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How to Build a Rokkaku Kite
Step by Step—Page 2 of 3
The MBK 2-Skewer Rokkaku
How to Build a Rokkaku Kite
Making Spars
For this rokkaku, you need seven 30 cm (12 in.) bamboo BBQ skewers. Also, you need to cut off eight short 0.15 SL (4.4 cm, 1 3/4 in.) lengths of skewer. The photos show how these are all glued together.
Two pairs of skewers have the pointed ends raised up off the table, forming the upper and lower horizontal spars.
The remaining three skewers are just lined up straight, flat against the table top, with a point at each end. This is the vertical spar. To make sure there is no kink at the joins, get your head down low, and look along the skewers. Do a little shifting, if necessary, before the glue dries!
How to Build a Rokkaku Kite
Attaching Spars
- Snip off one point from the glued group of three skewers.
- Line this end up with the top corner of the kite sail, with the skewers resting along the fold line of the plastic.
- Attach the bamboo to the plastic with insulation tape as in the photo up there.
- At the bottom corner of the sail, snip the skewer to length, and attach the tip to the plastic in the same way. This is the vertical spar.
- Now lay down the other pairs of skewers across the left and right corners of the sail so the middle joins sit on the vertical-spar skewer.
- Snip off the points of the skewers so the tips line up with the left and right corners of the sail. Take your time, since you don't want to snip off too much bamboo.
- Tape the tips to the sail corners. These are the horizontal spars.
- Finally, use a few drops of glue to attach the skewers together at the points where they cross each other. The photo shows the kite at this point.
How to Build a Rokkaku Kite
Bridle
Dacron line in 20- to 50-pound strength is suitable for all the Skewer Series kites.
All the construction details for the bridle are contained in the large photo below. Look and read carefully, and you can't go wrong on this rather important bit! Just use Dacron line for the bridle pieces.
KNOTS
If you are new to this, you might need instructions on how to tie the following knots:
TIP: Secure the slip knots onto the bamboo of the spars with a tiny blob of wood glue each so they can't loosen.
ADJUSTMENT
Once your kite and bridle look like the photo up there:
Hold the short bridle line up so all the bridle lines are straight, with the kite laying flat on the table or floor. The Prusik knot nearest the sail should be shifted so it is centered right over the vertical spar.
Referring to the diagram below, shift the higher Prusik knot to the shown position. It's not necessarily the perfect
position for your individual kite, but it should at least fly on the
first attempt! Later, you can experiment with shifting the position away from the nose a little at a time to improve how high your kite flies.
At this point, you've finished making the 2-Skewer Rokkaku!
To attach the flying line, just Lark's Head the flying line to the short bridle line as in the photo.
As mentioned earlier, there's more kite making on this site than you can poke a stick at. :-)
Want to know the most convenient way of using it all?
The Big MBK E-book Bundle is a collection of downloads—printable PDF files which provide step-by-step instructions for many kites large and small.
That's every kite in every MBK series.
