If you give a mouse a cookie… (with weapons!)

As I’m sure most of you have figured out by now, I have been making a bow. Now that the bow is done, I obviously need a string to go with it. Matteo (Lucaroni) taught me how to do this. 

The steps are fairly simple, if a bit waxy. First, you use piece of wood with a bunch of different nails on it to measure out the string (which is covered in a sticky wax). This measuring stick sets the pieces off from one another by a bit less than half a centimeter. This helps when you are making the loops that you need to string the bow. 

The funny little device 

The correct way to use it to measure your string (I found this when I googled "double ended Flemish bow string"- that is the particular style of string that Matteo and I did)

The string consists of two main "strings" which are wrapped around themselves and each other. Before starting the loop, the first thing you have to do is wax a portion of the end of the string. How long this section is depends on how big the loop needs to be; mine had to be quite small, so the section was relatively short- about four inches would be my guess. 

When making the loop, you start twisting at the end of the loop that has a longer "tail". I'm really sorry, but this is stupidly hard to describe. You twist the strings on themselves in one direction, and the strings on each other in the other direction. You use clamps to hold the string in place as you twist it, and you try to keep it as tight as you can. Oddly enough, no matter how sticky the wax you put on the string feels, as soon as you start working with the waxy strings, they become impossible to manage. When the twisted together strings are long enough (in my case five centimeters), you join the "tails" together and twist them upon themselves and each other.

Once you have made both loops this way (making sure to twist in the same direction), the rest of the twisting is simply a matter of holding one end still and twisting the other end, much as if you were playing with a hair tie.

Next step is stretching. To do this, Matteo and I played tug-o-war with the string. I'm sure there are other ways of doing this if you are working on your own. After that, we strung the bow and messed with it for a while. Then we twisted the string (because it had stretched quite a bit) and stretched it some more. We did this over and over again. Now while I'm at home, I have to come up with some sort of rig to stretch out the string. Theoretically, I could leave the bow strung, but that would bend the bow that I worked so hard on and damage it. 

How we ended up rigging the string to stretch it

Once the string is stretched I will have to do the "serving". I have no clue as to what it is called in English, but it is an area in the middle of the string that is reinforced by another string wrapped around the outside. Clearly we can't do this before the string has stretched out all the way, because as it stretches, it gets thinner. However, I can describe how to do this because I have had to redo it on my other bow. You make the serving using a little string dispenser that helps keeps the string lined up with no gaps in it. You flip the device over the string until your reinforced section is a couple of inches long; unfortunately, I don't remember exactly how long. 

After that, the only thing left to do is to add the "punto d'incocco"; this is where you put the arrow on to the string and it must hold your arrow at a right angle to the string while the arrow is resting on the arrow rest. This is done by using a little instrument to check the angle and then you use the same instrument that you used for the "serving" to make a small marking on the string. After that, the only thing you need in order to shoot are appropriate arrows! 

A bit of the finished string

The string has a natural stop to keep it from sliding down the bow- the loop won't fit over the knot 

Ciao,

Florence