Fancy: How About Grass Trimmer Line?

After successfully testing with fishing line (link), I thought I'll venture back on land and see how would the grass trimmer line (weed wacker) perform in a racket. 

Since this string is designed with six-sided blades to cut grass, it should not have any problems shaving some ball fur instead right?

This is the thinnest trimmer line I could find and it's still 1.7mm. The thickest tennis strings are only about 1.4mm! Fitting this through the grommets would be challenging.

While studying the string's properties, I noticed clamps leave some bite marks. So, to ease threading this thick line through the grommets, I flattened both ends with a pliers and then split the string into two to thin it out. One of the split end is removed.

Even then, it takes some force to pull through the grommet. The string is very very rough. After being cut by the fishing line last time, I now use pliers for all pulls.

There is just so much friction from the rough string that even the grommets were accidentally pulled out!

Unfortunately, one of the dislodged grommet was from a tie-off hole. So re-inserting it was almost impossible. I cut them out and replaced them with individual grommets. (!@#$%^&*~)

Just getting the mains done took me more than an hour! I did not want to rush the job and end up damaging all the grommets in this racket. All threading and pulls were slow and deliberate.

Compared to the mains, weaving the crosses was much easier! But by the last cross, I realised that fingerprints on both my index fingers (which I use to weave) were all dis-figured. That's how rough the trimmer line is!

Here's a closer look. Can you see the ridges on the blue line?

Playtest:
- There is a very low pitched pinging sound upon ball impacts. Within a few hits, my doubles partner beside me asked if this was strung at very low tension.
- Spin is above average. As usual, slices shine.
- I had no problems with directional control. The stringbed felt tight and firm but there is an odd feeling.
- Power is very good. No trampoline.
- Volleys are very nice and easy.
- After about an hour, there is zero notching on the mains.
- The odd part is the harder the hits, the better the stringbed feels. Perhaps it is due to the extra thickness of 1.7mm, any light strokes feel dull, but heavy all-out swings really come to life with very nice and soft pocketing. This aspect is very similar to my experience with freshly strung natural gut. Even the powerful rebound of this trimmer line is very close to gut.
- If this line does break-in or soften with use, then I think there is a huge potential as a comfort string.
- Another downside is this thick line feels heavier than the usual 15g or so for tennis strings. The racket's swingweight increased slightly, but I like heavy swingweight rackets.

26Aug2013 update:
- The low pitched pinging sound totally disappeared. It didn't bother me anyway.
- The stringbed seems to have softened very slightly. It does not seem to demand a full bash just to obtain that soft pocketing feel today.
- Control and spin seems to have improved, or I may just be hitting better this session.
- Again, full strokes are required. Half-hearted swings are usually punished with balls going into the net or towards the fence.
- To me, this is a very playable setup. But I still need a lot of convincing given how difficult it is to string!

28Aug2013 update:
- Despite this being a very thick line to use for tennis, its ability to stretch exceeds that of tennis synthetic gut, at least for the type of syn gut I use.
- Most of the multifilament and syn gut strings that I use have a elastic stretch ranging from about 1.5cm at 25lbs to 2.4cm at 70lbs. 
- Take a look at the chart below and see how stretchy this trimmer line is.

- This chart only shows one aspect of this string, and it is evident that this line is very elastic with very low deformation. That's why I thought it is suitable to be used for tennis and even strung my racket with it.
04Sep2013 update:
- I set this racket aside for about a fortnight to let the strings "settle-in".
- Control and spin were still very very good.
- Serves were excellent today. It had accuracy, power and spin. Against natural gut, syn gut and poly, I think this trimmer line delivered serves much better!
- The same dead feel happened with light and medium shots. Once full baseline strokes were taken, the stringbed came to live.
- Volleys, however were good. Probably because of the power and pocketing.
- Return of serves were similarly dead since I don't swing all out for returns.
- To me, the biggest disadvantage of this "dead" feel is the inability to gauge depth of ball. There is so little feedback that I cannot tell if I got the sweetspot or missed it. There is just nothing, no feel, no harshness. 
- Out of fear of hitting the ball long, I ended up blocking most shots ball back, which became sitting ducks for my partner to slam down.
- I think serve and volley players would like this setup very much. The other group that can appreciate this would be very hard and heavy baseline bashers who are thoroughly committed to their shots.