A knot on the outside of the hoop?

[ryushen21]

Fellow Stringers and people far more knowledgeable than I,

Have you ever seen a string job done with a knot tied on the outside of the hoop? One of my players gave me her racquet to restring and as I was cutting out the old strings, I was immediately shocked by how the knots were tied. All of the tie-offs appeared to be 3 or more half hitches stacked up. Then, I got around to where the starting knot should have been for the crosses and there was the same stack of half hitches on the inside and another set of half hitches on the outside of the frame!

As far as I can tell, the previous stringer didn't know how to use a starting knot and/or didn't have a starting clamp to start the crosses correctly. So he created this monstrosity in an attempt to hold things in place when pulling tension on the crosses. The grommet on this tie-off hole is pretty scragged as the knots were pulled into it. There was pretty much nothing left of it on the inner hoop but it seemed ok as it passed through the frame. I was still able to restring the racquet by moving the tie-off to the other side of the racquet but I didn't charge the player since her grommets are going to need replacement.

Outside of someone lacking experience or knowledge, have y'all ever seen anything like this?

 

[LocNetMonster]

S/he may have done the starting knot that way because the grommets were whacked when they received it. Sounds like the half hitches were done in succession to protect the string from rubbing against the edges of the hole.

 

[ryushen21]

S/he may have done the starting knot that way because the grommets were whacked when they received it. Sounds like the half hitches were done in succession to protect the string from rubbing against the edges of the hole.

The tie-offs were all done the same way though. This leads me to believe the stringer may not have known the correct way to tie knots.

 

[esgee48]

A few years ago, I received a racquet that had poorly tied DHH. They were not snuggled against the anchor string and the last mains and last cross were very loose. The last loop was also unraveling. Have never seen a starting knot outside the frame either. I told the owner that the knots were very poorly tied. IIRC the reply was that it was strung by a family member. I commiserated with the client and they received the racquet back with 2 pro knots. When asked why only 2 knots, I showed them how the ATW pattern was accomplished.

FWIW, if the tie off hole is messed up, they could use a Deadman knot version to prevent the string from entering the grommet.