Best silk for string ?
Can sombody help me vith silk for haevy bow string ? I cant find in Slovakia natural non chemical or color silk for string. Best what i see is mi original silk string from Korea.
The best silk for strings is twisted filament silk. If the description of the silk includes the word "spun", it is unsuitable. Spun silk is made from short lengths of silk fibres spun mechanically into a thread. This is too weak for bowstrings.
Filament silk is unreeled continuously from the silkworm cocoons and then twisted together to make a thread. This produces very strong bowstrings. Silk comes with various degrees of treatment. It can be untreated with a sticky gum still on it; raw, with no bleaching or dyeing; cleaned and bleached to a white colour; or cleaned, bleached and dyed. The dyeing process can weaken the silk fibres. Mild bleaching does not have a large effect though it is not a necessary process for silk for a bowstring.
The Chinese produced silk from several varieties of silkworm and specified those that grow on thorny plants as the best for bowstrings. Whether this was based on experiment or inference, I do not know.
I have only made oriental style strings with silk so I have no experience with Flemish type strings. My guess is that they would be a problem because silk threads are extremely slippery.
The Turks, Persians and Arabs made some silk strings with the addition of glue, resin and wax. This enabled them to be twisted and knotted from standard lengths.
Filament silk is unreeled continuously from the silkworm cocoons and then twisted together to make a thread. This produces very strong bowstrings. Silk comes with various degrees of treatment. It can be untreated with a sticky gum still on it; raw, with no bleaching or dyeing; cleaned and bleached to a white colour; or cleaned, bleached and dyed. The dyeing process can weaken the silk fibres. Mild bleaching does not have a large effect though it is not a necessary process for silk for a bowstring.
The Chinese produced silk from several varieties of silkworm and specified those that grow on thorny plants as the best for bowstrings. Whether this was based on experiment or inference, I do not know.
I have only made oriental style strings with silk so I have no experience with Flemish type strings. My guess is that they would be a problem because silk threads are extremely slippery.
The Turks, Persians and Arabs made some silk strings with the addition of glue, resin and wax. This enabled them to be twisted and knotted from standard lengths.
Thank you Bede. I buy some silk (Germany GGt fabric and Seta reale ) but description say only 100% silk nothing more. All is twisted... Nothing like silk from korean string.
Dusan,
I bought my silk in a skein (a long loops of thread twisted for compactness) and I need help to untangle it and put it on a reel so that I could make bowstrings from it. It was a real experiment in patience since, every time I reduced tension on the thread while trying to reel it onto the cone, it would start to tie itself into complex knots as the twist in the individual threads reasserted themselves.
There is a special tool that spinners use to make this easier, but I had to rely on my elder sister instead who had learned the art from my mother. Twice I have dropped the reel and had to rewind a hundred metres of self knotting thread. Even when made into a string, the individual threads want to tangle themselves around everything they touch. I understand now why so many Turkish, Persian and Chinese strings are totally wrapped in thread to prevent this problem. The Turks even bound flight strings every few inches despite the extra weight. Some people have suggested this was to prevent air resistance when shooting, but after my experiences I believe it to be a practical solution to the nature of the silk thread.
I bought my silk in a skein (a long loops of thread twisted for compactness) and I need help to untangle it and put it on a reel so that I could make bowstrings from it. It was a real experiment in patience since, every time I reduced tension on the thread while trying to reel it onto the cone, it would start to tie itself into complex knots as the twist in the individual threads reasserted themselves.
There is a special tool that spinners use to make this easier, but I had to rely on my elder sister instead who had learned the art from my mother. Twice I have dropped the reel and had to rewind a hundred metres of self knotting thread. Even when made into a string, the individual threads want to tangle themselves around everything they touch. I understand now why so many Turkish, Persian and Chinese strings are totally wrapped in thread to prevent this problem. The Turks even bound flight strings every few inches despite the extra weight. Some people have suggested this was to prevent air resistance when shooting, but after my experiences I believe it to be a practical solution to the nature of the silk thread.