Sometimes you string 90% of a beautiful traditional and then right at the end, you say, “Oops, I ran out of crosslace,” and can’t finish the stick. Do you pull out the whole pocket and start over? Do you sacrifice tension in other places to pull through extra slack to finish? Or do you find a way to connect some crosslace and finish strong?
No, no, and yes. In that order.
This obviously doesn’t apply to stringing services or companies of the like, as they must deliver perfection to customers, but for those of us who string for themselves, finding a way to finish an incomplete pocket right is more than justifiable. While it might not look ideal to have a knot in your crosslace, if it helps save an almost complete traditional pocket that looks promising, I’m all for it. Function over fashion all day, every day.
I Ran Out of Crosslace
Here is an example of an almost-complete traditional pocket (see main photo). The crosslace is just too short to finish the pocket (expertly cut by yours truly), but I don’t want to start over. I want to finish. This means I need to attach a new piece of crosslace to the original longer piece of crosslace, and make sure the knot is strong, but not in the way of the pocket.
There are a number of different knots that can work here, but the two I would use most often can be seen below. One is simply achieved by wrapping the two pieces of crosslace together into a loop and pulling tight. The other is like a square knot, but with an extra wrap thrown in on one side.
If you use the second knot, add in two more small knots at the end of the crosslace segments after you pull the above knot tight. It’s not going anywhere.
You’ll want to make sure the crosslace has been pulled taut throughout the pocket, because you don’t want this knot to shift in the pocket very much. Then make sure the knot is as close to the sidewall as possible, to keep it away from the middle of the pocket. If the knot does slip to the middle of the pocket, and there is an open sidewall hole, try going through the hole with some of the leftover string and tying it off.
Obviously you want to have a perfect pocket, but if you want to save an almost perfect, almost finished traditional, this method can keep your stick alive, and most importantly, it will still function correctly.
If you have a question on how to fix part of a stick, let us know in the comments and we’ll try to provide you with an answer in the near future!
