Busy Day (UPDATED)

Update: SECOND SOAK     This tannin process is very weird. I hung the sail in the shower yesterday by clipping it with vice-grips, and today when I looked at it the places where the steel came i8n contact with it the canvas turned black, which did not wash out with handsoap. On the contrary, the soap acted like bleach. So today I added half a box of baking soda to neutralize the PH a bit, and soaked the sail again in the same liquid from yesterday. After 4 hours soak the sail looks appreciably darker. But the spot I soaped didn't take any more tannin at all, in fact, it looks like somebody spilled bleach on there. Shit. I guess I'm going to chalk it up to the inevitable mystery of life. I do think I'm done with this process, though. I am happy with the result. We will see how well it preserved the canvas next fall when I take it off the boat for the winter.

To begin with, this was the day to tan the sail. 
Its dark out now, 5 o'clock. I'm resting. It was a busy day.

Dry and smooth and ready to go. I replaced the reef band which was a pain in the ass but the right thing to do. That took longer than it should have because I fucked around being embarrassed about having fucked it up so bad. But, as Peter Green used to say, Oh well.

 BY 830 or so I had my coffee done and the big washtub on the stove heating up.
I tried different combinations of burners but really just the big one in front did all the work, for reasons that have to do with housekeeping and safety, and that was fine. I had to open the windows a couple times to let out the fumes, kind of a motor oil type smell not real bad but I'm glad I don't do this every day.

Bailing it out in reverse. I guess that would make the phrase "bailing it in"

Alum. Mordant. I don't know how or even if it worked, but I was tired of looking at it in the spice cupboard and afraid I would eventually mistake it for the similarly packaged Thyme and fuck up an otherwise tasty stew.

 Supposedly aluminum acetate works better for cotton than alum which is for wool but like Donald Rumsfeld said you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want. Fucker. Sexy, though. But I digress. The stuff dissolved right away so that was fine.
Good to go.

Thanks to my brother-in-law Jim for the excellent oak bark chips. I put some acorns in there too.

 The oak bark chips were still frozen but not for long, in the strainer bags  divided in thirds more or less. The water started turning red right away as the tannin flooded into solution. Very responsive stuff.
 Sinking the canvas and making it stay sunk was a bit awkward but I made one very long handled spoon winter before last which worked pretty good for a manipulator, nice and sturdy, so eventually most of the air bubbles worked their way out from the folds and pockets and the thing stayed down. I added enough water to completely cover the works, pulling the dye bags out so the tannin could drain down into the canvas.

The washtub was in fact large enough, and the much cuter 24 inch model might have been but there was enough to worry about so I was glad to have the extra room. That oval thing on the wall is a photo of Jeff and his dog Wally on the beach at crab flats.

low tide 1988 the greatest kid with the greatest dog on the greatest beach by the best mudflats in the whole world

 I threw in the bolt-rope and the sinnet halliard just in case I decide not to tar them, I'd like to avoid that even though I absolutely love the pine-tar smell it is very messy stuff until it dries up a little which takes weeks.
The pot never did really boil but it did get quite frothy simmering hot.

Delicious-looking froth. Reminded me of hopping the wort.

 I left it like that for 4 or 5 hours. All afternoon, anyway. I forgot to look at the actual time.

 I spaced out and read a book but that was boring and so I  sharpened my wooden convex block plane and had a go at working down the remaining oar of the pair of commercial beaters that I got with the boat. Poplar. Warped, and thick as a brick. Glue laminated chunks, so the grain goes all over hell but I did make some of those nice curly planer shavings and the thing might work better for haveing gotten rid of some of the clunky extra thickness on the blades.
Long about 4 PM I declared victory, transferred the canvas to the sink to drain and set about collecting containers into which I scooped all the dyewater.

I had more containers than I would have thought. Necessity is a demanding bedfellow.

 Finally I managed to find a way to hang the sail up in the shower on ropes from the sprinkler pipes. They are quite sturdy which is good because the fucking wet sail weighs a fucking ton. I made plans all the while to be sure and make some sand bags for ballast so I don't tip over the dory the first time I come about in a blow.

 Compare the color of this SECOND SOAK  with the first results below. A bit darker is all you get, but I am actually quite happy with the result. And it was scads of fun doing.

About the color I expected thanks to my test-patch. I'm in it for the tannin, but I know I will have to have the conversation about why it isn't tanbark colored even though sails that are the dark red like they call tanbark are not really tanned they are dressed which is a different process. Maybe I will just tell people to STFU..

A bit of finely powdered oak bark clung to the sail, so I gave it a rinse from the shower head.
I don't know whats for dinner but it is time to find out. I'm hungry.
 Like I said it was a busy day.