With Silkspan becoming harder and harder to find, some one had posted on here that Brodak had found a source and was now selling it. So I thought I would give it a try on one plane and I ordered a few sheets.
I ordered the medium weight and when I took it out of the package, it felt more in line to the old Heavy weight we used to get from SIG. What I did not realize until it was too late is that it has a rough side and a smooth side. As you know, if you have ever used Polyspan, it also has an up side and a down side and if you put the wrong side up, you have a lot of wet sanding to do to take care of the fuzzes when you hit it with dope. As luck would have it since I did not know this silkspan had different textures on each side, I put the rough side up and did not discover it till I had the wing covered. The silkspan dried ok but when I started to brush dope on it, you almost get an orange peel texture. It took a TON of dope to fill it and a lot of sanding with 400 grit sandpaper to get somewhat of a smooth finish. The primer helped fill it some but it is not as smooth of a finish that you are used to with the old silkspan we used to get.
I am in no way meaning to bad mouth Brodaks at all, I just wanted to share with you what I found out kinda the hard way. If this is the quality of Silkspan we are going to get in the future, I think the best bet would be Polyspan if you want a really nice finish. I have been using Polyspan for years and really have had no problems at all except for that one time I put it on upside down and I got carpal tunnel from sanding so much....
Hope this helps if you did not know about it...
Mike