My apologies for posting the site on the previous thread. Here is the information in written form. Hope this helps.
Here is “The Retherford Method” for stringing wood bows in a safe manner… as described by Jeremiah Retherford.
“Put the lower string loop on the lower limb tip. Make sure it is in the string-nock grooves. Pull the string tight enough with your right hand to hold the lower string loop in the grooves. Now place the lower limb tip on something soft like a piece of carpet. Holding the upper limb tip about three or four inches below the upper string nock-grooves, hold the bow in front of you with the upper limb tip in your left hand. The Belly of the Bow should be facing up.
The Bow should now be at about a 45 degree angle with your left arm straight or almost straight. Now you have the Bow in front of you with the upper limb tip in your left hand and the lower limb tip on the floor (or ground). Put your right knee on the handle; right where you would hold the bow to draw it. You have the upper loop of the bow string in your right hand. Now gently push down on the handle with your knee while you support the upper limb tip in your left hand. Make sure you hold the string loop in such a way that you will not pinch your hand or fingers when you release the bow (after it is strung).
To avoid pinching the fingers, hold the upper string loop between your thumb and forefinger so that your fingers are not under the string at all but out to the sides of the string and just below the loop. Open the loop so it will fit over the end of the bow tip. Just push down with your knee. Do not pull with your left hand at all! Keep it straight. Just support the bow tip as you push down with your knee. This way you are using your body weight instead of brute strength. Bend the bow JUST ENOUGH to barely get the string over the end of the bow tip AND NO MORE! Once the string loop is in the nock-groove you can gently bring your knee back up. Do this slowly and make sure you hold the bow in a controlled manner before you let up entirely!
Visually double-check that both upper and lower string loops are in their respective string grooves. If they slip out, you are holding the bow in a controlled manner so the bow will not jump out of your hands. It only takes a few times to get used to this way of stringing a bow so practice stringing and unstringing the bow a few times. Always make sure you support the limb tips in a stable manner! Then, just push down with your knee until you can just barely get the string loop over the limb tip.
He advocates using “smallish” loops on his strings which do not fit over (slide down) the limbs. The small loops never slip out of the grooves like some bigger loops will.
He states that as long as you do not pull on the upper limb tip as described above, you will not be injured if the bow slips or breaks because everything is moving away from you and keeps the bow limbs bending evenly.”
This may be elementary to some of you, but I've always strung my longbows the Hill way and never had much problem until getting a bit older (66) as I am now. So when I stumbled on the above, thought it would bear sharing as I detest using a stringer.
Good hunting.
Topic: Stringing Heavy Longbows II (Read 439 times)
