Help making endless loops...umm...Pretty?

[Soilarch]

Tried making loop and flemish...prefer endless loop.

I can make two color strings but I can't ever get them the two colors to stay entirely separate. On say, a 12 strand, I'll have 5 black- 2 red- 1 black- 4 red.  (And that's an example of a "good" string for me.)


Functionally they are fine, no "loose" strands and they are good n' round...but goodness they be ugly.

Help?

[Rob DiStefano]

as with most crafting processes, there are chops to acquire and tricks to learn.  with 2 or 3 or 4 color endless strings, make sure to lay on the turns of each strand color evenly around the arm pegs.  you can see me do that in  my endless string video

[Dave Worden]

I had to put a piece of paper between the white and the brown strands to keep them separated until the string was completed.  Then I just twisted it up like I normally do and voila, I had an endless "Flemish" two color string.

[Rob DiStefano]

if you layer the strands and colors evenly, as shown in my vid, it works just fine every time.

 

i'll add the following ...

one thing that i consider a quality about endless strings is that they don't need a lot of twists.  just enuf to round off is all that's required.  

if you use two or more colored strands, the results will look like the pix above, with not much twisting.  this doesn't have that serious twisted look of a flemish bowstring.

so, adding about 1/4" to the length of yer string will allow lots of added twists to simulate a flemish bowstring's barber shop pole, candy cane look.

[rraming]

Robs video is a great one, give it a look see!

[Buckwheaties]

I used Rob's video and instructions on building a jig and am almost an expert now.I built the jig. I've been building the hell out of strings.. They are coming out great.
A lot of fun and don't have to ever worry about strings ever again. All of my bows have strings/ extra strings plus a lot that didn't come out perfectly hanging on the wall. Oh well, it takes some practice to figure out all of the tricks.. Thanks Rob.. I must have watched your video 50 times, no kidding..

[TxAg]

Originally posted by Rob DiStefano:
as with most crafting processes, there are chops to acquire and tricks to learn.  with 2 or 3 or 4 color endless strings, make sure to lay on the turns of each strand color evenly around the arm pegs.  you can see me do that in  my endless string video  

That was very educational. Great video. Thanks!

[Gordon martiniuk]

Yes Sir a nice endless string is as good as Flemish any day, most like flemish as the twists on nock ends looks good, I think endless take a little longer for me to build ,but they settle in faster and don't require as much twisting to keep brace hight .  

[Soilarch]

Rob, your videos are what got me started!!! lol

(Don't feel bad, it was inevitable)

Built a jig per your suggestions.  I've tried the toothpics/paperclips but not paper to try and "segregate" the colors. In my experience it results in a 'less round' string...hurting the functional aspect.

Got some Astro Flight to try out (only have one color) and it reminded of how much I loath single color strings, and how much I'd love to be able to make contrasting strings better.  1 out of 5 comes out real nice, like your pics...the other 4 or perfectly functional (as long as I got the length right!!!) but are the 5 & 2 & 1 & 4 scenario I described earlier...instead of the crisp 6 & 6.    

Only thing I know to do improve is the overall tension of the jig.  Remaking the posts will have to wait for a raining day.

P.S. I'm diggin' the Astro Flight. It will likely replace D97 in my stable.  Didn't care for TS+

[mark land]

Yessir I make all my own strings and normally make them a 1/4in longer so I can add some twists to the string to spiral the colors up and they look good and stay more consistent with the extra twists as well.  You can do different end serving and loop serving colors and really dress them up if you wish!

[bigbadjon]

I just make mine white with black serving. Always looks good, in a ho hum sort of way.