Erik,
Craig--Archers, dismayed at the death of their Flemish stringer, took their strings apart and clearly saw how they were made. The French archer’s preference was gum rather than the water glue with which he was also familiar enough to mention. What could the water glue have been ? Something soluble in water, of course. Gelatine would fill the bill and is known to have been used on post mediaeval strings, and is used as a glue by members of this forum. A stiffener, it would of course be allied to the finished string. You misquote the Frenchman. He wrote “properly made”, not “made that way”. Tox, a scholar who credits introduction of British archery to the Saxons, mentioning “bullock’s thermes” as used by ancient Greeks clearly knows of no more contemporary use of that material.
Erik all you say is supposition not proven fact, this is the downfall of your claims, you suppose something is so and then state that it is not that it may be, even if it is likely it is not known fact. With regard to people pulling stings apart and learning how to make them, read the quote from Duff below.
I was not in fact quoting the Frenchman at that stage but paraphrasing what he said. The quote begins just after that statement and concerns his ridiculous statement on springy silk strings. Are you implying that his "properly made" silk string was not made that way when he himself say it was so?
I haven’t come across any expressions of ignorance of the manufacturing process, other than on this forum. Any examples ?
If you have not come across "any expressions of ignorance of the manufacturing process", I suggest you need to expand your reading habits and look to contemporary writers.
As for doubt being expressed only on this forum, I think you exaggerate, you are a member of at least one other forum where the same doubts form of have been raised and where at least one of the members has, I believe, written of testing glued not twisted strings, the forum I have in mind is Paleoplanet. I would also suggest you join one of the British forums and have a look at their "Traditional Archery forums.
I also have to ask the question that even if the doubt has only been raised on these forums, is not a doubt raised that you cannot absolutely refute?
As I read through my collection and come across the statements I shall let you know where they are made, they must all be statements made in books written in the 20th and 21st Centuries as prior to that books tended to be written by people of substance who would never dream of making strings and besides the Flemish makers were still in existence. From memory I seem to recall such statements made in the books by the contemporary Authors Strickland, Hardy, Soar, of the earlier but still recent authors, one that springs to mind is James Duff who on page 80 of his "Bows and Arrows" says this:
"Much has been written on the subject of making bowstrings. Perhaps because for over 500 years the Belgian bowstring makers have had an almost complete monopoly on the bowstring business. That this has inspired the writing of meaningless instructions may or may not be so. Surely it would have been more risky had the Belgian method been common knowledge and capable of adoption. Still, there have been some practical directions published : for the world war taught the archer the value of acquiring a measure of the art, so long kept secret on Belgium, handed down from one generation to another in the same families. And should the reader wonder that nobody could learn the secret from examining and even dissecting the Belgian strings, let me say this. I have submitted Belgian Bowstrings to the very best American makers of hand-laid linen fishing lines, which have been made the same way, by the same families, for more than one hundred years. The world record lines, famous for their excellence: twisted out of flax as a bowstring is made. And yet these expert line makers could not duplicate the Belgian Bowstring. "It is the queerest thing I never saw", said the head of business, a man over sixty years of age who all his life has been an expert in the making of hand-laid lines". The passage goes on to say that the strands used are extremely long. then tells how to make a substitute but one that is not equal to the Belgium string. Duff essentially says the string is formed by twisting and uses extremely long fibres and makes no mention of glue and as this book was published in 1927 way past the date of major use therefore it is even possible that the string made by the Flemish string maker was different to the strings used in the middle ages. We just do not know.
Craig.
