I've been told that Blindstitching is the best form of wetsuit manufacture. What does it mean and why does it matter?
Leave aside the images of guide dogs and sweat shop sewing machines, in essence the blindstitch is a stitch that only goes halfway through the material, done with a curved needle rather like the ones doctors use to stitch up their patients. When the needle goes right through the neoprene (as in an ‘overlocked' stitch) the result is a series of holes to let in water, drastically reducing the thermal insulation of the suit (but perfectly alright for summer use). Instead, the blind- stitch turns through 180° without appearing on the other side. To give the seam added strength the ends of the neoprene are glued first and then stitched to form a watertight seal.
Should seams be taped?
There are two schools of thought. One is that taping seams adds to their strength. The other states that taping reduces flexibility and as winter suits are generally pretty thick and bulky anyway, anything that makes it even more inflexible has to be a drawback. A compromise is to tape only those areas put under the most stress, such as points where three or four seams meet, for example where the sleeve along the underside of the arm meets the body. Otherwise the argument boils down to strength versus suppleness. One further word though, even suits which do not have fully taped joints are still tough. It is more a matter of very tough and even tougher rather than weak and strong.
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