Are silk yo-yo strings a thing? If so would they be awesome or terrible or just meh?
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I like silk string a lot. Itās a little bit stiff but very smooth to the touch and basically doesnāt fray. It feels weightier than poly and especially more than nylon.
Itās like a better trilobal poly to me. I think silk varieties vary a ton and the silk selection at craft stores in the US is kind of grim. So if you want to experiment with silk youāre best off trying to import. Korean silk thread seems to be a lot nicer than anything available in the US.
Iāve got some on my Checkmate right now that Iāve been using for a few months. I usually melt the ends of my strings, but since silk is a natural fiber it doesnāt melt like poly or nylon. So I just do a second knot at where I cut it to prevent the fray from being big and annoying.
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Interesting, Iāve never made my own string although Iād like to try eventually, do you know anywhere that sells pre made silk yo-yo strings?
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Unfortunately no, Iām really not sure why none of the boutique string brands have silk options. I kinda hate nylon string, but it really feels like nylon is the only material people have any interest in outside of poly.
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Dang! I guess Iāll have to make some eventually
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Iāve wondered what Kevlar might be like
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just out of curiosity, how are your binds with silk? my biggest turn off with nylon is that my binds end up being really slippy, iād imagine silk is on another level
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Iāve wondered this as well
Does silk do that thing where the slipknot on your finger keeps slipping around and becoming loose?
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I really like zipline skyline 3 and it got me thinking about silk because of how smooth it is
They used to have kevlar poly blends on here. Eagle strings I think. Neat concept but there wasnt enough kevlar for it to be much different
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Looks like Iāll have to shoot them a message lol
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Zero issues with binding, although I use flush permatex ultra gray in all my yoyos which is softer than pads and gives me aggressively grippy binds with pretty much any string. These are also just very thick strings, but I donāt have any snagging issues so the thickness is fine.
Your mileage may vary depending on how thick of a string you like and what your response setup is like.
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I donāt think they sell it but prolly has good insights.
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Gotcha, well Iād like to get into making my own anyway so any insight would be valuable
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My only advice is to not use or buy Guttermanā¦ itās literally gutter tier thread.
Iāve tried all of their versions (nylon, poly, silk, cotton) and have not liked any of them. Theyāre usually whatās in stock at my local Joannes or Michaels.
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Hi, Iām the silk guy pinged above. I source my strings from Korea. Iām Korean so itās always been easy to source silk for cheap on my end, but Iām not familiar with silk prices in the US.
I get my string from here:
http://hyunjinsa.co.kr/shop/list.php?ca_id=30
There are 3 different types of thicknesses for each colour. The thinnest (ź²¬ģ¬) is the thinnest, the middle one (ģ§ėģ“ė) is more or less the same thickness as most individual poly threads we see for yoyo string, and the thickest (ģėģ“ė) is about twice as thick as the middle option. You basically choose the colour and thickness you want. The colours are numbered so it should be easy to choose from the drop down menu.
Iām pretty sure they include international shipping options, but even if they donāt Iām sure you can find a proxy that will ship stuff from Korea to the US. I personally havenāt gotten anything internationally shipped from this website as I bought them when I was Korea and brought them with me when I moved to the US.
I highly recommend going for the thickest one. When I make my string, Iām pulling the threads hard every now and then during the twisting process to make sure the twist gets applied evenly across all threads and I found that for the thinner ones there is a small chance of it snapping during the twisting process. For the thickest one, you donāt have to worry about that.
I aim for 20-25% length reduction during the twisting process which results in a rather tightly twisted string, but I recommend you experiment it yourself as string tension preferences vary between people. More twisting result in a tighter string, increasing lifespan and whippiness but will lack when it comes to retaining tension so youāll have to adjust tension more often. Looser string donāt last as long and are less whippy, but will hold tension better.
I get 5 thick strands and twist it to make whatās equivalent of fat yoyo string. I personally think they last way longer than regular poly and are much much much whippier. I pretty much only do slack tricks so this whippiness is essential for me.
Different colours perform differently. I have used white, yellow, and pink from the manufacturer before. I personally use white due to visibility preferences, but I think yellow lasts the longest and also performs the most consistent. Keep in mind, that silk string has a metallic sheen, so the yellow might reflect some light during play, so sometimes the visibility can take a hit during play depending on where you are yoyoing. White is also very good, but I think theyāre ever so slightly less durable than yellows.
Pink is a tad too rough in my opinion and is monster whippy, I honestly think pink is most suitable for mixing with other types of threads, but I wouldnāt recommend making purely pink string.
Each spool costs around $2.50 each, and are rather small. Each spool can make around 3 strings depending on how much you twist and how long you make your string, but Iād say the material costs come out to be about a dollar per string. Itās high yes, but the durability makes it worth more than buying poly imo.
Also, silk string doesnāt really fray. Iād honestly consider it essentially frayless. I have months old silk string that frayed less than brand new poly string. I love this property of silk. Also I found silk to be more grabby for response than poly, so you will not have any bind slipping issues.
Silk stretches a little over time, but much less so than poly. If you were cutting your poly short to adjust for stretching over time, Iād recommend you cut less for silk. Silk stretching tops out pretty quickly so it wonāt take that long for silk to break in.
Also speaking of breaking in, brand new silk is crazy whippy, but once broken in it becomes ever so slightly less so and imo more ideal for tricks. Brand new silk can often be too whippy and if youāre not used to it, it will often overwhip and introduce extra wraps and stuff during tricks. However, since the break in time is rather short, it will stabilize pretty soon and Iām sure youāll like it.
Let me know if you guys have any other questions.
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Thank you so much for all this information!
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ive always wanted to try silk and on the opposite side kevlar. I do find it odd that there arenāt any silk boutiques in the US feels like a gap to me.
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