Can I reuse brass hanks?

JSHolyer · #1 (**permalink**) 03-03-2010

I have a 28' Dufour with original sails and hardware, European-made, old but in good condition. The jib and genoa are in remarkably good shape, the hanks are brass and also just fine, but the luff edge grommets opposite the hanks have corroded and need to be replaced.

I can't find a name brand on the snaps, but they look like the attached photo, plus a few years. They're just your standard brass bend-on/ bang-on/ knock-on jib hanks with a sliding piston, and they need to come off to install the new grommets. Can I slightly bend them off, then slightly bend them back on? I've been reading about bending brass, but I can't find a definitive answer.

I don't want to compromise the strength or integrity of the brass, but I would LOVE to save the $200 it would cost to replace good brass hardware.

Thanks for your help!

deniseO30 · #2 (**permalink**) 03-03-2010

Plastic being cheap.. (imho) can save the sail the when they give/break rather then the sail ripping, I feel the same about mainsail slides. I'd rather the plastic break then the sail rip. of course the other side of my reasoning would be that even plastics can be stronger then the sewn seams on sails too.

So I would go with plastic. just my feeling no one everrrrrrrr listens to me anyway LOL

CaptainForce · #3 (**permalink**) 03-03-2010

I'd, for sure, reuse the brass piston hanks. A little heat would make the bending less stressful. Even if you damage a few, they are available. 'take care and joy, Aythya crew

pedcab · #4 (**permalink**) 03-03-2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSHolyer

I have a 28' Dufour with original sails and hardware, European-made, old but in good condition. The jib and genoa are in remarkably good shape, the hanks are brass and also just fine, but the luff edge grommets opposite the hanks have corroded and need to be replaced.

I can't find a name brand on the snaps, but they look like the attached photo, plus a few years. They're just your standard brass bend-on/ bang-on/ knock-on jib hanks with a sliding piston, and they need to come off to install the new grommets. Can I slightly bend them off, then slightly bend them back on? I've been reading about bending brass, but I can't find a definitive answer.

I don't want to compromise the strength or integrity of the brass, but I would LOVE to save the $200 it would cost to replace good brass hardware.

Thanks for your help!

Recently I've replaced the eyelets both on my geenaker and on my small jib:
O FulÃ´, e o Azul: Resultados da pesquisa garrunchos

I've followe the advice of someone here at the forum and the trick is to bend them gently and starting on the tip.

Ideally you should heat them to aneal the brass, but that's difficult to do without damaging the sail...

Good luck!

Take care

sailingdog · #5 (**permalink**) 03-03-2010

Those are bronze... and if the springs are in good shape, there is no reason you can't reuse them. Heating them would make bending them less stressful and reduce the chance of them breaking as CF points out.

T37Chef · #6 (**permalink**) 03-03-2010

I 'd say its not worth it, just get new ones.

When I converted to a furler, I had three hank on sails, I wanted to add a luff tape to two of them as back up sails, the one I wanted to sell...the hanks were corroded so I tried to remove the good ones from the other sail, I said the hell with it after the third try

tager · #7 (**permalink**) 03-03-2010

I would heat them gently, you don't want to wreck the sail. It may not even be worth it to heat them, maybe just bring the sail indoors, or do it on a hot day in the sun. The temperature that you need to achieve to make the bronze bend easily is high enough to melt the sail. Bronze tends to do better with bending than aluminum or zinc, and definitely better than plastic. Go ahead and try to re use them, what could it hurt?

sailingdog · #8 (**permalink**) 03-03-2010

My recommendation would be to take them off the old sail very gently...then heat them when they aren't near the sails... and hopefully, the annealing will help them survive being put back on the sails.

jrd22 · #9 (**permalink**) 03-03-2010

I took some off a couple of sails. You need a vice and tapered pry bar. No heat was needed.

heinzir · #10 (**permalink**) 03-03-2010

Go for it! You really don't have anything to lose. I took mine off both the staysail and jib and replaced them with Wichard snaps. I saved the hanks and swapped them back when I sold the sails on ebay years later.