Shop Note

Tea-stained Sails

Dan Pariser

Note: Dan has occasion to restore old ship models, and many of these had sails stained using tea. These are his observations on the subject of staining with tea.

To my eye a tea stained sail has a mottled appearance, with small spotting, like the foxing of a book. I also look for it more in models of certain periods, such as those where fabric dyes were rare or expensive. When the acid from the tea has not been completely washed out or neutralized, the acid salts will absorb humidity from the air over time and migrate into the fibers of the cloth, which takes on a brittle structure that can be felt long before actual destruction of the sail. In the worst cases, however, the acid eats holes completely through the sail, with extremely brittle, almost charred edges.
{Dan Pariser}

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