloth. That stuff will be the cat's meow. So with CF on the inside, Spectra on the outside, I can build a 30 pound stripper someday.