Following on from the traditional fender discussion in a previous posting I was wondering what materials and methods of construction produce the most robust narrow boat fenders for example a button or tipcat fenders. Looking on the web it would seem that fender makers use a variety of different core materials ranging from all new rope some suggest carpet or even rolled up garden hoses but many use old car tyres. My question is what are the pros and cons of each material and what will be abrasion qualities etc of different covering materials i.e. sisal polypropylene et?. I would be interested to see what people’s opinions are on this subject
