Does your homemade Flemish string suffer from split ends? Yes, you can reduce them with a bit of cutting and burning, but why have them in the first place?
This is the original string from my Jay St. Charles Thunderbird bow. Note the frizzies.
This one is the original from my Howard Hill Redman.
Lastly, one that I made per Art Schampel's instructions. No split ends.
Art Schampel, business manager at Hugh Rich Archery, was an expert Flemish string maker. His tip was to fray the ends of each strand so they blended in better.
Photo from The Complete Archery Book by Louis Hochman.
I think I'll give it a try on my next string. I usually don't have any trouble working the ends into the string with wax, but fraying the ends should help hold them in place better, requiring less touch up.
In the past, I sometimes built strings going the other way. I'd leave the tag ends about 1 1/2 inches too long and cut all the strands to the same length. I'd then intentionally expose the tag ends, which would then puff out to make mini string silencers. Works pretty good on longbow strings.
Interesting, but I don't get it. How does fraying the ends help? I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed ya know
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Good tip, but most loose ends can be worked into the string with string wax even without fraying the ends. Or if left as-is they do no harm.
Will remember that.
Great tip from an expert string maker.
Nice tip! Though I don't mind the tag ends showing. I get jealous when my bow is more dapper than I am 😜