Vashon Valkyrie II Build, Part 16, Parachute A

Here's the instructions for the parachute assembly.

You are supplied a 12" square piece of 1/4 mil Mylar. This is the very thin Mylar, a lot like the emergency blanket material you can find in the sports section at WalMart. I wouldn't recommend 1/4 mil Mylar for black powder rockets. While it is strong, any hot ejection gas will easily melt it.
My box had a piece of chromed Mylar chute material and a printed parachute. I'll be using the chrome Mylar, that's what my original Vashon rocket had.

The instructions are a bit vague, how can you accurately cut the corners and make an eight sided chute? I know it can be folded and cut, I didn't feel like looking it up in old MRNs.

The instructions say to cut 5" off the corners. I drew up a template to be sure the cut angles  would be right.

Set the corner of the Mylar on the template and line up a straightedge for a straight cut.

TIP: Notice the straightedge is turned over with the raised cork side up. This Mylar is very thin. If the ruler were turned over, the cork would raise the cutting edge. That small raised edge might allow the Mylar to flex when it is cut. You could end up with a ragged cut line.

There was one shroud line in the box.

Since this is such an old kit, I pulled out some old button and rug thread. The older thread had a higher cotton content.

As per the instructions, eight 16" lengths were cut. Actually I cut four 32" lengths of line.