I’m aware that the plastic handles probably disqualify these from being true “buy it for life”, but the exciting thing for me is that they are relatively cheap and can be found on the shelf in most stores with an office supply section. It’s an unfortunate reality that the vast majority of BIFL items are special order and cost several times more than their mainstream equivalent, so I wanted to shout out Scotch brand for maintaining such good serviceability on an item you can literally pick up at Walmart.
I just pulled apart a pair of these which was cutting horribly, gave each blade a couple passes on an oil stone, then reassembled and tightened them up with a drop of oil in the joint. They cut as well as the day they were bought, and the handles are still in good shape so I could see doing this several more times before I even have to consider replacing them.
There’s certainly a mystique around canvas. Some of it is deserved, there is a lot to learn. Patterning is definitely the hard part. I use paper, I make a big paper bag and draw seam and zipper lines on it. There’s a thousand ways to skin a cat as they say. I’m not sold on the 3D modeling. $100k to get started and in the end you still throw it a sewer, all your precision can get lost at the last step. It’s only really worth it if your doing production, manual patterns are way faster for one offs. I’d suggest spending money on scissors and materials and learn from your screwups. You’ll be way further ahead than the learning curve involved in the modeling.
Oh wow! That is sharp! Beautiful work! Patterning definitely seems to be the secret ingredient. And yes, from my looking into it everyone has a different way. Way back in the 90s the shop I worked in had the sail service and canvas in the same area so I would help the guy that did all the patterns and frames sometimes. He used heavy poly for the patterns. Very cool to watch and learn from. Unfortunately I never did more after that to cement it in my brain. I’ll be patterning for mine, not worth all the fuss with the 3D stuff for just my own job. Also I want to make a hard Bimini so everything is going to get changed up anyways.
The guys I know do know how to pattern but they’re young uns and very tech savvy so they have modified to suit their needs. Use a camera they already have and take a bunch of pictures, run that through the modeling software and then flatten it and send it to their plotter. I don’t think they spent more than 15k for plotter and software? Also one of them is the sewer so already informed of the project. Works for them but I feel that you should know how to pattern first as well. They are trying to get set up for people to send their files to them and then they can cut and send back.
Sorry for the late response, whole family got hit with Covid, just surfacing now.