wood racquet questions

[penguin]

two questions:

1) on some racquets you get this red leather loops around the frame. On dunlop maxply's they are just painted on, but some like 131507609178
on the auction site at the moment they are actual leather strips. Do they serve any function? I am looking at a racquet where they are broken and I don't know whether it matters or not.

2) on old string jobs they often put a little piece of thread through the strings at the top and bottom of the stringbed outside the crosses. What does this do?

thanks

 

[joe sch]

two questions:

1) on some racquets you get this red leather loops around the frame. On dunlop maxply's they are just painted on, but some like 131507609178
on the auction site at the moment they are actual leather strips. Do they serve any function? I am looking at a racquet where they are broken and I don't know whether it matters or not.

2) on old string jobs they often put a little piece of thread through the strings at the top and bottom of the stringbed outside the crosses. What does this do?

thanks

The racket you referenced is a Wilson Kramer Cup which was not a model that Jack even played, i.e. not as nice as his autograph JKA models. Those were not leather shoulder wraps. Those wraps and the string tremblings are all just decorative and do not provide any additional structural or string bed performance. Some of the wood rackets had a laminate coating that did provide good wood protection. Some of the antique wood rackets actually had leather shaft wraps and they were still just for decoration.

 

[treble]

Question2:

Trebling: It's the thin red rough or smooth thread at top and bottom. Used to decide who serves first.

You'd say rough or smooth, your opponent would spin the racket .
After it dropped down either rough or smooth would be facing upwards. It is like heads and tails or your choice/my choice on Donnay rackets.

I am pretty sure there is a thread about this subject hidden somewhere in this forum.

 

[JohnBPittsburgh]

You are so awesome!!! I have been wondering about those red threads ever since I started looking at wood racquets!!!! Thank you for that tidbit of knowledge!