Badminton Racket with Fishing Line

Recently, there has been some requests for me to re-string badminton rackets. I have no idea how and why this happened. Those who know that I string just started asking.

To them, it seemed like stringing is just stringing. There is no distinction between different sports nor rackets.

So, on a hot and lazy afternoon, out of sheer boredom, and a tinge of curiosity, I ventured out to try stringing my first badminton racket. It's mine, so there's little risk even if damaged. 

After studying the old string pattern carefully, I cut out the three decade's old strings on my Yonex Carbonex 8.

This stringjob was intended for a little girl, so there is no better color to choose other than pink! The centre mains were threaded first since they would be obstructed by the mounting plates.

Most online sources recommended a string tension of between 16 to 20 lbs for this racket. And 20 lbs happened to the minimum tension this stringing machine could accomodate. So 20 lbs it was.

(Even with the minimum calibration at 20 lbs, it is possible to tension it lower by manipulating the angle of the tension arm. If I set the tension at 25 lbs, but only allowed the tension arm to lower to 45 degrees, the actual tension pulled would be only 17.7 lbs)

To prevent the string clamps from snapping the string, I inserted thin pieces of paper to act as a "cushion". This ensures the paper was squashed instead of the thin string. The paper fibres also added a lot more friction and grip. I experienced zero slippage throughout.

It was important to note that badminton rackets are strung bottom-up. Cannot recall the rationale but something alone the lines to prevent distortion I think.

Weaving was difficult. The very dense 22x23 string pattern meant my fingers could not push the strings through the gaps as well as on a tennis racket. I was slow, but got the job done.

The stringjob was far from ideal. But it was an enjoyable learning experience and perfectly playable!