Kite Building Materials And Tools

For The MBK Simple Series

• Flying line. I recommend at least 30 pound Nylon or Dacron from a kite-shop. However, if you try any old string that you can't snap too easily with your own strength, you should have some success! If there is no kite shop close to you, and you live in the U.S or Canada, you can easily buy 30 pound flying line from Amazon. People seem to prefer it to the line that comes with retail kites.
• 2-ply plastic bags, at least 0.5 meters (2 feet) wide and 1 meter (4 feet) tall. The packaging will usually mention 'low-stretch', 'strong' or something similar, if the bags are more than 1-ply. Also, they will be at the top end of the price range for the size. But they are only plastic bags, so still very cheap compared to other materials! Another clue - the lightest bags are very see-through, but the multi-ply ones much less so, with stronger color.
• Electrical insulation tape. Black looks nice on orange sails! Alternatively, you can try and match the colors.
• Hard-wood dowel, 5 mm (3/16 inch) in diameter. The ones available to me happen to be Tasmanian Oak. Just use whatever is available.

And, the following tools...

• A ruler, with measurements in cm or inches.
• Scissors. Just about any type of ordinary paper-cutting scissors will do.
• A black marking pen. Preferably not too fine.
• A cheap hack-saw or fine-toothed wood saw for the dowels.

These are probably the bare minimum 'tools', if you can call them that, for learning how to build kites! You can have even more fun with the bigger and better kites of the Dowel Series.

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