Flemish Twist or Endless Loop ????

[d. ward]

Wade if you use a little leather top cote or top coat if you prefer.It will prevent the bleeding of the dyes on leathers.I don't know about string serveing but man it works super good on leather.Its actually a sealer protecter.bowdoc

[Wade Phillips]

Doc - A few years back I did several grips for a friend and he used the top cote over the stain and loved it. I didn't care for the sheen that the top cote left on the surface. Rather than dye the leather, I'd love to find the right colored leather, but again have had no such luck. I may have to revisit the top cote experiments. Thanks for jogging my nearly lost memory.

Simon's use of natural oil on the grip in this recent post, seemed to have some legitimate potential. So, being the guy who is always looking for the right answer, I oiled up several veg tan leather samples with everything from vegetable oil to Emeril Lagasse's vinegar and oil Cajun salad dressing.

I believe Simon's approach has real promise. The oil dried out a lot the first day so I'm going to wait a week or two to see how the oil drys before making a decision. I can tell you now that I pretty much already gave up on using Emeril's stuff on leather, but hey, it's still great on salad.

[Wade Phillips]

Trap - Let me know if you have any luck dying some serving to the right color.

I've been looking for material to match Fred's 1946 pajamas. They are the coolest.

The 1946 photograph of Fred in those pajams as the camp cook is one of the best ever taken of him. I have a framed 8x10 of it that hangs in our cook tent over the stove.

All of our camp visitors love it. On the back side of the photograph frame I taped Fred's own account of the hunt as he wrote it in the 1940s. One of the best ever, but one of the least known.

[vtmtnman]

Wade,nothing wrong with any of those my friend.    

Have a pic of the whole Grumley?  :D    :D

[Tom I.]

Since serving materials are rarely pre-waxed, dying might be an option.  But is white or neutral serving material even available?  Dying B-50, because it normally comes pre-waxed, might be near impossible.

Speaking of string wear in nock grooves, recently someone told me that the first thing they do with a new string is remove all wax from it.  As I recall, he said he uses denatured alcohol to remove the wax. The reason? He claims that the wax attracts and stores grit and grime on the string which wears on the nock grooves and string fibers, causing them to fail sooner.
Any thoughts?
Tom I.

[Wade Phillips]

Richard - This is a photograph of the whole Grumley you requested.

Actually the photograph is of the entire Grumley Case #3, that the strung Grumley is in with some other branded Bear Products by Grumley hunting bows. Left side contains early Bush Bows and photographs of Nels, top working on bow, second at a sport show, the other 4 photographs are 4 of the 7 deer that Nels killed the first 10 years of Michigan's B&A deer seasons. Still working on this display, plans are to have it and the other 9 Grumley display cases completed within a couple of months.

 

[vtmtnman]

Those static tip bows are so cool.I think that's going to be in my sights next after I pickup my '57 Kodiak.      :D

[TRAP]

What are those old Selfbows doing on a string thread????    

Very nice display Wade.

Okay first attempt

 
 

Trap

[Wade Phillips]

Trap - The self bow photo was showing the FT string on the strung Grumley Bush Bow - If you want me to edit the post and remove the photograph, I will be pleased to do so...

Nice burgundy color on the serving !!! That is pretty darn close to the original color. If you are selling burgundy serving, let me know the cost per 100 feet...

Speaking of pretty darn close to the original color... yesterday I picked up the leather under this original 1959 Kodiak Special strike plate. What do you think of it for being close in color ?

I got enough for dozens of 59 KS strike plates. If you want some, I'll send you a chunk, with exact size tracing of the 59 KS Strike Plate.

Leather is about .045" thick, twice the thickness of an original 59 KS SP, so it will take lots of skiving to get the correct thickness.

 

[Falk]

Here is some burgundy string I just made last week for an ELB. Depicted at this stage to show the lenght of my splice. Thread ends will be clipped before first stretching, so the remainder is pulled back into the corpus, to give a clean look.
 
Here I am done with just that and after stringing the bow and rubbing in the pure bees wax I use on the threads when building a string, the color darkens quite a bit, as can be seen here.

This one is made of 18/3 linen, so may not be of any use for your purpose Wade. But if you think otherwise, I can send you some ...

[TRAP]

Please do not remove that photo.  I was just joking, Who could "not" enjoy those Grumleys?

From the above photo, which B50 is best?  The cream or the tan?  

I'll get you some serving to play with Wade.  

If you want to send a piece of the leather, I'll take it to my friends shop and we can attempt to skive it down.

The color looks good.

Trap

[d. ward]

edit that pic of the Grum's ? oh hell no.I like it and I don't care what threads they are listed under I just love to look at em.There is a certin magic about a Grumley.
OK trivia for today.How many flemish twist string did Fred Bear himself ever make documented on paper ? no idea huh ? 100's 1000's...no I'am affaid not.He actually only ever made one that is documented.I personaly happen to know who has that string and the paper work.The paper says something to the affect of this is the only flemish twist string Fred Bear ever made..bowdoc

[Wade Phillips]

Trap - That light tan B-50 looks like it is about as close as you may ever get to the string on Fred's 59 Kodiak.

Show us a photograph of some of your burgundy serving on a string.... it should be pretty close too... Will look forward to getting some to play with.

You will have to give us a step by step process for dying that serving material.

I'll send you a slab of that near 59 KS strike plate color leather to see what you can do with it.

Does you friend have a machine skiver at his shop or does he skive leather by hand?

Doc - You presented some interesting Bear flemish twist trivia. What was the length and number of strands of that string?

Should we consider creating a Fred Bear Trivia game? It might hit the best seller list.

[BobT]

Hey Trap,

 Did you start with white serving thread? ( If you don't mind giving up a trade secret!)
 
 Wade, Very nice display! I don't see how anyone could not enjoy looking at them. Thanks!

I guess I'll have to make an endless loop string jig now.

[TRAP]

[d. ward]

Wade I will email the guy and ask if he would eather send me a couple pics or post them himself.The string was a gift from Henrita to someone after Fred passed away I believe.It came with the note.
Oh heck no no trivia on Fred that will just create my bow junkies then we got now.bd

[Wade Phillips]

Doc - Would be cool to see a photograph of the string and note.

This is a collection of original Bear Bowstrings in their original Bear plastic tubes in an original Bear Display Rack.  I've been working on this display for some time and still need to upgrade some of the tubes and strings.

 

[d. ward]

Wadester thats a cool one there man I love that type display.I been working on collecting Bear pointers in the original packages for several years and need to get those all hung on peg boards.bowdoc

[Wade Phillips]

Doc - The original packages of Bear Pointers are cool. Even cooler are original packages of the KLEENKUT Feathers from Bear Archery Detroit, Mich, sold during the Grumley era, see bottom of photograph... These are all left wing. Let me know if you are collecting by color and wing...

 

[TRAP]

You could cut those babies up and make some serious feather rests    

Trap