The Diamond Kite

MBK Dowel Diamond

Some people refer to diamonds as "two-stick kites." The two sticks are the vertical spar running from nose to tail and the horizontal or "cross" spar going side to side.

Although not often seen now, the diamond kite design can be flown with a bowed cross spar. If positioned close enough to the nose, this eliminates the need for a tail. For an example of this, see my pale-orange Dowel Diamond in the photo.

The bow can be achieved by tensioning the spar with string, causing it flex. Alternatively, the cross spar can be in two pieces with these then joined to the vertical spar at an angle. This is called dihedral.

Back in Victorian times, the arch-top kite was popular. This design looked and flew very much like a diamond, except that the upper two edges were replaced with a single curved edge. It was like an arch and hence the name.

Girls' Fairy Diamond seen at a festival.

• Overall size varies of course, although most diamonds are less than a meter (3 feet) tall.
• The cross spar might cross nearly in the center, making an almost square shape, or it might cross close to the top of the kite for a more classic diamond shape.
• Construction can be with or without a line threaded around the tips of the sticks, forming a diamond outline.
• All flat diamonds need a tail, but this can be a flat ribbon, several thin flat ribbons, a line with bows, or just about anything that streams out and drags in the wind.
• Decoration of homemade kites takes many forms, and shop-bought kites are also available in colorful designs.
• With the cross-spar bowed enough and mounted high enough on the vertical spar, a diamond is stable enough to fly without a tail.
• The bridle is traditionally attached to the kite in two places on the vertical spar and not necessarily at each extreme end of the spar.
• Traditionally, the sail was paper but these days plastic, nylon, and polyester are common.

By the way, I'm not covering two-line diamond stunt kites here! This page is strictly about the single-line variety. 

Here's a few comments on each of the above points:

Size. Some kite flyers just love to show off with huge kites, and I've read about a few rather large diamonds too. Anything over a couple of meters tall (7 feet) is pretty big! On the other hand, a diamond kite is a popular choice for makers of miniature kites. These can be as small as the palm of your hand (or even smaller) and can be flown on ordinary sewing thread.

Shape. The picture at the top of this page shows an almost-square kite. My MBK design is more traditional, with the cross spar at exactly 1/4 of a spar length from the top of the vertical spar. As far as I am aware, the cross and vertical spars are exactly the same length in most diamonds.

Construction. For flimsy materials such as paper, many diamond kites are constructed with a line around the tips of the kite spars. This forms a diamond outline to which the sail material can be folded over and attached. My MBK kites are just fine without it, since the edges are reinforced with tape to provide resistance to stretching and tearing. It's simpler, too, and simpler is nearly always better!

Tails. These are only limited by your imagination really, but the most common types are a single ribbon, multiple ribbons or a line with cloth or paper bows tied into it at regular intervals. For my bamboo-skewer diamonds, I have tied loops of light plastic together, forming a chain. This works well! Decorative tassels or tails can be attached to the ends of the cross spar as well.

Decoration. Strips of different colored material can be joined together before the outline is cut. The appliqué technique involves sticking light but colorful cutout patterns onto the sail material. Printed sail material can be used. Hand painting or airbrushing can be applied after the kite is constructed. There's a bunch of different ways to decorate a kite! The bigger the kite, the less difference the extra weight of decoration makes to its light-wind performance. Shop bought diamonds are available in a huge variety of designs.

Bowed. Just about any flat kite will fly in a more stable way with some bow built into it. The diamond kite is no exception. With the cross spar bent back, away from the flying line, the kite will require less tail to fly successfully. In some cases, with enough bow, no tail is necessary at all. A lightly constructed flat diamond will sometimes bow a little anyway, in strong wind, thus giving itself a little more stability when it's most needed!

Bridle. If you attach the flying line in exactly the right spot, you can just tie it directly to the vertical spar. However, one traditional approach is to make a bridle by attaching a length of line to each end of the vertical spar. Or, as in the MBK Diamond, the bridle is attached to two points somewhere in between. The flying line is then attached to the bridle. By adjusting exactly where the flying line attaches, the kite can be made to fly well in a range of wind conditions.

Sail. The earliest kites used paper, but ripstop nylon would be the most common choice these days. To save money, plastic sheet from various kinds of bags can be used on small to medium-sized kites as well. Sheets of Mylar is another option. My freezer-bag kites can be a bit hard to see, but magic happens near sunset, when the sun's rays glitter and glisten off the clear plastic!

Photo courtesy of Shital Shah

Here's an interesting shot of a train of small diamonds. Just one of the kites has turned enough to catch the sun and display its decoration.

Over the centuries since diamond kites were first popular in Europe, they have been used for many practical purposes.

There were applications such as aerial photography, meteorological observations, and the transmission of long-range radio signals. In this regard, their history has a distinct similarity to the history of box kites. However, box kites came along much later, since the late 1800s, and did all these things better!

But what are diamond kites used for in the new millennium? Just for having fun, it seems!

Apart from the large kites flown by a handful of hobbyists, perhaps, the great majority of diamonds these days are relatively small colorful kites that are mainly marketed to children. That doesn't stop a few older kite nuts like yours truly flying them as well!

There is no end to the variety of decoration on the mass-produced diamond kites. Actually, not all are mass produced.

A small percentage of the market is still supplied by dedicated and skillful kite-makers who offer true flying works of art. These custom kites cost a bit more, of course.

Due to the simplicity of the two-stick kite, many people still make them from scratch at least once in their lives. One of these kites can be made quite sloppily and yet still be expected to fly, with some experimentation with the bridle attachment point. That's the beauty of a simple diamond kite.