I have made both Flemish and endless loop string and I find that both are a bit of a pain to make. Generally I prefer the endless loop in a hunting application because of the performance aspect; however, they are a nuisance to make. Once the strings are made, their length is fixed. Twisting may make small modifications; however, this is not the best way of changing the length of a string, especially when making a bow because the string length will vary as you put the finishing touches on the nocks. A few months ago, I came up with an idea for a string that is quick and easy to make. This string is a cross between a Flemish and an endless loop and only takes a few minutes to put together. This type of string can be made with natural materials, such as linen, or with modern materials. For the purpose of this article, I used Dacron.

To make the string, I begin by taking my homemade endless loop jig and clamping it down with a wood vice or whatever other suitable method I have available at the time. Here I have used my workmate to firmly hold the jig down (figure 1).

Then I adjust my jig for the length of the string I will need; this is usually about three or four inches longer than the bow I have or will be making. I then take my basic string material and loop it around the two outside pins as many times as needed. This will vary according to the material used and the draw weight of the bow. With Dacron, I use 14 or 16 strands; with linen of 35-pound break strength, I use 10 or 12 strands. In this instance, I used a combination of black and white Dacron because it is a good way of using up leftover spools of thread. In figure 2, I have 16 strands of Dacron looped around my jig.

Next, I serve the unbroken end of the string into a loop as I would an endless loop string. This can be done by hand or, as I am doing here, by using a serving tool. Any number of thread types can be used for this, but here I used a white cotton thread. I do this by spinning the one swivel end of the jig so that the string is held suspended between the two pins. I then start serving with my tool (figure 4).

Once I have my loop served, this end will be for the top of the bow, I go to the other end of my jig and start setting up for the last part. For this end, I will braid the last ten inches of the string for a timber hitch on the bottom limb. To do this, cut the spools and the end strands free. This gives me 16 single strands of Dacron. I separate those 16 strands into three equal parts; in this case, it will be two sections of five strands and one of six strands. I then pull them taut so that they are all under equal tension with no loose strands. This is important, as any loose strands will weaken the string. In figure 5 you can see my bundles ready for braiding.

Then, keeping tension on the three bundles, I start braiding them. Initially I use the bottom pin as a stop for the braid so that it doesn’t travel all the way up the string. Also, I keep the braid loose at first—a tight braid is not necessary here. I do this so that I don’t use up too much of the string, making the string too short and heavy. In figure 6 you can see how loosely the string is braided. I tighten up the braid in the last two or three inches (figure 7).

The last part of this project is to wax the braid heavily and, in the case of Dacron, melt the end together (although this is not totally necessary). Figure 8 is the braid all finished up and heavily waxed. You can see in this picture how the braid is loose at first and then tightens up at the end.

The whole string took less than twenty minutes to make; it can be used as is or the center can be served for the arrow nock.