How To Make A Sode Kite

Complete Instructions For The MBK Skewer Sode Kite

These instructions on how to make a sode 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.

As with earlier kites in this series, about the only tool required is a pair of sharp scissors. Any other materials you don't have are easily bought. If not exactly what I used, then at least something pretty similar!

The MBK Skewer Sode Kite is quite small at 29 cm tall, and does need a tail, unlike the traditional ones. The Skewer Sode is a very nice light air flier.

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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You will need...

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 braided Dacron for flying and bridling. From now on, I'm going to refer to this as bridle line

Sewing thread. For an MBK kite, sewing thread is sometimes used to bind bamboo spars together. When soaked in wood glue, a dozen turns or so of cotton sewing thread actually makes a very solid but light joint. From now on, I'm going to refer to this cotton as sewing cotton

Wood glue, such as Aquadhere. Good for tacking bits of bamboo together, before binding them with sewing cotton and more glue. 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 sode 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.

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

A pair of sharp scissors. Blunt ones will work, but it's sooo easy to rip the delicate plastic in unwanted directions if you're not super careful! These are also used to snip 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! On with how to build a sode kite...

How To Make A Sode Kite Frame

1. cut off the points from 4 bamboo skewers, leaving them all exactly the same length
2. measure the half-way point on one skewer and snip it in half
3. make 1/8 skewer-length marks on a full skewer and on a half skewer, then bind them together with sewing cotton and glue as in the photo - this is the kite's vertical spar, or longeron
4. while that's drying, take another full length skewer and make 1/4 skewer-length marks on it, as on the next skewer in the photo
5. the next skewer down is marked in the center, and 1/8 skewer-length to each side
6. finally, the remaining 1/2 skewer is just marked in the middle

1. arrange the spars and longeron as shown in the photo, using the marks to help align them
2. place some extra bits of bamboo under the bottom 2 cross spars to keep them level
3. the bits of paper are there to protect the table top from glue
4. apply a few small dobs of wood glue to the 3 joins to keep everything in place
5. using a ruler, make sure the measurements down the right hand side are the same as the corresponding measurements down the left hand side - move the spars a bit at a time until it's all aligned
6. wait for the glue to dry, then bind the joins with 10 or so winds of sewing cotton each
7. apply some glue to each joint, soaking the cotton all around the joints

How To Make A Sode Kite Sail

1. cut a rectangle out of a large freezer bag and lay the spars on it
2. make sure the middle cross spar is lying flat against the table
3. make sure all the spar ends fit inside the plastic rectangle
4. tape the spars to the plastic in the 2 places shown in red

1. using the marker pen, draw lines on the plastic as shown in the photo, guided by the spar ends and the marks you made on the cross spars earlier
2. with scissors, carefully cut around the outline you have just made

Freezer bag plastic can be quite fiddly to cut. I found that it tends to get easier with practice. To begin with, just go slowly and carefully. I used a pair of sharp scissors, but a Stanley knife and ruler might work better for you.

1. carefully fold the narrow flaps of plastic over the 2 top cross spars and tape down as shown in red in the photo
2. now fold tape over all 8 spar ends, as shown in red, to secure the sail to the frame
3. flip the kite over, and add a couple more pieces of tape where indicated in green - these will reinforce the plastic sail at the weak points
4. if you want to, snip off any bits of tape that stick out from the outline of the kite

How To Make A Sode Kite Bridle

1. In the photo, the plastic sail is on top of the bamboo frame
2. Using the pointy end of a skewer, poke holes in the plastic where indicated by the red dots on the photo
3. Now cut a length of bridle line, about twice the length of the kite
4. Tie each end of the line to the longeron as shown. Use double-wrap slip knots if you know how, otherwise just make it as secure as you can, tying the knots off over the plastic

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

How To Make A Sode Kite Tail

Making a tail for a simple kite is very easy. However, if you would like to copy my MBK Sode kite design exactly, try the following. It works well and is just a little more interesting to make than a long straight ribbon.

This tail is made up of just one large freezer bag cut into rings about 3 cm (1 inch) wide. I found dividing the bag into 8 rings gave the right ring width. A tip... No need for perfectly straight lines here, just cut the plastic by eye. Firstly cut off the closed bottom of the bag, so the bag becomes a tube of plastic. Then, keep cutting the tube(s) in half until you have 8 rings, all about the same width.

The photo shows 3 rings looped together, with one knot pulled tight and the other one left loose to show you how it's done. With all the rings looped together, you should end up with a tail that is about 6 skewers long. If you are making this kite for a child, he or she might have fun looping the rings together!

If you can find light enough plastic bags, you might try using colored plastic loops to make the kite tail easier to see in the air.

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

How To Make A Sode Kite - Final Touches

Finally, make up a flying line. I keep things extremely basic with a simple winder made from a small rectangular piece of wood. 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 Sheet Bend knot. See the illustration. If you need to, you can loosen off the knot and slip the attachment point up or down the bridle until the kite flies well. To begin with, adjust it so the knot is closer to the top spar than the middle spar of the kite.

As a finishing touch, you might want to decorate the kite somehow. I don't really want to suggest anything in particular, since this can be completely up to your own creativity! Two tips though...

1. make it bright so you can see the kite better!
2. try not to add too much weight, otherwise the kite might not fly in the lightest of breezes

Here's a picture of the completed MBK Skewer Sode Kite in flight, just hanging there on a very light breeze. I tried getting it to fly without a tail, by bending the spars as you can see in the photo. Let me know if you can do better! Otherwise, just add a light 1 or 2 meter tail.

How To Make A Sode Kite - Flying Tips

Attach the tail to the kite by tucking one end between the longeron and the sail plastic, just above the bottom spar. Tie it off with just a single hitch, so you can easily remove it later if you want to change tails. A light tail is not under much strain in the air, and the single hitch holds ok I've found.

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 line 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 sode kite!

Last updated: 25 Jun 2008