Category Archives: Natural Gut String
A Perfect Fail!
No one likes a failure but it does happen, especially, with tennis string.
This is the perfect fail if you are using natural gut string. You can see the natural fibers of the string have been unraveling and finally reached the point where the stranding could no longer handle the impact of a ball hitting that area.
Natural gut and some multi-filament synthetic strings will exhibit this failure mode. The great thing about natural gut is that it plays better longer than other string materials.
The problem is that it is quite difficult to quantify “better” but it is easy to quantify “broken”. I recommend, if you are using natural gut, play with it until it breaks or the “fraying” is so bad you know it won’t last another match.
The use of Sting Savers can extend the life of natural gut string and will not affect the “feel” of the racquet.
Summer Heat!
Welcome everyone (in the northern hemisphere) to the first day of summer! You guys in the southern part of the globe will have to wait a while.
For some of you this will be the beginning of your tennis season so take a few minutes to get your equipment ready for the action. Here are a few suggestions that will make it easier and more fun for you.
Get your racquet strung! A fresh string will provide the right start to your season and will perform better than those old things. Fresh strings can cost between $25 and $68 and are certainly worth it!
Babolat VS Team 17 Natural
Babolat N.Vy Synthetic
Replace your grip, both of them! The synthetic grip that normally comes with a racquet needs to be replaced at least twice a year but more often in the heat. I know all of you use “over grips” and this should be replaced after every match, period. That is what they are made for…do it!
Do not leave your racquet in a very hot spot, like the trunk of your car, a hot table at the courts, or in direct sunlight. The elevated temperatures allow the string molecules to relax and therefore string tension is lost. This loss, unfortunately, can not be recovered. I have tried! Elevated temperatures will take a quick and dramatic toll on grips as well.
If you play on soft courts try to brush the grit off of the string before you put the racquet away. Simply use a soft towel for this but don’t rub the string just brush it.
Keep in mind that the “performance” life of string is about 25 hours of playing time for a recreational player, less for tournament players. Strings do not last forever, although some of you have tried. Just because your string is not broken does not mean it is as good as new.
Keeping your racquet in top notch condition is not expensive or inconvenient. If you have any questions about any of this send me a note or call.
Have a great tennis summer!
What Shape is Your String In?
Normally when we ask this question it is regarding the “playing” shape, i.e. how is the string bed stiffness, how is the notching, how long has it been in the racquet and some others.
However, this time the question is “what is the shape of your string?”
For many years tennis racquet string has been round. The round shape is fairly easy to manufacture, using many materials, including multi-filament constructions. Round strings present a uniform shape that reacts similarly regardless of installation procedure. Round strings typically provide uniform tensions because there is no “sides” to create additional friction during installation.
The last ten (10) years have seen the increase of polyester, or combinations called co-poly’s, as a tennis racquet string material. Along with this material came a new, for tennis racquet string, manufacturing process which is essentially extruding a molten material in a nice long continuos strand.
This process can produce a lot of string in a very short time! This processing technique can produce very inexpensively to be sure. It also allows for shapes! Almost any shape! All it takes is a “die” of the shape you want as the last thing the string sees before it gets to the cooling tanks or “embossing” wheels.
Make no mistake, however, these strings can be very technical in design and material formulations. So,if you pay $40.00 for a stringing using one of these strings don’t be surprised.
Back to shapes…
It is common to see three, four, five, six, seven, and even eight sided strings all over the place. Some of these strings present challenges in terms of installation and, therefore, performance because not only are they shaped they are “twisted”. Twisting a string creates huge variations in tension unless installed in a controlled way.
A couple of weeks ago a client presented me with a reel of Solinco string that is intended to be similar to the very popular Luxilon ALU Power Rough. The Solinco is silver, (the image below shows it sort of blue) low elongation, textured string, mostly typical of polyesters. The unusual property is that the shape of this string is oval! It should be noted here that Gosen, a major string manufacturer, has made oval shaped strings for years.
In addition to being oval the string is very aggressively “textured”, actually embossed, which, I believe contributes to the oval shape. Heres why. When the string is finishing the processing it is passed through an embossing wheel that creates small indentations in the string. When this happens the string will flatten out, or become oval. This process can also contribute to elongation.
Solinco Not Released 16L
If the manufacturer wanted the string to be perfectly round it would subject the string to a pulling process but this is not what I see in the Solinco string, which does not yet have a name.
Initial play tests show significant durability when paired with natural gut. Control seems to be better than average. When finished the strings seem to be laying flat against the corresponding cross string which could contribute to string movement.
So…what shape is your string in?
Octave String Natural Gut
For many years natural gut has been the target of many attempts to make it less expensive. Most of these attempts have not been truly exceptional.
According to the manufacturer, Octave Strings, this natural gut string will sell for $12.00 per set. Compare this to Babolat, for example, that sells for over $45.00 per set. Octave Strings natural gut is available in natural color at the moment but a black version will be availalbe according to the manufacturer.
Readers, this is not Babolat, Wilson, Pacific, or Bow Brand quality for sure but it can not be discounted without adequate evlauation.
Octave Strings is the latest, as far as I know, to enter into the tennis string market with a natural gut product. I suspect the string samples I recieved were of the sheep serosa. The string is available in a package of two (2) pieces of 6.5M lengths which leads me to that conclusion, and, was just confirmed by the manufacturer.
The foil and sealed bag packaging is the best I have seen from low cost offerings which gave me hope that this would be a “value” alternative. Not withstanding what follows this may be an alternative for use in a hybrid format.
The first lab test I do is to determine elongation and this string has very high elongation. It tested at ≈ 10.7%. Compare this to Babolat VS Touch at ≈11%. This is not the same as “dynamic stiffness”.
When I do this testing I have the opportunity to inspect and measure the string diameter. Here is where this string goes way off. The diameter, or gauge, varies a great deal over the length of each piece. The diameter ranged from .050 to .056 and in fact some areas it was difficult to get the string through the grommet. You can, of course, cut off the very stiff end but then you are subjected to fraying ends that will never work!
Octave String tip diameter.
I have strung a Babolat Pure Drive with one set of this string and will be reporting more information periodically. One area that is very interesting is that the string is very stable, meaning it is holding tension pretty well so far. The racauet has not been hit with. It has been seven (7) days since the racquet was strung and the string bed stiffness has decreased by ≈8%. This is very stable behaviour but we will see how it reacts to hitting.
I am going to do some work with the 16 gauge to see how it compares to the 17 gauge keeping in mind that there was a large variation in gauge in the 17 gauge package.
Ocatve Natural Gut 17 Gauge
Babolat/Octave Visual Comparison
More later…
Racquet Quest, LLC
