-
Sword striper advice needed, please?
Greetings,
For railway carriages I use quill liners – it’s mainly 3/8" so they’re well suited to that. However, I have a little task coming up that involves putting a shedload of 1/8" pinstriping on a railway loco tender & have been looking at swordliners.
What size should I be going for? All the dimensions seem to relate to the depth of the ferrule rather than the width.
Any preference between Handover & Mack?TIA,
Pete S.
-
7 Replies
-
Peter – I’d speak to Handovers themselves to see what they recommend. I normally use quill liners too but have used the sword liners in the past just to try them out. My preference is still the quills but I probably didn’t practice enough with the swords. I found them a bit loose when new, so they probably take longer to get into shape for good sharp work. But as I say, I never really gave them a chance for long enough to be able to advise.
Neil
-
Ended up venturing a few quid on a Mack 000. Totally different experience to a trad coachliner, but 300-odd feet later I think it’s safe to say I’m a convert 😀
I trimmed about 2mm off the bottom & that helped constrain it; might take another 1mm off though.
Now tempted to get a 00 or 0 & see how that fares with the 3/8" stuff.
Pete.
-
Lovely traditional work there Pete! Now you’re convert, what would you say was the main feature that changed your mind?
Cheers – Neil
-
Hi Neil,
It’s got to be the lack of sag when running horizontally. I’ve never been happy with manipulating a loaded 3" coachliner on a one-stroke line as it’s all too easy to get a kick/wobble at the joints.
I also found that a sword is much more amenable to going around tight radii, plus it’s capable of giving a nice tapered finish to the stroke:—
Add into the mix how easy they are to trim & fettle and it’s become a simple choice IMHO. It’ll be a while before I can run a comparison test on a straight 60-foot run of 3/8", but it’s looking like I’ll be having a stab at freehand 3/8 on a panelled/moulded carriage in the very near future, so I’ll report back as when & if that comes off.
P.
-
Yea I know what you mean by a loaded liner sagging with the weight. When you say you’ve been trimming it, do you mean along the curved edge?
-
Yes, I cut a bit off the ‘belly’ like this:—
The red area was removed with a nick of a scalpel blade against the stock & seems to have had the desired effect.
Just pulled the trigger on a 0 from Jackson’s/Handover’s Amazon shop for a tad over £12, so we shall see what occurs.
P.
-
I have never been handy at striping, but I have had a good bit of luck using Jenson’s Swirly-Q.
There is a new long-haired brush called a Drag’n Fly, by Ted Turner, with a short handle like a pinstriping brush.
You might like to give either a try.
I think both are available form any distributor who sells Mack Brushes.
Love….Jill
PS Lovely work.
Log in to reply.