A whole lot of metal sails

 

I have finally finished the 100 sails for my fishing boats as you can see from the photo below. 

I was conscious of the noise that repetitive hammering of 80 plus sails would make so I decided to press the sail form in my 12 tonne hydraulic press and a wooden form as you can see from the photos below. 

The wooden form has been in use for about 10 years now and is starting to show its age as you can see from the opening photo. Leather gloves are essential when holding the large metal dome as it sits a little precariously in the press. The metal dome is designed to be held in a vice by the white metal tongue and the dome hammered on. I used it like that with a hard nylon hammer to give the sails a finishing touch. The dome and press are basically car workshop tools. The dome weighs several kilos.

I will heat treat all the sails to give them an aged look - look a bit more like used old calico.