How To Make A Rok Kite

Complete Instructions For The MBK Skewer Rokkaku Kite

About the only tool required by these instructions on how to make a Rok kite is a pair of sharp scissors. Any other materials you don't have are easily bought from local shops. If not exactly what I used, then at least something pretty similar!

These instructions for making a Rok kite are not quite as detailed as for the earlier kites. I'm guessing you might have already made one or 2 simpler MBK kites before you try this one. The pictures should make things pretty clear. Just quickly work your way through from top to bottom, skimming over any detail that you don't need.

The MBK Skewer Rokkaku Kite is quite small at 29 cm tall. The version described here is rather rigid and a little heavy compared to most other 1-Skewer kites. It needs a fair amount of tail, but rewards you with great flying in moderate to strong wind conditions! Nothing like the traditional Rok, but hey, it's fun!

Could you do me a small favor at this point? Just take a few seconds to complete a very short survey. Thanks!

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How To Make A Rok Kite - Materials

Lightweight sticky tape. Scotch tape, Sello-tape, sticking tape, whatever you like to call it. Just make sure it is about the width of your finger. The tape I use is 12mm (1/2 inch) in width.

Lightweight plastic bags. Here in Australia, the large sized freezer bags are perfect for small kites. I'm sure there are similar products in other parts of the world. For a kite this small, the lighter the plastic, the better. My originals are in clear freezer bag plastic, but you might prefer to use a colored plastic in order to see the kite better!

Bamboo BBQ skewers. The ones pictured are 30 cm (12 inches) in length, just a few dollars for a whole packet. If yours are a different length, don't worry. These instructions don't rely on absolute measurements for the spars or sail material. You will still end up with a flyable kite.

3 kg (8 pound) or more flying line, for the bridle lines and tail attachment loops. These days I'm using Dacron for flying and bridling. For a cheaper alternative, you might use Nylon, Polyester or good old cotton.

Wood glue, such as Aquadhere. Good for tacking bits of bamboo together. 100 ml will last a long time when just used for making MBK kites. Don't ask me how much 100 ml is in quarts or US gallons... ;-) Ok, it's a small container that nearly disappears in an average-sized man's fist! If you prefer, and don't mind paying more, there are various quick-drying wood or general-purpose glues on the market that can also be used.

Now for a few extras you need to help with making a Rok kite...

A felt-tipped marking pen. Most of these should work on plastic. This is for marking lines on the freezer bag plastic so you can later cut out the kite sail from it. I mark the spars with it too, so you can see the marks in the photos!

A ruler. Any length or type will do. All MBK kites use straight lines to make things easier.

A pair of scissors. These are mainly for cutting around the outline of the sail. They are also handy for snipping bamboo skewers to length.

A calculator. Yes, a calculator of some sort, like on your mobile phone or the Windows one or whatever. But there's no heavy calculating to be done, it's just handy for getting some alignment marks in exactly the right spot, on the bamboo spars. You might even choose to do it by eye, and get away with it!

A smooth flat space to work on. If you are cutting the sail with a knife rather than scissors, you will need a smooth flat surface that can be sliced into without upsetting anyone else! So forget the 2-ton 17th Century polished oak table at your rich uncle's house...

A little tip regarding making marks on the bamboo spars - twirl the bamboo around in your fingers while making the mark, so the mark goes all the way around. This way, it doesn't matter how the spar sits, you can always see that mark!

How To Make A Rok Kite Frame

First, the vertical spar. Take a skewer and snip the pointed tip off. Now measure its length, and divide the measurement by six, using the calculator. Scribble this number down somewhere, since it is the length of your unit.

Everything is in units. So for example if you need something 3 units long, you just multiply this figure by 3 to get the actual length on your kite.

1. make marks around the vertical spar skewer, one unit in from both ends
2. measure up and snip 2 more bamboo skewers to five units in length
3. mark the center of these 2 skewers, and also one unit from the center on each side

Put a small crease in the center of each short spar, using a knife or one edge of the scissors. Next, carefully bend the spars so they look like those in the photo. You will hear small noises from the bamboo, that's ok.

1. rest the vertical spar on something and put bits of paper down to catch glue drops
2. rest the bent cross spars over the vertical spar, using the marks to position them
3. do your best to ensure the cross spars are square with the vertical spar, bent about the same as each other, and secured on one side as in the photo
4. dribble glue liberally over the joints, letting the excess drip off

Use a slow-setting wood working glue like Aquadhere. The joints will still be flexible enough to adjust, after the glue is completely dry.

How To Make A Rok Kite Sail

While the glue on the frame is drying, you can get on with making the sail.

1. cut a large freezer bag so you can open it out and lay it all flat on the table
2. using the felt marker, mark all the corner points according to the plan, then rule straight lines between them

Cutting and taping the edges of the sail is next.

1. carefully lay down tape all around the outline, with the black lines showing through the middle of the tape - also, don't worry about the excess bits at the end of each black line
2. with scissors, carefully cut along the black line, which will leave a thin strip of tape reinforcing every edge

The tape's a bit hard to see in the photo, but it's there all around the edge, and overlapping at each corner.

At all stages of the process below, try to keep the sail reasonably tight - that is, with no obvious looseness. Easier said than done, I know, with a small bamboo kite!

1. note that the plastic sail is on top of the bamboo frame in the photo
2. secure the sail at the top of the vertical spar with tape, as shown in red, so the tape sticks to both the upper and lower side of the sail
3. in the same way, secure the sail to the bottom of the vertical spar, gently pulling out any wrinkles
4. now attach each of the four remaining corners, bending the spars if necessary to align with the corners of the sail

How To Make A Rok Kite Bridle

1. in the photo, the plastic sail is on top of the bamboo frame
2. now cut 2 lengths of flying line, each about one skewer length long
3. poke or snip holes in the plastic where indicated in purple on the plan, and secure the 4 ends of line to the cross spars with double wrap slip knots, or any other knot you're happy with
4. take another length of bridle line, this time about 2 skewer lengths long, and tie each end to the centers of the other 2 lines
5. I use triple-wrap slip knots so the knot can be shifted a bit one way or the other after it's tied

Detailed information on knot-tying for kite making is coming to this site later... There'll be a separate page on this topic, with close-up photos of all the knots!

At this point, you've pretty much finished learning how to make a Rok kite!

How To Make A Rok Kite - Finishing Off

This kite needs a little reinforcement so the cross spars don't bend under wind pressure, or with the rough-and-tumble of being pulled over the ground.

1. bend the cross spars to approximately the angles indicated in the plan
2. lay the kite down, and do what you can to make sure the spars stay at the correct angles
3. snip off 2 short lengths of bamboo, and glue them to the cross spars as shown in the photo

Finally, while the glue is drying, make up a flying line. I keep things extremely basic with a simple winder made from a small rectangular piece of wood. You can see it in some of the photos above. A rounded file with fairly coarse grade will quickly create a curved cut-away on the top and bottom of the winder. About 50 meters (150 feet) of line is enough to give a new kite a good test fly.

In order to be able to adjust the attachment point of the flying line, attach it to the kite bridle with a knot that can be moved along the bridle line, to adjust the flying angle of the kite. For the Sode, I tried the Sheet Bend knot, but with 20 pound line this proved very fiddly to adjust. It was very hard to loosen it up basically.

With the Rok, I'm trying a friction knot called the Prussik knot. See the illustrative photo. If you need to, you can just slide it one way or the other along the bridle line until the kite flies well. To begin with, adjust it so the knot is much closer to the top cross spar than the bottom one.

Here's a picture of the completed MBK Skewer Rokkaku Kite in flight, soon after launch. I forget why I was looking down, but it was a nice picture of the Rok on a short line!

How To Make A Rok Kite - Flying Tips

Assuming there is some breeze, just dangle the kite at arm's length until the wind catches it. As long as you feel the kite pulling, let out line slowly by letting it slip through your fingers.

Another approach is to get a helper to hold the kite up and let it go, with maybe 10 or 20 meters of line let out. This way, the kite soon gets high enough to make it easy to let more line out.

Have fun flying, and I hope you've enjoyed learning how to make a Rok kite!

Last updated: 20 Aug 2008