Rig mix
Here´s the space for your special rig mix, taring, blackening, lapsalve, altin, whatever, tell us your receipe.
The choice of rigmix is depending on the material your ship is using for serving and parcelling. A natural hemp rig will need different attention and components than a modern rig with Polytex etc. ropes. Blackening your rig is necessary to prolong the lifetime. Untreated serving is getting damaged by sun, salt and moisture. It becomes britle and starts falling apart, leaving the wire underneath exposed to the elements. For working ships, blackening of the rigging in 6 months intervals seem sensible. Espacially if the ships are going to the tropics. There is also the choice, to cover your serving and wires in a white rigmix, with chalk.
Altin (or Sotralin)
My favourite for synthetic serving. Pure, makes everything black and shiny, it originally is designed to prolong the live of synthetic fishing nets. If you not on a traditional boat which doesnt do hemp, this is the shit. Its just very runny and if you have new served material you ll need quite some layers to get a thick, black coat, as it soaks in super well. Tries up mat black.
Used by Statsraad Lehmkuhl, Gorch Fock 1, Af Chapman af Stockholm (and your ship?)
Tar is the one, if you are working with natural ropes and fibers. Keeps it flexible and happy. If you put it on your most common plastic rope, it still protects from sun and moisture but it does not has any benefital advantages for the serving. (there for look up altin) . Tar is often mixed up with one component black paint, paint drier and linseed oil (to make the mix more runny and easier to work with) . The different mixes are all an attempt to make it dry up quicker and make it more black and efficent, down below you find the different receipt of the ships:
Labsale (Linoil and Tar + Sikkativ)
Tries out black after several coats.
Used by Trainingsmast Murwick, Gorch Fock II, Cisne Branco
“4 parts Stockholm Tar, 1/2 part boiled linseed oil, 1/2 part FRESH Japan Dry”
“Tar, Linseedoil, 1k Black paint, 1k varnish, Sikkativ”
“...served parts were treated with a concoction of Stockholm tar, linseed oil, and lamp black.”
“1 part Stockholm Tar, 2 parts Black Paint, 2 parts Boiled Linseed Oil OR Danish oil, 1/2 part Paint hardener 1 part cheap yacht varnish. (takes foever to dry)”
“Gori, 1k Black. Shinny but stiff and cracks with movements.”
