[Archers] Restringing Crossbow--How It Came Out

[Bary Sears]

I ended up making a stretcher out of some scrap lumber, two L-brackets and
J-hooks, and some wing nuts. I want to try the cockscomb 
Method of serving.
Barre


-----Original Message-----
From: Archers [mailto:archers-bounces at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org] On Behalf
Of Garth Groff
Sent: Thursday, September 1, 2016 9:50 AM
To: jaynardone at comcast.net; archers at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org
Subject: Re: [Archers] Restringing Crossbow--How It Came Out

Noble Friends of the Bow,

Back in July I opened a thread here on re-serving a crossbow. After several
years of light use, the serving on my string finally wore through where it
slides along the track. I had never served a string before, and had little
confidence for this project. Lord Janyn graciously gave me a ton of good
advice, with contributions from several others among you.

I had already ordered the materials to make and serve handbow strings. 
One of my longbows came with a string that wasn't served, and I decided this
would be a good introductory project. First I watched the DVD HOW TO BUILD A
GREAT BOWSTRING from Traditional Vision Quest Productions (ordered from
3Rivers). Then I loaded up the serving machine, an AAE server I also bought
from 3Rivers. This machine is a pain in the butt, and I couldn't get the
serving material to flow through it smoothly without the axle wingnut
falling off. I wish I had bought another brand. 
I ended up passing the serving string around the bowstring manually with
this machine. That was difficult enough, but I didn't have a rack to hold
the bow, or alternatively a string stretcher. Holding the bow in my lap in
front of the TV, I struggled for over an hour to finally get the job done.
Add to that I had to keep backing up the DVD to review what I was doing. I
was not a happy camper, and wasn't looking forward to the crossbow project.
Then a trip to New Hampshire to scatter my late father-in-law's ashes
intervened.

Today I finally decided to finish the project. I began this round by
watching another DVD, CRAFTING TRADITIONAL FLEMISH STRINGS, produced and
sold by 3Rivers. This video is much clearer than the first, but both suffer
from showing the wrapping from the viewer's point of view, not the person
doing the wrapping. Being rather spatially challenged, I still had a hard
time interpreting the movements, particularly the last part with the
counter-wrapping. Grrrr!

I determined that the crossbow needed two inches of wrapping on each side of
the tiller. It originally had about three inches, but this seemed excessive.
A more powerful crossbow might need the extra wraps to help keep your
fingers off the actual string when spanning. I made a mark with a silver
Sanford Sharpie on the string on each side. I had saved the old serving, and
found that it was about six feet long. I decided that I would need about
five feet with the two-inch distances out from the tiller. I was just barely
right about this, but six feet would have given me a longer working part
(IIRC, that's Coast Guard talk for the part of a line you are working with,
as opposed to the bitter end, which is stationary).

The wrapping I chose was .030 BCY Halo-brand. Since there wouldn't be room
for the serving machine anyway, I simply cut a length of this material and
worked without a spool. The serving cord was well soaked with string-maker's
wax. I didn't think to use the string-maker's wax on the bowstring itself.
It would have helped bonding. Next time I will do this.

To get the shooting string up off the track, I used a 3/4-inch square scrap
of poplar. It was inserted under the string on the right half of the track.
Later when I had wrapped the serving up to the wood, I lifted the string up
and moved the piece to the left so that it was under the finished wrapping.
Then I continued wrapping to the right.

I followed the instructions in the video. My initial knot on the left was a
square knot, which left an unsightly nubbin under the serving. A half knot
would have worked as well, since the working part would be tight under the
wraps anyway. I pulled each wrap as tight as I could and made sure each was
chock-a-block (there's another nautical term) to the previous turn on the
left. No gaps allowed. There was no problem shifting the poplar stick. My
only real problems were with the counter wrap at the end. As mentioned, I
didn't have much line with which to work, and another foot would have been a
help. It took me three tries to get this part right, but eventually it came
together and I was finally able to pull the working part tight from under
the wraps and clip off the excess on both ends. Whew! It was actually much
easier than doing the longbow string.

I waxed the entire string including the serving with the bowyer's wax. 
Then I used a scrap of soft leather to burnish the string. This heated the
wax and helped it penetrate between the bowstring's strands, and down
between the wraps on the serving. This trick was suggested in the 3Rivers
video. I made sure to get the wax evenly around the string and serving,
especially working it onto the bottom of the string where it will ride along
the track.

Rather than the usual string wax, I used the bowyer's wax to lubricate the
crossbow track. Bowyer's wax seems to have better lubricating qualities than
regular string wax.

Now let's see how long my handiwork lasts. Lord Janyn said he replaces his
serving several times a year. He shoots a crossbow a lot more than I do, and
his is much more powerful (mine is a Siegfried combat crossbow).

Definitely get the 3Rivers video if you are new to this sort of project. 
You will need very heavy serving cord, much heavier than that used with
handbow strings. Don't forget the bowyer's wax. Everything you need is
available at 3Rivers, and probably from other sources.

Thanks to all of you who encouraged me on this project. I hope my
observations and methods will be of help to some of you who haven't yet
learned this skill.

Yours Aye,


Lord Mungo Napier, The Archer of Mallard Lodge


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