It is said that “a picture is worth a thousand words,” which may be true as long as the picture tells a story.

This story is about natural gut string, and the pictures will show what we can achieve, informationally, with our testing equipment. The two (2) strings are Babolat VS Touch 17 and Luxilon Natural Gut 125.

Our Questron software scales the images to suit the data so the graphs will not be the same size.

Babolat VS Touch 17

Our testing loads the string from 0 pounds force to 50 pounds and back to zero then up to 50 pounds three (3) times.  This is the “stress/strain” curve.  Fifty (50) pounds is arbitrary and because we are using the same methodology for all string materials it is a good number.  The closer these lines are together the better.

The farther it takes to reach 50 pounds the “higher elongation” the string is.  In this case it is about 44mm.

The important property of this string is the linearity!  That is the “straightness” of the line from beginning to end.  This indicates predictability, stability, and consistency.

This picture tells us the tensile strength and the knot strength.  In this case the knot strength is 52.3 pounds and takes a stretch to very close to 60mm before failure.

Luxilon Natural Gut 125

What is, probably, the first thing you notice about this “picture”? Could it be the squiggly lines? What could be causing this?

We believe it is the “break-in period” players associate with Luxilon gut! We have heard it from the players but have not been able to “see” it! It could be the bonding agents realigning as the load is applied.

You will notice a couple of things: the similarity of the “stress/strain” curve and the displacement to “knot strength” of the two strings. This string will feel a little less “soft” than the Babolat VS Touch 17. The linearity is quite good up to failure.

So, based on these pictures, could you make a recommendation? If so, let us hear them!