Make Kites

The MBK 1-Skewer Barn Door

This set of instructions on how to make a Barn Door kite assumes you know absolutely nothing about kite making.

You might already have some of the simple tools and materials required. Anything you don't have is easily bought.

If not exactly what I used, then at least something pretty similar!

These instructions on how to make a Barn Door kite might look a bit long, but each step is quite simple to do.

Just steadily work your way through from top to bottom, skimming over any detail that you don't need.

At 29cm (11 1/2") from tip to tip, the MBK 1-Skewer Barn Door Kite is a rather small Barn Door, with dihedral and simple 1-leg bridle. It's a fine little light to moderate wind flier.

As a bonus, these instructions also show you how to string several of these kites together in a kite train!

1-Skewer kites are fun, but somewhat toy-like :-) due to their rather small size. Fancy something much bigger to fly, suitable for teenagers and adults?

The has plenty of 58cm (23") designs in bamboo skewers and plastic. These are 2-Skewer kites, but all the 1-Skewer designs are in there as well.

A handy approach is to just print out the pages for the kite you want to make next. The e-book is also handy for working off-line on a laptop, tablet or other device.

How To Make A Barn Door Kite
Sail

Now's the time to read up on the required for making a Skewer kite, if you haven't already.

The template shown above represents one side of the kite sail. You will now transfer these measurements to the sail plastic as follows...

NOTE: Don't worry if your sail dimensions don't look exactly like the photos below. Just stick to the Template measurements, which were used for my most recently tested kite!

• Firstly, take a light plastic bag that will fit the entire Template shape within one side, and lay it flat on the floor.
• Mark dots on the plastic, corressponding to the corners of the Template. There is no need to use a T-square, since any small error will be duplicated on the other side of the sail.
• Using the marking pen, rule lines between the dots, as in the photo.