A stapler is all it takes.
No special tools required.
"Can a torn cloth be repaired?" — a question we have been asked for fifteen years. Here is a way to do it without buying a single special tool.
Why this video
KEYSTONE evangelist Kubo works through the job of re-wrapping the outer cloth of a squid jig, start to finish, with nothing left out. "Can a torn cloth be repaired?" — this is the answer to a question we have been fielding for some fifteen years.
Repair itself has always been possible. What it needed was a dedicated tool. For a commercial fisherman re-wrapping several hundred to several thousand jigs a year, owning one makes sense; for an angler doing a few dozen, it does not. What this video shows is a method that runs entirely on scissors, a sewing needle, thread, a lighter and a stapler — things already in the house.
We are featuring it less for the procedure than for the reason it was published at all. As Kubo says on camera, there were voices inside the company arguing against it — a company that makes and sells these jigs would be teaching people how to keep the old ones going.
Key Moments
Our Analysis
The stapler is the hinge of this method. Once the cloth is wrapped, it gets tacked at a few points before any sewing begins — four points on a size 20 lead sutte, three on a size 3 Vivin Sutte. The point nearest the spike and the base of the swivel in particular are pulled tight before stapling. The staples go about a millimetre in from the edge, not right on it.
What the dedicated tool was really doing, arguably, is holding the cloth in position while it is sewn. The stapler takes over that one job. Staples set right on the edge get in the way of the needle, which is what the millimetre of margin is for.
It looks like a job that demands sewing skill, but the hard part is holding the position. Once that is fixed, the rest is an S pattern up the body. This one step is why the method works without the tool.
The finish is done with a lighter, using the blue part of the flame, not the orange. The orange flame scorches; the blue one is brought slowly to the spot that needs dressing and works it down bit by bit. Held there too long it builds heat, so the work is done in short passes.
This is melting the edge of a synthetic cloth to seal it. The orange flame is cooler and sooty; the blue burns hotter and clean. For melting without scorching, the blue part is the one that suits.
A good deal of untidy stitching gets absorbed here. As Kubo puts it on camera: not perfect, but for a repair, this is clean enough. The reason a first attempt still lands at a usable standard is that this dressing comes last.
Field Data
- Country
- Japan
- Region
- Saga
- Lure
- Vivin Sutte
- Method
- Ika-metal
- Angler
- Kubo
The Products
Vivin Sutte
Under the outer cloth is a wrap of wadding. The wadding we use is denser and less prone to coming apart than what is commonly used elsewhere.
The cloth goes long before the wadding does, so there is almost never a need to replace what is underneath. In the video the wadding is left in place and reused. Re-wrapping wadding takes a dedicated tool, so this is the line between what you can fix yourself and what you cannot. Running the needle through the wadding as you sew makes the whole thing hold better still.
Repair cloth
100mm × 1200mm, cut to suit the jig. Five colourways: red/white, red/blue, red/green, red/yellow and pink/white.
Stocked at our direct shop under Handmade Parts. It was added in response to repeated requests, and the video points viewers there. One length covers several jigs, so cut it to size as you go. The same shelf carries spikes (KS10, KS06 and others).
KS Lead Sutte
A lead body wrapped in cloth. The video re-wraps a size 20 in all black, changing it to red.
There is more than sentiment behind not binning one over a torn cloth. Lead is not a metal you can simply drop in the rubbish. Disposal takes effort, which makes being able to keep one in service worth that much more.
From the Workshop in Arita
"Of course we would like you to buy new ones. At the same time, we want them used for a long time. Having them used for a long time is, for a company that makes things, its own reward." That is Kubo, late in the video — and the reason this method was published despite the objections inside the company.
How well the wadding holds, and the fact that replacing only the cloth is enough, are things only the maker can tell you. These jigs are built in our workshop in Arita, Saga — and this is knowledge published so they stay in use one day longer.
MADE TODAY IN ARITA
If it will not play, watch it on YouTube。
