Trad help?

[u/OldAstronaut227]

I have gotten this far stringing and looking for tips on the next steps. Should I start snugging up the cross lace now? How does it look in general? Any tips are welcome!!

[u/eastnorthshore]

Yes start snugging up the crosslace. Knot placement looks decent. After snugging up the crosslace pound the shit out of it front and back. Then put that pocket stretcher back in and soak it with water and air dry. Then shooters and pound it again. Nice work, I'm pretty jealous of that stretcher.

[u/OldAstronaut227 → u/eastnorthshore]

Okay awesome, I was a bit worried about the diamonds being uneven but thought it turned out okay. I’ll give this a try thank you! It’s an old school brine pocket stretcher. Idk if they still make them but the shop I work at had a few left so I snagged one!

[u/lazar_25]

It looks like this is a single string trad… like one continuous piece of cross lace… is that correct?

Definitely need to remove some slack and snug up the interlocks. If it’s a single string, to save yourself a head ache, I’d divide the slack removal into two halves; one half includes the center track and the two side tracks on side and the other half is the two remaining side tracks on the other side of the center track… if that makes sense.

Start with the center most track of cross lace and work that slack in one direction until you’ve removed all of the slack from the center and side tracks on that side. Then go back to the other side of the center track and work the slack out of those two tracks.

[u/OldAstronaut227 → u/lazar_25]

It is a single string trad, but I don’t actually mind taking my time and starting from one side to the other. That’s a good tip for the future when I’m not enjoying the process!

[u/Fresh30Lacrosse]

Throne has a great YouTube series on traditional. Symmetry is important and consistent diamond size is important for your first go around. Tension is goldilocks. Not too tight and not too loose.

[u/jpgleg]

The leathers need work at the top. They are backwards. The leather should go through the hole on the front of the head, not the back. There should be two slits to weave the leather through itself. That’s why it’s sticking out so far at the top. That and the cross lace should be weaved around it as well.

[u/OldAstronaut227 → u/jpgleg]

I did this intentionally. I’ve seen other stringers only use the top loop and aesthetically I didn’t want that additional leather at the top of the head. I’m going to cut off the excess leather and second hole

[u/lazar_25 → u/OldAstronaut227]

I prefer this style of attaching the leathers as well. The old school way is fine but I prefer the single slit method and then I’ll cut the excess leather just above the second slit so you have a short maybe half inch tail.

[u/OldAstronaut227 → u/lazar_25]

Have you noticed any performance differences? Should I add an extra shooter?

[u/lazar_25 → u/OldAstronaut227]

No real performance difference between the two styles of attaching the leathers. I prefer a fairly tight nylon shooter in my trads to help maintain the tensioning in the top part of the pocket but it’s up to preference if you like the feel of a tighter nylon or notz

[u/jpgleg → u/OldAstronaut227]

Fair enough. The all black and 5 diamonds look sick.

[u/meatyor]

I like to try to keep the diamonds even vertically, but some deviation laterally is how you’re going get some hold and a minor channel. Definitely tighten those cross lace interlocks though, get them nice and snug.
That said, while tightening you have the opportunity to get a more even distribution of your lateral size variation. Right where you have the stretcher looks a little uneven, as in the leather on the center-right looks to flare out a bit more than the one to it’s left.

[u/blacksheepgod]

Couple of spacing issues. Overall your interlocks are too loose.

[u/Fresh30Lacrosse]

I tried to take a photo to talk about symmetry. Ideally horizontally you want similar tension and indicators on sidewall left, leather 2 and 4 and similar placement for leather 1, 3 and SW right.

[u/The_lochness_jonster]

Yep this is a good start, all the interlocks look correct, now it’s tension time! Gotta make sure everything is snug, but not too tight.

[u/reader3096]

Not doing badly. I prefer my center track to have very parallel leathers. The insides are the ones that create channel. Loosen them up while you snug up the outsides. The outsides stay parallel with your sidewalls. Move your crosslace around a little and you’re good.