I was shooting at the club and my center serving came loose. I marked where my arrow locating nock points were and removed the center serving and retied the nock points and finished shooting the second half of the course.

This got me thinking what is the purpose of the center serving and what risk, if any is there to not having one, or reward for removing it?

I think the answer is to reduce wear on the fiber of the string material but when I look at the strings on my bows, very few have observable wear on the center serving so if wear is occurring it is at a very slow rate.

Just thinking a little outside of the box on this one as the situation drove me to shoot without one and everything seemed to work out OK.

I know we all have them on our strings,but why? Good Day

I would opine that the reason why one doesn't see any perceived wear on serving is that the direction of the wound serving is/was inline or parallel to the force/torque being imparted. Serving also seems to be a harder-surfaced material, but I could be wrong there, as that might just be a perception of the wound surface.

Now remove that serving and your force/torque is 90-degrees opposed to the fibers of the string itself. I do think that you'd soon see wear on your string as a result.

You already figure it out my friend.

Are you saying you had good nock fit with and without the serving?

DDave

Are you saying you had good nock fit with and without the serving?

DDave

Are you saying you had good nock fit with and without the serving?

DDave

I always ask the big questions 3 times so nobody misses them, eh.

DDave

If fit were the only reason for serving, I doubt it would cover so much of the string. IMHO, wear from nocks,tabs,gloves and arm guards are the reason for installing center serving.

I had to use dental floss to adjust for nock fit but other that that all went well.

I am going to do a little test to see roughly how many shots it would take to get noticeable wear on the string.

I am not a speed junkie but If I can eliminate at least the majority of the serving I might as well, if I am not creating a problem I am unaware of. Good Day

In old times they were using natural fibers to make strings and nothing is perfect in natural world. Having the same thickness when they were not using string nocks and the arrow was sliding up or down on the string until the archer was happy with its position it might have been a challenge that today is taken care of by using the serving.

Nock will also wear the string, possibly more than string contact with clothing etc.

There cant be any good reasons to not use a serving, and plenty of reasons to use one. Wild Bill hit those points

Plus when its worn you only have to replace the serving, not spin another whole string.

I as well as many other folks have shot selfbows for years with no serving on the string. A tab wears it virtually none, a glove maybe slightly more.

The biggest contributor would be an armgurd that gets hit often (which you need to corect any way) or nocks that are too tight.

the serving protects the string. Jawge

D31 Strings have been served for probably 100 years what ever the reason, I'm sure they wouldn't serve a string for no good reason, however if that turn your crank so be it.

Bob

Pretty common in flight shooting to reduce the serving to the bare minimum in length. Just enough to have all your fingers and the nock on serving. Actually, that's the way I set up any bow I'm shooting. The rest is just added weight on the string. .

Two or three years ago I started shooting again after a thirty-seven year absence from archery. (Long story) I dusted off my old bow and went to the local archery shop and they made a new string for me. One day I was shooting and the string broke on me. Not at the loop where I've had strings in the past break, but in the middle of the string. Well it turns out that it broke because the middle serving didn't extend far enough down the string and my arm guard was rubbing the string which eventually worn though. Another thing I never new was that the center serving is wound opposite for left handed shooters and right handed shooters or so I was told by someone.

Everything Wild Bill said plus it aids in smoothness of the release, center serving is slicker and more durable, plus as was mentioned the direction the serving lies in the string will make it slide off the tab easier and keep you from plucking the string strands like a harp string!

The serving makes it easier on the fingers .

Zildjian51:

If the serving was wound a different direction for left and right shooters, they would have left and right hand strings, have you ever seen one !!!!

Bob

And sometimes the serving is put on too tight and that breaks the string. Have seen that more than a few times.

Aromakr- I have seen strings wound the opposite of what I consider to be normal. I just assumed that a lefty twisted it up. It did come to me with a right handed bow, though.

Bob, I have never accepted the answer,"It has always been done this way, for anything."

When I first started farming I was young and took some classes at the local university. I wasn't born into a farming family, my father was a rancher and there is a difference.

I had just taken a class on applying pesticides. It went into application rates, Nozzle types, surfactant oils, ground speeds and all kinds of formulas to calculate how much pesticide to apply to kill the weeds depending on the variety, time of season, stage of development and other factors.

I often ate breakfast at an older local farmers house. All the old timers would be there solving the worlds problems over a few pots of coffee, some home cured bacon and fresh eggs. They all gave me the business regularly about being ,"BOOK LEARNED" and often said you can't learn to be a farmer reading NO DAM BOOK with a big laugh.

I asked one day about needing to spray a forty acre field for me that had been fallow for three years. It was solid weeds and native grasses and I planned on putting it into Alfalfa. All the old boys looked at me and said Jim, a fellow farmer who lived down the road a few miles does all the spraying for everybody around here.

Jim came to breakfast the next day and I asked him about spraying my field to BURN IT DOWN. The term that is used to kill all the growing vegetation before planting a new crop.

I asked him what application rate he used. How many gallons per minute his nozzles were rated at and if he had adjustable spray patterns. I asked him what ground speed he used and what surfactant oil he mixed in the tank. I asked him all the questions that I had been taught to make sure that the several hundred dollars I was about to spend was going to be put to good use.

The answer I got is what follows. "I dump the pesticide in the sprayer and fill it with water as much as I figure it needs to cover the size field I'm spraying. I pull the sprayer with a Farmall M in third gear at half throttle. The nozzles were on the sprayer when I bought it, cant tell you anything about them.This pesticide business ain't rocket science. Sometimes it kills them weeds and sometimes it don't, that's just farming." I could not believe it when the rest of the fellas chimed in with the, "that's farming" answer.

I bought my own sprayer, did my own math, calculated the correct mixes and never had a field that I sprayed not die. I soon had farmers stopping by and telling me they thought Jim was awful busy and would I mind mixing up a tank for them and spraying their fields. No one ever said out loud that the way they were doing it wrong for years, they just said Jim was busy and would I mind helping out.

I learned a valuable lesson back then. Just because it is the way it has always been don't mean it is the right way or the best way or the easiest way, it just means its the way we have always done it. Good Day

If you were to read "The British Archer" by Thomas Hastings, 1831, in the FREE archeryonline, it tells that the string should be served to keep it from wearing. The older books on there tell pretty much the same thing, but Hastings is easier reading. bvd

oldgoat,

The smoothness of release didn't enter my thinking till you mentioned it, thanks.

The direction of the serving wind prevents a loosening of the twist, depending on the handedness of the drawing hand, or so I understand it. The left or right wind is as viewed from the top of the bow. I'm inclined to believe monofilament was more prone to the loosening, and any braided serving with the proper tension has a better grip and flex on the string.

"If the serving was wound a different direction for left and right shooters, they would have left and right hand strings, have you ever seen one !!!!

Bob"

Consideration of the left or right wind of serving was a part of what I was taught about bowstring making.

Love the farm analogy! I can relate to that.

When serving strings became a thing, string material was a LOT different then it is now.

Not saying it isn'ta good practice, but the historical reasons may or may not be valid anymore.

So for a right-handed shooter, serving should be wound clockwise so when drawing string twists with the direction of serving twist?

Aromakr - No I don't believe I have ever seen one. That's why it was surprising to me. When I got my new bow from Jay St. Charles, he told me that he had sent the wrong string for my bow. He right a string for a right handed bow instead of a left handed bow. I didn't understand that at the time. In brushing up on making strings by watching You-tube, they say that your top loop should be bigger than your bottom loop which makes sense for un-stringing your bow. But if both loops were the same size, couldn't you just turn the string upside down and the center serving would be winding in the other direction?

I have shot right handed most of my life and because of an injury 10 years ago I had to change to left hand, have made my own string 40+ years and never paid attention to the direction of serving nor did I ever have a problem. If the string is served properly I can not see why there should be a problem.

Bob

I agree Aromakr! Sometimes I feel things get too techincal and complicated and people over think stuff. LOL

B31, tell us when your string breaks and we'll tell you when our serving breaks.

Bowmania

D31 -

Can you shoot a string without a serving? Of course you can. Is it a good idea? No.

The primary purpose of the serving is to protect the string material from repeated abrasion by the fingers, arrow nock, and if you're an Olympic shooter, the arm guard (more no that in a bit). Secondary reason is to keep the stands together between release and shock, when the string tension is at it's least.

With most trad anchors and a modicum of form, the gap between the string and the forearm is wide enough to prevent arm bites. When I was shooting that way, a lot of my servings were 3-3.5 inches in length, just enough to protect the string from my fingers (tabs). With an Olympic bow (lower anchor and tighter form), slight string to forearm buzzes are more common and even expected - so back to the more common 7-8 inch serving.

The direction of the center serving wraps should be in the same direction as the string twist to keep everything tight, but if you actually know how to serve a string, it's not really "critical".

Viper out.

I've had significant serving wear, to the point of having to re serve a string.

I served one of my strings with yellow nylon serving thread for my target bow. Looked great but after a year or so the serving under the arrow got real dark from the tab and wear. It is a visual reminder of the wear that the serving protects the string from.

KPC, a politically correct archer does not designate “boy” strings and “girl” strings but would instead utilize mono serving.

I think too the serving helps add weight and stability to the string allowing it to flow thru the shot sequence smoothly. Does that make sense ? The weight would pull the string straight toward the bow riser.

My two cents. I can ask the Eng at Hoyt but that’s my gut instinct. It also protects the string.

Frank

The English archers served their bowstrings for hundreds of years to help prevent wear and make a snug fit on the arrow nock; but then, what did the English knpw about archery compared to the experts of the Leather Wall? bvd

Older bow string materials were IME more prone to wear, modern material not as much. Personally I think keeping the strands together, making the diameter larger for finger relief, nock fit, and adding weight to string are all pluses.

"The serving adds weight to the string" Interesting. How much weight would that be?

I always thought that I should put my serving on my string in the same direction that I twist the string up but was told by many that it doesn't make a difference which way I put the serving on my string. I still put my serving on in the same direction that I twist it up because"it ain't broke so no need to fix it".

Hico, I have always been inquisitive about the how's and the whys of everything around me from nature to tools, machinery, behaviors, customs, or cultures. It all interests me.

It is my nature to tinker, experiment and question why and how things work and in that process I have found that often there was a valid reason for the way something was done.

And at other times I have discovered that the reason for a process or procedure, tool or instrument was valid at the time of its conception but no longer is.

I am not embarrassed or apologetic when asking why something is the way it is. I think to many of use are worried about looking less intelligent if we ask questions.

In my way of thinking the one who keeps his mouth shut and accepts all as the gospel is the one who is missing out on the adventures of learning and the possibility of growing and making new discoveries.

Sometimes we learn the old way is the best way but often enough we find out that the new way is better that it makes asking the question well worthwhile. Good Day

D31, Those old English writers told why they did things the way that they did. If that is not good enough for you, then I don't know what is. bvd

D31...Good for you! I was pretty much the same way growing up. In school I would ask why and usually given the same reason. You don't need to know why, that's just the way it is. That just wasn't good enough for me. I just figured they didn't know themselves so I'd research until I found an answer that satisfied me. You'll learn more and retain it longer.

D31, it is ok to question everything. It is just mighty tiring to not use a preexisting body of knowledge.

I make my own Flemish bow strings twisting them clockwise and serve them in the same direction. I don't use a server. I serve by hand.

I also make my own bows and arrows (from scratch) so protecting the string is probably a good idea.

Jawge

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