How to Make a Paper Rokkaku Kite

Step by Step—Page 3 of 3

The MBK Paper Rokkaku

Horizontal Spar Attachment

Bear in mind that most of the steps below are more easily done on a tabletop. That's with the vertical spar up against one edge of the tabletop to keep the bit you are working on flat!

Tape One Edge

One edge taped

Take one of the paper spars, and align it with the upper guide line as shown. The layering of paper should be out of sight on the underside. One corner of the wider end should be touching the centerline of the kite sail, also as shown in the photo.
Tack in place with squares of sticking tape—one near each end.
All good? Now lay a strip of tape down the whole length as indicated in the photo.

Tape and paper trimmed

Trim off overhanging bits of tape and paper with two scissor-snips.

Tape Other Edge

Edge tacked at one end

Go to the corner of the sail, and pull the free edge of the spar back toward the taped edge so the lower guide line becomes visible.
Tack the edge down with a short strip of tape as indicated in the photo. See how the lower guide line is visible near the corner of the sail.

Edge taped all along

Using somewhat longer lengths of tape, tack down more and more of the spar, making sure the edge lines up with the lower guide line. Go all the way across to the centerline of the sail as shown in the photo. The tape strips can overlap a little, but don't leave any gaps.

Shape Spar Piece

Pinching started at one end

Go to one end of the spar piece, and carefully pinch it between finger and thumb as in the photo. Just like the vertical spar, the aim is to get a crease right in the middle.

V shape formed all the way along

Work your way along the spar piece, pinching tightly all the way. I like to use both hands at once, close together.
Go all the way along and then back again so nothing is missed. See the photo.

All horizontal spar pieces in place and shaped

Now tape the remaining horizontal spar pieces in place. In each case, the wider end of the spar piece lines up with the centerline of the sail.
Shape the spar pieces by pinching as you did for the first one. There they all are, in the photo.

Connect Spar Pieces

The Paper Rokkaku kite - upper spar pieces secured together with 3 pieces of tape.

Upper spar pieces secured with three pieces of tape

By folding the sail along the centerline, butt the upper two horizontal-spar pieces together in the middle.
Tack the join together with a square of sticking tape over the top as you did for the vertical spar.
Apply three pieces of sticking tape to the join, starting with the one that goes from top to bottom in the photo. Each piece should be 6 cm (2 1/2 in.) long. The pieces on either side of the spar appear narrow because of the viewing angle.
In the same way, join the lower horizontal-spar pieces together. See below.

All spars complete

Adjusting Sail

Marked near paper join, same on the right-hand side of sail

Note the paper join which goes all the way across the sail, midway between the two horizontal spars.
Make a dot on a side edge of the sail, 1.5 cm (5/8 in.) from the join. Do this on what you would like to be the top half of the kite. See the photo, and do the same on the right-hand side of the sail too.

Sail overlapped and tacked in place

With scissors, cut along the join, all the way in to the vertical spar, from both side edges of the sail. Don't damage the vertical spar itself, of course!
Overlap the sail paper on each side, pulling up from below and tacking in place with a square of sticking tape. Line up the paper corner with the dot on each side as shown. You might just be able to see the dots in the photo.

Like to see a video clip? Just scroll down to near the end of this page.

One side of the sail joined completely with tape

When happy with how everything is sitting and lining up, flip the kite over. In fact, to avoid damage, it's a good idea to do this step with the sail positioned over the corner of a tabletop.
Carefully lay tape across the whole join on each side. See the photo, which shows one side completed.

The Bridle Lines

Make Holes

Where the bridle holes go

There's no need for measuring here. Just note where the tape is and make sure the holes just miss the vertical spar! The holes on the left in the photo are in the top half of the sail when it is flying.
Using the sharp corner of a scissor tip, penetrate the paper where the black circles are in the photo. You can open up the holes a little with a pencil point if you want to.

Attach Upper Line

Upper line secured with tape

Measure and snip off a 50 cm (20 in.) length of polyester thread.
Put the thread through the two holes nearest the nose of the kite. Make the length of thread equal from each hole.
Hold the thread in place with a short strip of tape as indicated in the photo.

Attach Lower Line

Lower line secured with tape

Measure and snip off a 60 cm (24 in.) length of polyester thread.
As before, put the thread through the two holes, and make the length equal from each hole.
Hold the thread in place with a short strip of tape as indicated in the photo, which shows the tail end of the kite.

Adjust Bridle Lines

Bridle lines adjusted

Bring all four pieces of thread together between finger and thumb.
Suspend the kite with as little thread as possible coming out the top of your hand.
Adjust so the upper bridle lines are at a little less than right angles (90 degrees) to the vertical spar when viewed from the side. This should be clear from the photo, although it was not taken exactly side-on.
Double check that all lines have pulled straight before tying a Multi-Strand Double knot close to where you gripped them all.
Trim the free ends to the same length with scissors. See below:

A close look at the bridle knot after excess thread trimmed off

The Tails

One Sheet to Start

14 dots marked for 1cm (3/8”) streamers

Mark 14 dots on a sheet of paper as shown at top left. From the top, all the spaces are 1 cm (3/8 in.).

Note: To avoid lots of measuring, just use this sheet as a template for the sheets that follow! Line up the sheets, and just copy or trace the dots each time.

Add More Sheets

Another sheet, similarly marked with dots and taped on

Take another sheet of paper, and mark with dots, exactly like the first one.
Bring the two sheets of paper together, short edge to short edge.
Lay tape all the way across the join, and trim flush with the paper's edge with scissors.
Flip the paper, and lay tape across the join again, trimming as before.
Flip the paper again so the dots are on top. You can just see them under the tape in the photo.

The Paper Rokkaku kite - more sheets dotted and taped, until there are 8 sheets.

More sheets dotted and taped, until there are eight sheets

Repeat the process, marking dots and taping both sides of the join, until you have eight sheets of paper joined.
On the last sheet, add dots across both short edges.

Note: A kite made from A4 paper will have slightly longer tails than a kite made from Letter-sized paper. However, the difference in flying characteristics between the two kites out in the field would be hard to spot!

Cut Into Tails

Lines ruled through all the dots

With ruler and pen, connect all the dots along the paper from end to end.
Rule a line across the paper, 5 cm (2 in.) from one short edge. See this near the left side of the photo.

The Paper Rokkaku kite - one 6-streamer tail and two 4-streamer tails.

One six-streamer tail and two four-streamer tails

With scissors, make cuts along three lines to create one 6 cm (2 1/4 in.) ribbon and two 4 cm (1 1/2 in.) ribbons of paper.
Cut along the remaining long lines, right up to the line that goes across the paper. See these at the left of the photo.

Attaching to Sail

Tails taped to rear side of sail

Lay the sail down with the vertical spar against the tabletop or floor. Note where the short bridle lines are attached; the other end of the spar is the tail end.
Align the three tails with the sail edges and spars by referring to the photo. Tack each tail in place with just a square of tape.
When happy with the placement, use a strip of sticking tape all the way across each tail—as indicated in the photo.

Tail taped on front side of sail

Flip the kite over, and apply more sticking tape as indicated in the photo.
That's it. You're done!

Flying!

The MBK Soft Sled kite in flight on a 'blue' day.

Nothing to it—attach line, catch breeze

After taking the kite to a flying field or beach, your flying line can be tied behind the Multi-Strand Double knot of the bridle lines, wrapped around all the lines. That's it, you're ready to fly.

Avoid flying in very windy weather. The thread should be good to around 35 kph, but there are no guarantees beyond that.

Trimming

If kite and bridle have been made perfectly, the kite should not show an obvious preference for flying to the left or right. What if the rokkaku does tend to go in one direction much more than the other? Try adding a short length of paper or scrap of plastic to the wingtip that is on the outside of the turn. If the problem gets worse, you have the tail-let on the wrong tip, so just swap it over to the other side!

If the kite seems very reluctant to climb despite plenty of breeze, you might need to retie the bridle—shifting the knot a centimeter or two (1/2 to 1 in.) toward the nose end.

I hope you enjoyed learning how to make the MBK Paper Rokkaku design!