Recurve Centre Serving - symmetrical?

fbirder

Member
I've just had couple of strings made for my 72" bow but I believe that the centre serving is placed incorrectly. When I attempted to put the nocking points on there was just a couple of cm of serving above the top point. Assuming the string was upside-down I restrung the bow, with the large loop on the bottom limb. But the serving was just the same.

With every other string I've used the centre serving has been asymmetrical, putting the string on upside-down is obviously different to right-side-up. But this string-maker insists that "The centre serving is always centre and 8" long."

I'm sure there must be several recurve string makers reading this. Do you make strings with the centre-serving placed dead-centre of the string?
 

Mormegil

Member
I make sure the serving goes to slightly below grip level on the riser (so no chance of arm contact on bare string). To get the mark for the top I put my bow square on the rest and mark where the top of the T sits on the string. So no, not centred exactly.
 

ThomVis

Active member
I make sure the serving goes to slightly below grip level on the riser (so no chance of arm contact on bare string). To get the mark for the top I put my bow square on the rest and mark where the top of the T sits on the string. So no, not centred exactly.
Ditto.
No need to make it longer, you want the limbs to propel arrow, not serving.
 

dvd8n

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I make my centre serving by putting the string on the bow, marking the nock point, then serving from about an inch above to about 5 inches below (again, for arm contact). It's not symmetrical, but not that far away. It may be that for a commercial string, an eight inch symmetrical string is the easiest to make to cover all cases.
 

dvd8n

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Ditto.
No need to make it longer, you want the limbs to propel arrow, not serving.
That's true, but you can really only go minimalist while serving the string on the bow and with a lot of data like nock height etc.
 

ThomVis

Active member
That's true, but you can really only go minimalist while serving the string on the bow and with a lot of data like nock height etc.
I'm not sure what you are trying to say. But the method I use works for me, YMMV.
 

dvd8n

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I'm not sure what you are trying to say. But the method I use works for me, YMMV.
Sorry it made sense in my head when I thought it.

I mean if you are making a string for someone else 100 miles awayand you serve it on the jig, you are going to stick a few more inches of serving on it for safety. And maybe still come up short.

If you are doing it for yourself on the bow then you will know your nock point, 3-under vs split, 3 finger vs 2, etc etc and you can put the minimal amount of serving on to do the job.
 

EVC

New member
The center of the bow is at the grip throat height. A symmetrical serving would be too long (extra dead weight). My center servings are around 4.5" long.
 

chuffalump

Well-known member
Well, I've only made a couple of strings but......same here. Enough serving to comfortably accommodate finger position above and below the nocking points. For some reason I don't like to pull on the back served sections, so those are extra.
 

Vagabond

New member
Don't think I've ever shot with a serving that's symmetrical.

I buy ready-made strings (452X material) then immediately re-do the centre serving using the minimum of serving material: just enough to keep my fingers off the string proper and with a reasonable margin.
For most bow types, the string isn't pulled from the dead centre (i.e. the whole string is asymmetrical), so I can see no advantage in making the serving symmetrical.


It's a good idea to keep a minimum of serving above the nocking point since it is illegal (GNAS rules) for the serving to end within your line of sight.
This can be a problem for bare-bow archers & string walking.


V
 

geoffretired

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There are two ways to think about the centre serving. One is to make it so there is enough serving above the nocking point to keep that end of the serving in place; while making it long enough to reach down to where the bracer would rub if there was string contact.
The other is (I think) slightly outdated now, but it is placed on the string centrally. The thinking I guess is that upside down makes no difference... and you can have two nocking points on it. When one nocking point wears down, you fit the string the other way round and use a second one. This wasn't uncommon when money was tight. However, the serving should be long enough for the top ( whichever way round) is high enough above the nocking point to stay in place when being shot.
In Fbirder's case, another inch top and bottom would work better at keeping the serving in place. Too little above the nocking point can unravel, or slide up the string.
 

archeryal

Member
Some speed demons make the serving as short as possible to make it light and gain a tiny bit of speed. Also, if you serve above where the nose would touch the string, it could be used as an aid in aiming, which is illegal. "The serving on the string must not end within the athete's vision at full draw." - I guess you could make it super-long to avoid this, but I don't know why you would.
 

dvd8n

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I just measured a serving that I did myself. It has a little over 1" above the nocking point and a little over 4" below - not huge but not minimalist either. It just so happens that it was 1/2" away from central.
 
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