Visiting the Last Traditional Sailmaker in Copenhagen — A Dying Art Lives On

Howdy folks. This is Mark from Nomad Boat Building. I'm coming to you from Denmark. So today I went and visited the only traditional sail maker that's left operating in Copenhagen. They've been in business for about 91 years. They got set up in the 1930s. Down here. And as you can see, it's got here and it ends here. That's it. That's crazy, isn't it? This shop is just minuscule. And yet they make sails for the largest ships that that are plying their waters. In fact, this little tiny sail making shop makes traditional sails for pretty much all the traditional sailboats in Denmark. This is Freda and she has very graciously allowed me to come and hang out here for a few hours and help her work on this set of sails for a square rigged tall ship. This is Selma Hensen. Uh, and it the company was founded in 1934. So, so it's 91 years since. That's a young for these parts. Yeah, that's true. Uh, yeah. New kids on the block. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, my bus took over the place in 2011 and I started here in 2015. So, what is it that you have to do specifically? Uh, I need to sew in this uh this panel 6 m. Okay. Onto the end here. Under the end of there. Yeah. Okay. I was one of the other one that's been doing the marking up. So I thought, okay, now I'm done. But no, forgot one. Wow. Okay. What? So, how big is the sale overall? This one? Oh, it's that one. Okay. Uh 6 * 12. Wow. I'm just as bad. So 72 72. Maybe it's 65. I don't know. Okay. Around. I realize I've forgotten all of my square terminology. I used to be able to name all of them all the way up, but it's like I but I've forgotten it all. So ma lower main. Okay. Well, you just do it in in D. Was it Danish? Pram. It's different in English. Yeah, it's going to be different. Very different. Um, but this one in the old days, it's been one big sale and it's been cut up. Oh, yeah. Yeah. The upper, right? Yeah. You can see on G day one, we have this painting in here. You can see. Yeah. It has Oh, yeah. One big sail. Oh my god. So, this is Duron. It's a synthetic canvas, a bit like Cordura, but it looks and feels very much like traditional stuff, although it's synthetic, so it lasts a little bit longer. It feels very waxy. Yeah, it washes off. It gets way softer with time, but it's pretty waxy in the beginning. Uh-huh. Do you have a preference for straight stitching or zigzag stitching? Now, you you're obliged to do straight because of rules about uh Yeah, the history of the sale, right? don't they don't have to be straight. I think um a couple of years ago we only had straight dish machines. Oh, really? This is Oh, okay. And then uh we got this one and we don't use this a lot. Really? Yeah. Huh. But it's here and it's nice. It's really long arm and we we can do zigzag. Yeah. You know, I've been wanting I I don't have a a good Kansas canvas working machine and uh I've borrowed a sale right a couple of times. Like you've got one there, right? Oh, yeah. In the in this box. Yeah. That's a sail right. I think it's a saleite. It's a sale right box. Yeah. So, it is definitely. Mhm. And uh but it's the throat is so small that trying to fit anything in it like my arm takes up all the space just to try and feed stuff through. So I've been and it's expensive. So I've been trying to I've been avoiding buying that cuz it's like I don't like it. This is really good for small jobs that you can like bring it. Sure. But for anything else Yeah. So, I've been kind of wanting, you know, a bigger a deeper throat machine, but then you're you don't you can't get a zigzag and a straight stitch machine. So, I've been like, can I can I can I get away with just straight stitch? I mean, if you want to do straight stitch, you need a straight stitch machine because you can adjust it, but it's not going to be completely straight. It has like a small Yeah. Yeah. curve. So, I'm curious to see how you set up yourself to do this because this is the feeding them the sail through. Yeah, that's the fun part. And handling it is the one thing that I have found so difficult. And I've set up all kinds of ramps and things like that. And yeah, I mean, many sale makers like have pits so you have the machines in the floor, but we got water just underneath. So, yeah, it's not a possibility. And it's not going to be a hustle because it uh this you can just curl it up. It doesn't make a crease. But if you have like more stable cloth, it's going to make a nice um white crease in it. So it's nice to have like straight line. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, this you can bundle up and play around with. Every seal maker has their own technique. And then we also got these the sticking lines. Yeah. Yeah. We Yeah. Usually the uh British mil make this lines but they forgot this time. But we as a we uh we roll them out anyway and cut them into the right uh like length. And then we also make small marks every 20 cm because sometimes it will Yeah. Yeah, it will like So, how do you how do you adjust for this for when it starts to misalign? Then I push a little bit or drag a little. Yeah, it's But this machine is not too bad. Some of the machines will pull a lot on the top or on the bottom. And it's a walking foot machine. Yeah. Yeah. So, it's Yeah, it's pretty nice. So the first one is always a little slow. Yeah. Because I need to do everything. Yeah. Then then the second is faster and then it's pretty quick. I assume using seam tape is just impractical on this size of sail. And also it doesn't really stick that well to dirt on even if it especially if it's if it's long length. Yeah. Yeah. Don't don't bother. I mean sometimes in the patches we do it. Okay. Yeah. Mostly our trainee but Yeah. Yeah. And then there's also like a curve so it's nice that it's been rounded. like to this one. Don't I assume your stitch length is determined by the weight of the canvas. Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, it's also determined sometimes on what do I feel today? And this one we don't really uh meant a lot with like smaller ones with the like for smaller stuff. Yeah, you can. Yeah, it's nice to play around and make longer or smaller. But this this is usually just in this length which is eight or nine or something like this. And would you do separate tableabling for these? What is that? uh when you do the uh roll the edge or or apply tableabling to the edge uh like uh on all the the ends. Yeah. Uh we at two times. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It's not like a seal like good one, right? Yeah. So, I guess this machine feeds the bottom stitch at the same time off a spool as well. Y we only got finger that's not really working, but it should be. Yeah. But it's nice. So, one thing that drives me nuts is having to load little bottom stitch spools. Yeah. It's always in the middle of a and it's also big spools. So you have like pretty long length. It's not as big as this one, but it's got a lot of Okay. thread on it, so I don't have to. That goes on this. No. Yeah, it does. Oh, it does. Oh, okay. No, I was I was wondering if it even exists that you can just run two spools. No. Like directly. Yeah. No, I don't. Damn. Why not? Why would why would all the technology that went into creating a sewing machine? Yeah. And then and that one detail they did not figure out. I mean, you have to go around it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's what engineers are for. That's what they do. They go around things. It's not my fault. I just want to buy it. Yeah. I'm going to cheat today. Usually I tell all my apprentices to roll it over so you can follow the edge. But I can I can glimpse it through. Okay. I'm just going to do it from the top. Go. Then you have to roll it all over and go from the bottom. And that's right. Yeah. Professional hack. Sometimes. This is also why it's nice when the they've been making the line so you can just follow the line. Oh, yeah. Of course. Yeah. Yeah. Now I have to guess or nugget over there. And this is Barn. He was the captain from of Ge. Okay. For many years and he's the father of my bus. Oh, yeah. All right. Yeah. And this is Nils that had the sale off. Okay. Before Hill was the second owner. And do we know who this is? No. Just a funny photo. Do you have a preference for like you're using synthetic on the rope for the rope? On the darton cells, we use the synthetic rope. Yeah, this feels really difficult to work with. It's been better because it's been harder laid. Yeah. Now it's hard to not like get through this, but it's still it's still good and it's very longlasting. Way better than a lot of other I've worked with this one a bunch, but I find like it feels nice, but I find the moment you start to unlay it, it loses all of its life and it becomes really difficult to This is hand laid, so it's a little bit better, but still it's it's too uh elastic. It's it's really stretchy. like the big sales we had to almost like take down the whole uh Oh, yeah. big sales like maybe five years. It was Oh, really? Yeah. There was not a lot of strings left in it. But this is hand laid from Yeah. from rope maker. Oh, so that's a natural fiber. No, not No, it's not. It's It's still still synthetic but hand laid. Huh. But the synthetic uh sail class we use synthetic ropes with usually. And then like the smaller like dingy sails and everything they have t hemp rope makers that but it's spawn away so it's not going to Oh yeah. Uhhuh. This is why it's so slow. Yeah. So nice. That's nice. Nice tow when the road maker is good and they make like really hard kila. Yeah. And then they like we say they long. Mhm. Long something. It Yeah. So it has like it's not uh this. It's more like you can see how the uh how they are they have a little bit more space between them. Okay. So this one has to be really tight. Yeah. Then you do this little Oh, I see. You're talking about the the angle of the angle of But we still use the this from is a Danish company because it's still the thing that has the most strings and doesn't rot in the sun or go whatever plastic does in Is that locust? That that looks like black locust to I have people know it better than I do. Like an old wood turner that made them for us. I think it's that looks like purple heart. Yeah, definitely. Everything just smells like linseed oil. So you can't tell. You can't even apple maybe. Oh, lots of bids. So we can sell them or give them Oh, I see. Those are just for for selling off. Nice. Yeah. We don't use that much. Like we have one each. Yeah. I have three of them. Exactly. Yeah. Like this one. Yeah. And we also have made actually already gave them away. So we have black snips making the norm and also Yeah. And they also did we have a hard time getting good sail maker. What are they? Pliers. Pliers. Yeah. I've never even seen those. Yeah. Because they have to be rounded. It actually had to be more. And what do you do with what do you like how do you use those for tightening? uh when you do um uh a crinkle. Okay. So, you tighten it afterwards and uh when it's too uh too sharp in the edges, it's just breaking the rope. Oh, cool. It's like tearing on the fibers. I'm going to have to make a pair of those for myself. That's a good idea. But it depend on which kind of uh cringle you make. Yeah. Right. We make a crown cringle. A crown cringle. Lots of people make crew cringles. How do those differ? Uh, it's okay, hold up. A cringle in this context is kind of a grommet fixed to the edge of a sail. But in Denmark, a cringle is also any pastry that is in the shape of a pretzel, which is exactly what a cringle looks like on a sail. In Denmark, the emblem for the baker's guild is in fact a cringle topped with a crown, hence crown cringle. But that's not the kind we're talking about here. Crowning in this context is something we do in rope work where when you're finishing off the end of a rope, like tying a sort of a stopper knot on it, you would pass the ends of the strands back down into the knot so they aren't flying around in the air. Now, back to Freda. Uh something about the um the ending like how you how you splice them at the end because the crew cringle goes up and then under. Yeah. And the crown crinkle they don't cross. So it's like it looks like one robe. Yes. Yeah. Okay. But you need to know how to do it to make them nice. Otherwise, it's just going to fall apart. Yeah. And you got some nice old some traditional hemp sail cloth here. No, that's I don't think we have hemp actually. Flex. Oh, flax. That's nice. I've got a little bit of this that Danish sail cloth from I don't know. It's old. Just enough to make one more apron. Perfect. And I haven't done it yet. I've been holding off. It's like I You need an apron. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I was doing a a repair on a a very old um 40 years old waging sail. Yeah. And it was wool and it was covered in sheep's fat. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Lolin. Yeah. Lolin. No, I think actually maybe it was came from cow or the horse like the like this hump on the horse. Oh, okay. And then it was like mixed with ogre and it was very greasy and very red and all my clothes they had to be thrown out because all of the stitching was uh rotten. Yeah. But all the wool was fine. Wow. It was nothing. Only the stitching that had has to be replaced. Interesting. So, so you had one apron specifically made to for that. Feel it. Yeah, you can feel. Yeah. What would you be using that for? It's for hand stitching like it's so light. So, anything like this. Oh, okay. Because it's really uh tightly woven. Yeah. So, you need a small needle through and then also the thread needs to be a little bit thin. Otherwise, it's really hard to get it through when the needle is al so small. Yeah. So hence there's this kind of stuff. Those being made to sell to people or these are just being Okay. Usually we just give them away. Oh, cool. Nice. This is your your roll back here. So you didn't have to lay this lay these panels out full size for this particular sale. It looks like we don't for all the big sales. Yeah. We make this. Okay. Like waiting time. And then when it's stitched together, we rent the room that's big enough for us to put out the sail. Mhm. Trim all the edges. Okay. And then also uh um scrape the like the edges. Oh yeah. Um Yeah. Rub rub them down. Yeah. Rub rub them down. Okay. Yeah. So So uh this is why we have such a small place because it's really expensive to have that in the Where do you rent where like what kind of place do you rent? It's like a gymnasium or something. Uh it's uh like for concerts or like uh like talks or something like this is all right. Yeah. So that's cool. Yeah. Just feel nice sometime has like a disco ball in the top like everybody has these really nice little steel squares with this little detail in the end. You don't find that around life parts. No. No. They're all really ugly and rusty and boring. Did they give you a discount for forgetting to print the um the seam on the edge? I don't think we even mentioned it because also the other years when they've been doing it, it's been really uneven. Oh, okay. So, it's like maybe good, maybe bad. Okay. So, here's some with the edge printed. Oh, that's a really heavy line they've printed on there, too, isn't it? I think it's just like a That's kind of obnoxious. Like a split to like a like a big uh big fat line. Exactly. Yeah. But it it goes off in the sun. Okay. Yeah. But if you're not saving a lot and you need like couple of years for the sun to Oh, yeah. Get out. I guess you don't build any draft into the panels on these square sails, right? Oh, just the gap sails, I imagine. Yeah. And uh not even the four cells do anything. This sort of this sort of uh illuminates for me something I've always wondered which is you know the onboard sail makers on sailing ships how they could lay out and produce a new set of sails while underway. Yeah, it's really easy. You only need like 60 cm I guess so of length. But but I mean it's having the full understanding of Yeah. How long does this line have to be? Yeah, that's true. So, you just go with the chalk line or do you have to pencil that down as well? The chalk line is fine. Okay. Okay. So, that's why that's marked out like that. Okay. I thought that was just sort of quick measuring length measuring purposes, but that makes a lot more sense for both. This one. Yeah. And I just did this one this summer. I don't know who started. It's not in like incomplete 90. Oh no. Like two years until I can redo this. I need to like or one weekend to just repaint over this one little stretch. Yeah. One 2 mm is going to change. It's mostly in the top part where it's really important that it's Oh, does it get gets more skewed towards the end or something? Okay. So, it's not going to be like panels going. Yeah. All the lines. That would that would frustrate me. Yeah. I think that would frustrate and I would get to the same point that you did too. fully finished before I discovered that I screwed it up. And then either either doing exactly what you're gonna do, which is kick myself for two years or uh or I see. I think it's it's waiting for me, but I when I have when I have to like have someone else do it, it I might need to Oh, yeah. do it. I was a little bit too quick. It's funny, my workshop has got a big straight line measured out right down the middle of it as well. Not specifically for sale making, but cuz I I also do uh se canvas covered canoes and so for laying out that canvas and folding in the middle and stuff like that. It's nice to have a little bit of work space. Yeah, that's right. Also why you don't drip with everything on the floor. Well, no, that that doesn't exist. But all right. See the look at that. That is cushion. This one is for histing the foot. This one? Yeah. Okay. And then the middle one is for going forward. Okay. And it only goes forward. This one is not for Okay. And also with the label if it stops in the back. Yeah. So if you push the the bottom of the foot Yeah. It will haste it. If you Yeah. You need like And then you do a like one big uh push on the button. This one. Give it a good one. Oh, I see. Okay. Exactly. Yeah. Of course. New guy screws up the machine. Jams it up immediately. You warn. You warned me. Yeah, it's not going to be heavy, but if you don't push too hard, it can go sol. Okay. All right. I guess I should test on a doubled layer. Or does that matter? It's a good matter, but Now, did that come out remotely straight enough? Yeah, I'm happy. You're happy? Okay. Yeah, I guess so. So, all right. So, the same panel, right? Then I put this one on my right. Okay. Right leg. This stool is so high. You can put it down. I just hate like moving my Yeah. It's It's probably It's just like down. No. Well, what's weird is the fact that you got this round bottom of it so it tips all over. It's like You have some people that prefer like a regular So unnerving. Whoa. Now, should I be bunching it all up in my lap here or what's the one thing that I've Yeah. that I always sort of struggled with. I guess I'll get this started in a second here. Was having the weight of the cloth pulling my my uh my aim off one side. And I don't got really frustrated at that. Okay. So you putting this on your the whole thing on your knee. You're leaving this on whole thing down on your left. Okay. Yeah. So am I going I'm going left over right. Find the petals without stepping on the wrong one. And am I just running the presser foot just like right along the seam edge? Yeah. If you're liking these videos, you can support me by giving me a thumbs up. throw me a couple of bucks or super thanks, subscribing to the channel, turning on notifications, and of course, you can join me over on Patreon. Find links in the corner or down in the description. Not too close to the edge. Okay, that's better cuz this is just the heat and it can break. So, sure a little bit farther away. Yeah. Better. Yeah. Okay. That's sensitive. Sometimes when you try and lean on it, it goes like I'm afraid of creeping over your line too much. of mine. Okay. Yeah. Your machine does something. My machine kind of does the same thing where it feels like it tracks off at a slight angle a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. That one's way worse. Is it? It's impossible to go straight with that. I mean, I don't like it in my machine that it does. I find it really kind of hard to sort of get used to Yeah. how much I need to tweak it to get it. It's take me how much to show. Not to get it too far into That is strangely sensitive. Yeah. Yeah. Like I can't I can I can sort of control it, but it doesn't feel like I'm I can't quite tell what my foot is supposed to be doing at any given moment. Yeah. Like it feels like you need to get used to the machine. not going to like something other than Yeah. Like I can't even detect that my foot is going down very much, but it and then it's like going small and yet it looks like I should be really levering on that. Okay. Getting a little off my strike up marks. Rolling it Go all the way back. Start from the bottom there. You can see the I think that's right. It's a good thing to see why. I would agree. Agree. Okay. Is that quality control looking okay? The quality of that? Yeah. Looking okay. All right. Fine. Good. First go. Is that about the right distance or do you want me to closer to you? This one a little bit closer to moving. Yeah. Is it going even closer? Even closer. Yeah. It's like when it was on the other side, it was moving along this edge. Yeah. Now it's on this edge. Sure. I've heard trying to fly a helicopter described as trying to balance a ball on a saucer in each hand while both feet are trying to do a bit of a tap dance in rough seas. And that's what it felt like trying to drive this sewing machine with these big unwieldy pieces of canvas, this bonkers, wobbly stool, and then this exceedingly sensitive accelerator pedal. I was just happy I didn't royally screw things up for Freda. Oh, I just uh it didn't hang on to my thread at the start. M do I need to do anything to feed it through the presser foot or anything? Um, that's the one thing that is al amazes me with sewing machines is that they they seem to have like like there's always an obvious path the thread has to follow. And then there's a bunch of stuff that just sometimes doesn't make any sense. And they have you sort of take this thread around some things and then go in the wrong way. If if you go to wrong way, it's not going to work. And then you can't see what you're doing half the time or there's like some little stupid thing you got to get it through. Yeah. I've got a uh a serger. You know, you know what that is? That's the machine. It's got like um like four needles and it just binds the edge. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, okay. for like for like Yeah, exactly. and cuts the edge at the same time. Now that is fun. That is as close to running a band saw for fabric as you get is really cool. But yeah, man. Trying just getting everything following the right path and looking at the little diagrams and trying to understand it all and there's a bunch of things. It's like what does that even do? Why is that there exactly? Yeah. Yeah. I borrowed one from a friend also. Yeah. Okay, I'm not going to this up. I guess uh I inspired confidence because you left me unsupervised. It's perfect. Thank you. So much easier when you're Yeah. I'm jealous of your nice clean floors. Mine are have got so much grime and dirt on them that I can wash them three, four times and it's still just like I did nothing. But I also just painted them this summer. Oh, did you? Yeah, they do. And I usually say that we are like Denmark's most unclean still making shop. Really? Cuz everyone when you have like that, it like takes up every like little thread. Yeah. So, you need to vacuum every day every time you do something. And we have like lots of uh you can't see it now, but with a lot of p bees wax on the floor because we use it to streak the thread, but we hamster it. Mhm. You can see. Oh my god, that is heavy. I just think about trying to lift this weight a loft with cold wet hands. The sails wet. Yeah. But then you're like six people or eight people. That's right. Yeah. And you're 18 or 20. I was 22. This is I mean this is maybe 15% of the time that you're doing the sales. Yeah. It's funny. Hey, cutting the panels and sewing them together and then rest of it is just the butt rope. Yeah. Also patches and edges and everything. still. But road is definitely at least 50% of the time. If you ever come back, you're well. Excellent. Excellent. Hopefully, we're doing some like nice handy stuff next time. Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean, something you can lay back. That's my jam. Sales. Yeah, I love all that stuff. Thank you ever so much for letting me letting me loose on your sales and your machines here. This is this is really wonderful. I've had such a great time here and I look forward to visiting you again somewhere in the future. Definitely. All right, cool. I like your shrunken heads. Hanging out with Freda was an absolute hoot. I had a great time poking around her tiny little shop, looking at all the brick hanging on the walls, and I was really pleased that she felt confident that in my abilities to let me do a little bit of sewing on some of those sales as well. All right, folks. That's it for today. Hey, I hope you enjoy the videos. Remember, if you'd like to support these videos, consider joining me over on Patreon. You can find links in the corner or down in the description. All right. Hi. Hi.