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Tying knots in polyester

Q: Do you happen to have any video of a good stringer tying knots in polyester? I’m trying to get an idea of the amount of forearm strength required.

A: Very little forearm strength is needed to tie knots, even in polyester. Even though you can pull on polyester pretty hard without breaking it, it is not good practice to do so. Over-pulling knots is a major cause of knot breakage in general, and if you get in the habit of pulling polyester harder than necessary, you can run into trouble when stringing nylon or gut. If you are having difficulty getting tight knots with no slack in polyester, try making your first light pull away from the grommet. This pulls most of the slack out of the string. Then pull back toward the grommet, and maintain tension as the knot tightens and removes the remaining slack from the string. Keep holding the end of the string until after you release the clamp to ensure that the knot will stay locked. If you still have problems, you might try tensioning the last string (before tying-off) a couple pounds higher than the others, to compensate for the small tension loss you sometimes get when releasing the clamp.

From the April 2007 issue
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