kevlar

[plummet]

hey bro's who used kevlar in your kiteboard builds? if yes, explain the use and what if any advatage it bought to the party over glass

[JMF]

Replacing glass for kevlar is overkill and it is a mare to work with. You could use Kevlar or Aramid (kevlar/carbon) as cross bracing on top of your glass layup to add stiffness and to play with flex. It will also help with "catastrophic" failure keeping the board together should it fail.

Cutting Kevlar is hard enough now try sanding the rails and finishing the board or you could try it once and learn

[plummet]

Replacing glass for kevlar is overkill and it is a mare to work with. You could use Kevlar or Aramid (kevlar/carbon) as cross bracing on top of your glass layup to add stiffness and to play with flex. It will also help with "catastrophic" failure keeping the board together should it fail.

Cutting Kevlar is hard enough now try sanding the rails and finishing the board or you could try it once and learn

i've always avoided kevlar for the pain in the arse factor of working with it. If i used it i wouldn't take it to the edge and probably run a token glass layer over top to avoid sanding and trimming at the edge.

if its not going to bring and advantage in either flex v strength v stiffness over glass then i'll probably flag it.

[JMF]

Replacing glass for kevlar is overkill and it is a mare to work with. You could use Kevlar or Aramid (kevlar/carbon) as cross bracing on top of your glass layup to add stiffness and to play with flex. It will also help with "catastrophic" failure keeping the board together should it fail.

Cutting Kevlar is hard enough now try sanding the rails and finishing the board or you could try it once and learn

i've always avoided kevlar for the pain in the arse factor of working with it. If i used it i wouldn't take it to the edge and probably run a token glass layer over top to avoid sanding and trimming at the edge.

if its not going to bring and advantage in either flex v strength v stiffness over glass then i'll probably flag it.

Yeah look if you are wrapping rails or not taking to the edge it could work. It's slightly lighter than fiberglass but nothing to right home about really. I worked some aramid (kevlar/carbon) into my speed board but only used it to give the board some torsionally rigidity in the form of a X along lengh of the board and as an added safety precaution if the board were to fail. I did not want it turning into a pair of trick skis on me should it break The board was mostly carbon fibre and pretty stiff compared to twin tips hence the decision to use the aramid as the fail safe with some benefits.

[lawless]

Agree with the pain-in-ass statement. I've never used it but I've talked to guys who built surfboards with it and said it was not worth the hassle/price.

Just use s-glass and epoxy, or if you want to get fancy use woven uni-directionals or tri-ax cloth to adjust your torsional rigidity.

[XSwind]

hey bro's who used kevlar in your kiteboard builds? if yes, explain the use and what if any advatage it bought to the party over glass

I love the Carbon/Kevlar look, amazing when there is a good glossy finish which is wet, the kevlar sparkles real nice.

I have made quite a few using Carbon/Kevlar and found little advantage to using is other than for the looks people give you down the beach 

As said Kevlar(tm) or Aramid(generic product name) is hard to work with, you need special serrated scissors to cut it and it fluffs like mad if you try to sand a cured laminate.
There are tricks to cutting it and tricks to sanding it but is a lot of work.

Stay away from this stuff, instead go for a coloured glass or a fancy carbon as these can look better and are easy to use.

This is one of the really early C/K protos I made using wrapped rails not the best pic though.

[JMF]

hey bro's who used kevlar in your kiteboard builds? if yes, explain the use and what if any advatage it bought to the party over glass

I love the Carbon/Kevlar look, amazing when there is a good glossy finish which is wet, the kevlar sparkles real nice.

I have made quite a few using Carbon/Kevlar and found little advantage to using is other than for the looks people give you down the beach 

As said Kevlar(tm) or Aramid(generic product name) is hard to work with, you need special serrated scissors to cut it and it fluffs like mad if you try to sand a cured laminate.
There are tricks to cutting it and tricks to sanding it but is a lot of work.

Stay away from this stuff, instead go for a coloured glass or a fancy carbon as these can look better and are easy to use.

This is one of the really early C/K protos I made using wrapped rails not the best pic though.

Thanks for sharing. Never seen a Kevlar board done like this. Was wandering what it would look like and I'm pretty impressed. Looks like a lot of work went in to that board. Bravo.

[gbleck]

FRACK KEVLAR.

[plummet]

ok so its a fairly resounding no. don't use it unless you want catastrophic failure protection.

ps sweet board.