String serving and nock fit help

[Krex1010]

Happy New Year Trad Gangers,
I was hoping for some guidance. I’m struggling with proper nock fit on a couple bows. The arrow nock is the weakest part of an arrow so I don’t like making major adjustments and weakening them, so I believe making adjustments to the string serving is my best bet.

I’ve never served a string before. I’m looking to buy a serving jig and some materials. In an effort to avoid buying the wrong stuff and wasting money I figured I’d ask the experts. All my bows are between 35 and 50 lbs. I have both fast flight string bows and Dacron string bows. I shoot mostly carbon arrows. For the most part, I’m finding the nock fit to be too tight.

What material serving should I get? What size or sizes to start? Is a basic/cheap jig sufficient?

Thanks!
Keith

[Possum Head]

Perhaps Tedd will chime in he’s done vast amounts of experimenting and gave me help in the past.

[McDave]

I would recommend “How to Build a Great Bowstring” by Chad Weaver and Rod Jenkins.  I use Halo serving in .019 and .021 sizes. .021 works for most of my strings, which are 14 strands of fastflight.  If I go to 16 strands or with some thicker bowstring material, I might use .019 instead. I have several string servers, and they all work fine.  I might have a stronger preference if I were making more strings. You need to experiment a little to get them adjusted so they keep the right amount of tension on the serving.

[Possum Head]

I’m following close on this one. I’ll have to get this book thanks for suggesting.

[reddogge]

I'm building mostly 12 strand strings out of D97 and serving with #6 nylon. My nocks are mostly GT nocks and fit a tad loose so I use dental floss between two tied on nocking points. The dental floss allows me to KISS and not buy many different serving materials and it lasts a long time. My serving jig is similar to a Cartel.

[McDave]

I’m following close on this one. I’ll have to get this book thanks for suggesting.

Its a DVD that's available from 3 Rivers.

[Possum Head]

Even better, Thanks!

[Krex1010]

Thanks for the help fellas...I’ll take a look at that vid on 3rivers.

[hunting badger]

I use GT on occasion and my hunting pardner uses GT also, I build strings for his recurve. I just finished some strings, D-97 14 strands, with .018" halo, this combo this about the right diameter for GT nocks without altering the nocks.

[marc_groleau]

If I get loose nock fit, I add one or two strands of string material under the serving. If I use two strands, I stagger their beginning and ends so as to taper the serving. It’s really undetectable and has never caused an issue for me.

[gordydog]

I have so many different arrow set ups and bows, if I have a loose nock fit,  I use masking tape to wrap the string under the nock. I cut the tape down to a 1/8" or 1/16" wide strip and usually wrap it once around string to get desired nock tension.  Works well for me and so easy to put on and take off.

[Tedd]

.030 HALO seems to work with the modern performance string materials and their popular strand counts with almost all nocks. (Except for classic nocks which fit looser than all others).
Since most modern materials are excessively strong...when trying a new material you can start with a slightly large diameter number of strands work your way through a reduction of strand counts until your .030 HALO fits your nocks perfectly and that will most likely be the optimum strand count for the combination of quiet, performance and strength. (By the way, I usually wrap my servings excessively tight.) 
  If your bow is liking a thicker string, the .030 will usually smash to a perfect nock fin in just a few shots. Or if you like skinny strings the serving can be wrapped less tight. So there is a lot of variation with .030.
  I'm not a fan of really skinny strings. I'm more of a fan of a nock never being to loose!  (I never heard of a bow being dry fired because the nock was too tight).
 My current favorite fit is 18 strands of X-99. The .030 works fine from 15-22 strands of X-99.
  Classic nocks are the exception. I use snap nocks on aluminum and wood.
I wouldn't be a fan of putting something under or over the serving for fear that something would give.
Tedd

[Tim Finley]

You should use a braided serving for fast flight  strings I use a .026 . A twisted serving will move on FF and your nock pt. will be off.

[darin putman]

The hardest part of serving for me to learn was the start and finish, problem solved by googling how to serve a bowstring.  I bought a bear paw server and went to work. I make my strings for my self bows out of 8125, I find that 14 strands continuous loop strings with 2 strands added and .026 diamondback serving works great with my bohning classic nocks. I think if nocks are too tight and I wanted a looser fit I would figure out what size serving I had if able and buy smaller, you can always add string material under serving if it is too loose and reserve for a tighter fit. Worse case scenario you could change nocks that fit string too tight, and add string material and reserve on loose nocks. Either way serving and making a string is not that hard a task to do and a valuable skill for an archer to learn.
       I also have chad weaver's video doing the twist, very informative.

[MnFn]

I think I better order that video as well. I have always sanded my nocks and that has worked, but after much use sometimes they are too loose.  I have added dental floss and that worked.

I haven’t ever broken a nock by just shooting it.  Once or twice by hitting it.😁

[Petrichor]

As a former string builder I would say avoid adjusting nocks at all costs. It's hard to adjust them evenly. Much easier to adjust string for all nocks. Best serving tool I have found is the bearpaw serving tool available on kustom king archery's website. After experimenting with a couple sizes and brands of serving I use mostly nylon for my personal strings it's the best bang for your buck. About 5 bucks a roll from kustom king and available in a variety of colors rarely have a serving wear out before string. Good nock fit is key to a long serving life. Make a couple strings 10 12 14 16 strands with standard nylon serving and find which one fits best. For wood arrows with bear paw classic nock I build 16 strand d97 ff strings with nylon serving. And b55 I use 14 strands and it works wonderfully. Experiment and play with it.

The three rivers video is ok and has a couple neat serving tricks that will serve (pun intended) you well.

[DanielB89]

What material should you get? 

Whatever you want and with each option of material and the number of strands, etc, you're going to have to adjust the serving diameter.

You want to finish your serving diameter around .110 for a standard carbon arrow nock(GT, and a host of others).

IF you're wanting a combo that will work for you,
get b55 material.  Order halo .019 serving. 
12 strands of b55 and Halo .019 will get you very close. 


If you're wanting fastflight material, it'll vary with each material.  I have some of the, discontinued, bcy x material that I could let go for a decent price IF you don't mind what color.   That is all I have built strings with for the past 5 years and I still have a good stock in it.  I am sad that it is no longer an option.  All good things come to an end, I suppose. 

For 12 strands of X, you'll need power grip .032.  For 18 strands of it, you'll need halo .019. or you'll need xs.021, and so on and so forth.  Everytime you change material, strand count, or nocks, you'll have to readjust.