Made my first Flemish String!

[bryman021]

After doing a lot of reading and watching some videos I decided that I wanted to try and make my own flemish string. I ordered 2 spools of B-50 dacron and some string makers wax. I spent about 3 hours last night twisting and twisting and twisting more. The 1st string came out looking ok but, the end loop were way too big. So I took it apart and retried with the same string. Got the endloops to a better size but by then the string had been twisted so much it looked more like cables than string. I decided to try one more since it was really bugging me, I wanted to make a decent looking functional string. 2nd attempt went a lot smoother and end loops were just barely fitting over the tips. Once I got it all done I put it on the string stretcher that I made(following Boo's design) and left it overnight. This morning I took it off the stretcher and put it on the bow. It fits!! I marked the center and put back on the stretcher to serve it. This was also my first serving on a string(I served my string changer for practice).

Overall I am pretty happy with my first Flemish Dacron string. I went with 32 strands since that's how many the Flemish Super String(2097) has. Here are some pics, what do you guys think of it?

[georgiaboy]

Looks like your in business!!
Great job...put some arrows down range & let us know the results.

[Ont_Excal]

Looks like your in business!!
Great job...put some arrows down range & let us know the results.

X2

Looks good to me.
If and when I get in gear and make a few I hope mine will turn out as well as yours.
The only thing I will do different is make the center serving out to the edge of the stops.
TFS

[houser52]

Looks good. A lot better than my first. I've made about a dozen more
Using fast flight material. My trouble is waitng
too long between strings and forgetting the procedure. Lol

[pasloat0]

looks good hows it shoot

[bryman021]

I spent the day shooting the new string on my Ibex. Total of 60 shots throughout the day. The string performed very well!! I had to put 6 addl' twists in it to keep it off the S5. I didn't even have to adjust my red dot, I was hitting bulleyes with the first set of 4 shots. Since it didn't change my poi I assume that I didn't lose or gain and speed, which is fine with me.

Also the serving material I used was Angel Majesty, and the serving held up great!! I can just barely see the dents caused by the claws.

I am wondering though if its possible to have too many twists in the string? If it continues to creep I will end up with 3+ twists per inch pretty quickly. Since I am unsure if that's a problem I made up another string tonight. I changed the starting length to 1 inch shorter so I wouldn't need as many twists. It's on the stretcher now and is looking like it might come out better than the one I've been shooting with all day.

I'm beginning to like making these and now thinking about what colors to order next!

[Cossack]

Looks great. Way to go. I earn something new each time I make one. It's crying shame one can't do it more often. Even with two bows, and 3 extra for each, technique gets old if one don't keep making em.

[Dash]

The string looks good. Good job with the serving too.
It can be frustrating getting started, but Its great fun knocking your own strings up. Now you have measurements and twist numbers of your first good usable string, it gets easier to fine tune the following strings to how you want them.

[dsal]

Nice job for your first, soon you'll start making strings for the hech of it. At one point I made so many I started to give them away to friends.

[bryman021]

Yeah I am probably gonna end up going a little crazy at first making the strings. Each one so far has come out better than the last, and I just wanna keep making more to try and fix what I don't like about the previous one. It's pretty tricky trying to keep the bundles from cabling up when splicing the second end loop. That has been the hardest part for me so far. That and keeping the backserve tight finishing the serving. I just can't get it as tight as the rest of the serving. I guess I just need to keep practicing. after I use up all my dacron I may try some different material, thinking fast flight or excel... but they are expensive compared to dacron!

[shafferm]

String looks good, one thing that I came up with when making strings to help prevent the cabling look is to add a third colored strand to the bundle, for a 32 strand string one bundle would be 16 green strands and the other bundle would be 15 brown strands and 1 red strand. Twist your first loop and then you can count how many rotations you get per bundle with the off colored strand. Say you had 5 rotations with the red strand, now untwist each bundle 2*5=10 rotations before you start twisting the second end loop. This should allow you to make a very nice cabling free flemish string.

Take plenty of notes on lengths and number of twists, it makes it much easier to make the same string again later.

Using a single off colored strand string in your bundles will also make it easier when you transition to more expensive string materials. I was able to build flemish twist strings with only one single string color.

[Dash]

G'day Bryman, Just a small tip to save you wasting material.
If you try a more expensive low stretch material expect to add up to 1-2 inches in length. My first astro flight strings were way too short for my bow because I copied my dacrons exactly. There's more stretch in a dacron than you think so you need to account for that. As for doing the second loop without the cables bundling, I made a basic jig with a post to hold the other loop, and the rest of the string straight in position while I do the second. Otherwise it feels like you need a third hand to control it all:lol:

[j.krug]

Good looking string, way to go!
I like the colours you used.

[bryman021]

G'day Bryman, Just a small tip to save you wasting material.
If you try a more expensive low stretch material expect to add up to 1-2 inches in length.

Yeah I am wondering about that, because right now with the Dacron strings my finished length before stretching is about 34", and then after I put it on the stretcher overnight it comes out to 35.5". And this is getting more and more consistent as I make more of them.

I'm thinking when I do try a new material I will add 1.5" to the starting length and see how it goes. And I definitely don't want to waste much of the expensive stuff.

Thanks to everyone for the compliments and tips to help me make better strings. I better hurry up and buy another excalibur, so I have a reason to make more strings