Making Flemish Bowstrings

[RobD]

While I spent decades making both Flemish and Endless bowstrings, there's nothing that says "traditional archery" like a nice Flemish bowstring.  It takes a large string jig, with moving parts (the arms) to make a proper endless bowstring, but a Flemish string is essentially made "in the air".  Both string types are technique oriented, each are also relatively easy to build as long as the required technique is understood and executed well.  There are a number of ways to employ both techniques and hopefully this thread will present a relatively easy method for constructing a good Flemish bowstring.

Material -

Rather than use the hi-tech HMPE bowstring material, I prefer to use good ol' Dacron (polyester) string material that comes in essentially two flavors B50/B500 and B55.  Either will do nicely. I also prefer to use extra string strands for two reasons - it makes for a stouter and more durable bowstring, and I think that a thicker string allows for more of a measure of shooting "stability" and maybe even make it a bit more on the quiet side when plucked.  So, two quarter pound spools of B50 or B55 string material where two different colors makes it lots easier to build a string. 

For the center serving, a length of bowstring material can be used but it's much better to use specific bowstring center serving material and my choice is BCY's "Halo" in .016" diameter.  There are lots of other center serving material choices, and all are fine, though I do recommend the diameter be on the smaller side.

Tools -  

A small cake of pure beeswax.  A very sharp knife or single edge razor blade.  A center string serving jig (as cheap as $10 or make yer own).  A tape measure.  A small 1" square piece of leather or paper for burnishing in the wax to the string material before, during, and after the string is completed.

These are the bare minimums, but having a way to better measure the strands of string is to use a length of 2x3 or 2x4 (about 3' to 4' length) and a pair of nails.  This will allow setting the string length and number of strands very quickly, in one continuous loop of string material rather than cutting each strand to length by themselves.

The Process -

A Flemish string is held together, and afforded great strength, by twisting two bundles of bowstring strands together.  That's really all there is to making a Flemish bowstring.  These strings can be made with just one loop and instead of another loop a bowyers knot is used to set the string length on the bow.  This works great, and probably how most of the bowstrings were made back in the day of the English longbow, but a bit tedious to have to undo and redo that knot every time a string needed to be length adjusted.  These days most of us prefer to twist up a double loop Flemish bowstring and that's the process I use exclusively.

MORE TO COME ....

[KDubs]

 
 Been awhile since I've made strings.
 A gal in our ML club wants me to make one for her bow.
 Good timing on this one. 
Kevin

[RobD]

This Flemish string build will be for a 65" Maddog Extreme Follow longbow, 45@29.  I'll make it with 14 strands of Brownell Dacron B50 bowstring fiber. 

For a longbow, the completed bowstring will be 3" shorter than the bow length (4" if for a recurve), so that means the 14 strands of B50 will be 62" in length.

Add 20" to the 62" string length, to allow for making the Flemish splice loops, and that equates to 14 strands of string material where each strand is 82" in length.

Rather than use a ruler to measure out 14 82" lengths of bowstring material, I use a "string jig" that in this case is made with a piece of 2x2 pine that's 48" long, with a nail in one end (labeled as "0", or the starting point) and another nail that's set 41" from the "0" nail.   3 or 4 inches from the "0" nail is a small screw where the string will initially be tied.

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The string is tied or looped over the screw then wrapped 14 times around the nails.  Don't overlap the string around the nails, layer them.

14 x 41= 82 and so that's 7 string strands with each strand 82" in length.  Perfect.

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Now pull over one bundle of 7 strands ...

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...and cut ...

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Now separate one end into 3 pairs of 2 strands, leaving a single strand ...

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I've marked on the jig wood a "X" preceded by a "1", "2", and "3" - each are 1" apart.  Take one of the pairs of strands and put its end on the "X" mark and cut it on the "1" mark ...

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... take the next pair of strands, put its end on the "X" mark and cut it at the "2" mark ...

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... take the last pair of strands, put its end on the "X" mark and cut it at the "3" mark ...

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[RobD]

Now at one end of one of the bundles of 7 strands of string fiber there'll be 3 groups of two strands with each group 1" shorter than the next.  The one single strand is left full length.

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Do the same with the other end of this bundle of 7 strands.

Beeswax the entire 7 strand bundle - wax it Good.

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Everything that was done to this first bundle (black string fiber), do to the second bundle (white string fiber).

The reason I taper the ends of each bundle is so that I won't need to cut those strand groups during the twisting part of Flemish bowstring making.  I just find this easier and faster.

Save the jig for making more strings.  Add or subtract nails for other bowstring lengths.  If you make the length nail hole a wee bit larger than the nail used, you'll only need one nail as a moveable peg for the different string lengths you wish to make.

Two 7 strand bundles of B50 string fiber, one black and one white, 82" in length for each bundle.  Wax each bundle again, and burnish it in by hand (squeeze and pull) ...

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I've marked on the jig a line that's 10" long.  Pair up one of the ends of each bundle and measure off that double bundle end at 10" ...

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More to come ....

[Winter Hawk]

  Great Rob!  I've wanted to try my hand at making my own strings so I'll be following this closely.  Will you have the whole document available as a .pdf file later on?

~Kees~

[RobD]

Putting in the bundle twists really needs to be a video as it's too hard to explain in words and still frames, but I'll give a try as a PDF anyway.  Although I would like to do a short video on the twisting process because no matter what's being twisted - starting a loop or completing a loop - the twisting process is always the same = twist a bundle tightly AWAY from you, then overlap it over the other bundle TOWARD you.  The twisting is always done in this same manner.  As you can see, the string loops are held together by the reverse twisting process - tightly away and the towards - this sets up the strand and bundle tension that keeps the string from unraveling.  It's Extremely important to keep the bundles and the completed string WELL waxed.  There are lotsa different bowstring waxes, some synthetic, but over the many decades I've had for string making I've not found a better string wax as pure filtered beeswax.  The yeoman archers bygone centuries felt the same.

Another thing to consider is that if your bow already has a string that allows a proper brace height and arrow flight, measure the string while braced on the bow as best as possible (from OUTER EDGE ENDS of each LOOP) and use that measurement as the final string length.  Add 20" for making Flemish loops to that measurement, half the results and that's the distance to set the nails on the string jig.

I always set measurements to the greater quarter inch.  If I measure a string on a bow as 62-1/8", I call the string 62-1/4".  If it was 62-5/8", I call the string 62-3/4'.  This isn't critical as +/- even as much as 1/2" can be manipulated in the completed string with twisting or untwisting the entire string.  In the long run, what will determine if a Flemish bowstring will be completed within reason for the length required is how the bundle twists are made.  TIGHT is best, loose is NOT!

In the following short video excerpt, bowhunter Clay Hayes is building a single loop Flemish bowstring and will use a bowyers knot in place of the second bowstring loop.  The essence of this excerpt is to show the loop twisting process.  Clay uses an 8" length of the two bundles to begin his string loop whereas I use 10", either is correct as long as the completed string achieves a proper brace height for the bow, the arrow, the archer.

[Winter Hawk]

Thanks Rob.  Now I have another project to play with, just as soon as I finish making those #11 caps, splitting firewood, reloading some "unmentionable" ammunition, make some boat sails, making a spine tester....
 
~Kees~