[Archers] Restringing Crossbow--How It Came Out

[Bary Sears]

Hopefully at a near-by University!

 

Barre

 

 

From: Archers [mailto:archers-bounces at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org] On Behalf Of jaynardone at comcast.net
Sent: Thursday, September 1, 2016 12:19 PM
To: Garth Groff <sarahsan at embarqmail.com>
Cc: archers at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org
Subject: Re: [Archers] Restringing Crossbow--How It Came Out

 

Congrats to you Lord Mungo! I will be offering some string making and serving classes at future Universities.

 

In service,

 

Janyn

 

 

  _____  

From: "Garth Groff" <sarahsan at embarqmail.com>
To: jaynardone at comcast.net <mailto:jaynardone at comcast.net> , archers at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org <mailto:archers at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org> 
Sent: Thursday, September 1, 2016 9:49:56 AM
Subject: Re: 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

 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://seahorse.atlantia.sca.org/pipermail/archers-atlantia.sca.org/attachments/20160901/6090e427/attachment.htm>