Hi Everyone, I've been stringing for a few years now, but just for my brother and me so not very often. I've maybe strung ~4-5 reels worth of string over 4 years and I occasionally encounter a problem with crosses in the upper shared holes. After I weave and pull the cross through a shared grommet, sometimes the crosses would twist. It would twist to the point that the smooth outside coating looks rough. Why does this happen? How can I prevent it? Is it detrimental to the stringjob? Thanks!
I run my fingers the length of the remaining string, to straighten out any curls, before threading each cross. I find this especially important with of one of my favourites, BG-85. As far as consequences, it is likely that a kinked or gnarly string doesn't have the tensile strength of a straight one.
Thanks for the reply fidget. I do that as well, but when this happens, it doesn't seem to matter that I straightened out the string as it starts twisting as it gets pulled through the shared hole. I don't think I have ever experienced performance issues with one twisted string, it's just bugging me as a stringer to have this happen
Probably while being pulled thru the shared hole, the string is being rotated against the other string.
there a only a couple of holes in which this happens. at the shared holes near the top. usually it can be anticipated. when i first starting pulling the string i can already tell the string will twist and the longer the loose string the more twist there will be. the way i reduce it is to hold the string on both side of the grommet, apply some tension to the string, and try to undo the twist. sometimes it might take a couple of pulling it back and forth. at the end, it is easy to tell if there is still a twist as the loose loop will be normal and not all wounded up.
you can also first pull through the entire string, use your fingers to straighten out the string and then weave through the cross. That way, there is no twisting in the cross after you've weaved it through
I often get twists with certain strings - rough ones, most often - when pulling them through shared holes. One sure-fire way I found to get rid of them is as follows: a) get the string all the way through the offending grommet, but make sure it hasn't kinked (or it might snap when you tension it), b) let go of the loose end, and push as much of the string up/down the racket (away from the other crosses) as you can, it will form a U-shape inside the frame - you will see the twist "jump" out of the loose end as you do it c) pull the string hand tight to get the cross straight, then repeat step b). Do b) - c) as many times as you need to. One way to avoid crosses in the first place is not to keep hold of the loose end of the crosses as you pull it if you use one-weave-ahead, as Fidget said.
I applied some candle wax to that twisted string, hold the string straight and pull slowly thru the grommet, problem solved. it happens more with ng98 than bg66U