Soaping your string to make it less slippery?

[Sean]

or rub soap along it

Norbi, I'm sick and tired of useless slippery string for a couple days... your soap idea sounds interesting. What kind of soap do you find works best? How much do you rub on? Does this have any lasting effects on the string or axles?

[norbi]

Well i get the soap wet-ish, hold it in my hand with the string and pull the soap down/up the string a few times (quite tightly, so it makes ridges in your soap). i'm not sure about the type, i just use what's about. Then i rub it dry with a towel, wash the soap off (although this doesnt take ALL the soap off, obviously). run it dry again. Then do some 1 diab speed loops for a few minutes, and 2 diab backwraps. It starts off not working at all, but within a couple of minutes its at a great speed. I cut a length of new string and 10 minutes later i did a triple sprinkler! So u see, it works.

Just play around until you find a method that works, i dont think i do the same thing everytime, but roughly.

Oh also, on a similar topic, if you put a piece of well used string in the washing machine, then when its finished it is really nice and clean BUT is still as sticky (couldn't think of a better word) as you want it. Apparently, i havnt actually tried this, not sure how you stop it from going in the little holes in the machine. Give it a try.

[Arjan]

You could put your string in a net, to avoid it getting trough small holes. There are nets like this I believe.

[Sean]

Wow, cheers for the advice, Norbi. That whole soap thing is a miracle!

First I tried it with just water to see if it was just the moisture that spead up the break in. That didn't do anything. Then I tried some good old Ivory soap (99 and 44/100's pure or something like that ). It's amazing! The string is just perfect after a minute or two of working it in while the string dries. Some of the best triple sprinklers I've ever pulled off.

Now people are going to wonder why I carry a bar of soap with me everywhere along with my diabolos.... sigh.

Sean

[Christopher]

toothpaste works too!

[-Leo-]

Dry soap works better! The string is then instantly usable.

[DiaboloWebb]

Spraying it with Cheap Deodrant and then doing the lighter trick works, but shortens the lifespan of the string to about 15 minutes of play....not recomended lol, although spraying with cheap deodrant and then leaving it to dry seems to work, also works quite well if your string is worn out aswell, brings a bit of smoothness to it

[Shaun]

kinda off topic, but its related to string.
can you clean old string or extend its life somehow?

[William]

can you clean old string or extend its life somehow?

Although spraying with cheap deodrant and then leaving it to dry seems to work, also works quite well if your string is worn out aswell, brings a bit of smoothness to it

Maybe?

[SilentScreamer]

Does this work with liquid soap too?

[seán_]

Norbi says no and I kind off think real soap works better. Opinion is divided as to whether the soap removes a coating from the string or coats the string and the holes in the weave or both.
I suggest experimenting with different sources of soap and see what works for you.

[SilentScreamer]

Well, I've did exactly what Norbi said. Wet my soap, soap my string, dry my string, wash off the soap, dry my string, do some loop accleration with 2 wraps and then put a second diabolo in. The first time it helped a bit, the second time it became less rough than it was  ... Is there anything I'm doing wrong?

EDIT: After practising a bit sometimes it worked great, sometimes it doesn't. Maybe I'll soap again.

Thanks for helping me with this!

EDIT2: It is now as rough as the other string was! The soap worked really good!

[Niclas 2]

I must test the soap think,sounds great.
I hope i get it to works.

[mofro]

if y'all want a great piece of advice i have tried nearly everything washing up liquid, soap, toothpaste, fabric conditioner and just simply washing it..... BUT by far the best one to use is CANDLE WAX (yet to try hair wax)

give i a go.

mofro

[Mr.D]

Sorry for the bump, but I have some Qs about this soaping.

I bought a roll of Henry's flecked yellow string. It is, as you know, slippy.
So now I've tried both the soaping, doing exactly what Norbi said (wet soap, soap the string, wipe off, wash, dry).
I've also tried the candle wax tip, just rubbing the string around a (white) candle and wiping off the extras.

I've been playing with both of these strings for about 20 min, doing simple and double wrapped loop accelerations, some 2d stuff and more. At first they both felt a tiny bit more grippy, but after a min they both went back to being slippy, and they still are after 20 min play with each...
I have major problems doing a hover acceleration with 2 diabs, that is how slippy they are.

It seems that as the diabolos axles heat up from the friction of the string, the string act more slippy. Like the heat is melting the soap/wax or something?

So:
Any ideas?

[Sean]

I think some people that soap their string just use dry soap. I think most people just put up with it for a bit and eventually it gets perfect. It lasts longer this way too. You could stand there and do wrapped orbits with 4 wraps for 30 minutes, or you could just use it normally for a couple days. Helps to have 2 sets of sticks so you can always have one that's in good shape. You might want to wait for a humid day to speed up the break in process. You can get used to dealing with slippery string too. It used to be a big problem for me, but it's not so much any more.

You can also try rubbing it through some dirt while stepping on it, but like the soap, this will shorten the usable lifespan of the string.

[William]

The axle rubs work good. I something stand on one stick, wrap the string around the axle (basically imagine a pedal/foot elevator) and rub the axle up and down the string with alot of tension. the friction heats the axle making it work great. I used to do it all the time until I got into fringergrinds and got some nasty heat burns - don't do that.

[monkiatzu]

call em crazy, but i go to my garden with my new string and rup it in dirt
not too much of course
but after a few shuffles it feels heaps good
dont over do it with the dirt
it takes time to loose slipereperyness
good luck

[Mr.D]

Every guy who has asked "what am I doing wrong with the soaping" did later discover that it takes a few hours of play for the slipperiness to go away (rhyme! ). So did I. So now I feel stupid for writing the block of unnecessary text above... The string is now great

Btw, that mud/dirt trick. I have accidentally done that to some lengths of string and it worked great afterwards. The slipperiness is gone in an instance

[William]

I used to use dirt, now I use liquid soap and whip my string around until it dries. Now its still got the pretty bright yellow colour.