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Floating knots

Q: I have been stringing for 20 years, and our facility strings more than 500 racquets a year. I thought I’d seen it all, but I have come across a very strange problem. One of your certification testers has instructed some of my stringers to use a knot that I have never seen before. He told them not to tie the knot around the main or cross string, but instead to float it in the grommet hole. He claims this is a new technique in stringing and prolongs grommet wear and increases tension accuracy. This sounds absurd to me but before I question his expertise I want to get your input.

A: The free-floating knot used to be optional for starting the cross strings, although at some point in the last 21 years it was dropped from our materials. It’s worth mentioning that there are many different knots for tying off tennis string, and some of the pro stringers even have “signature” knots that allow them to identify at a glance racquets they have strung. The bottom line is that although USRSA no longer teaches that knot, it does work.

If deciding on a starting knot seems more trouble than it’s worth, you can always clamp the starting tail of the string outside of the frame with a starting clamp, install the crosses as normal, and then come back and tie a “finishing” knot where you would otherwise tie a starting knot. To remove the starting clamp, you re-tension the starting tail, remove the starting clamp, and clamp off with the machine (or floating) clamp as you normally would.

See all articles by Greg Raven

From the May 2007 issue
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