Post by Jorgomli on Dec 14, 2018 11:32:01 GMT -5
Taken from the Begleri Enthusiasts Hangout group File section:
Begleri and Cord Maintenance Guide
Claudia Yvette
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
After being a begleri player for going on 2 years from this point, there is a lot of maintenance I know I slack off on for my cords and I've kinda realized that after busting out a couple of 275 cords on a couple sets of mine. So I decided to set up this ‘maintenance’ guide to help other players with common issues of overuse of your begleri, mainly cords. Anyone willing to add to this guide is more than welcome!
2. In the event that you bust a cord, you can still use that same cord by a few simple adjustments I like to call ‘gutting’. Pull gently on the busted strings and cut them at the mid-point. Then you can pull on the strings left inside the cord as far as you can so that you can cut them or rather ‘gut’ them out of the cord. The cord will no longer have a stiff feel without the inner strings -- it will have a very relaxed feel, almost similar to a 550. This is handy if you have no spare cords with you but you still wanna slang. -Claudia Yvette
7. I mildly preshrink cord in warm water and when they start to fray I run the whole thing over a flame briefly. Same principle as when threads start coming out of your clothes, just snap it and use flame to secure. Always tie your first knot as a figure 8 or a double overhand so that if your cord ends up too short, you can re-adjust by replacing with a single overhand. If my aluminium beads take a hard knock on concrete I'll just take any sharpness out of the ding with the finest sandpaper I can find (I have an assortment of wet'n'dry to hand) Every now and then the beads get a wipe down with a t-shirt, Ultra-sonic cleaning has been contemplated but is uneccessary and will possibly damage anodization, I'm not sure on this though. Best maintenance is sling maintenance, if you don't sling them, they cease becoming begleri and turn into just beads.... So sling that hsit! -Jozef Newiadomy
Begleri and Cord Maintenance Guide
Claudia Yvette
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
After being a begleri player for going on 2 years from this point, there is a lot of maintenance I know I slack off on for my cords and I've kinda realized that after busting out a couple of 275 cords on a couple sets of mine. So I decided to set up this ‘maintenance’ guide to help other players with common issues of overuse of your begleri, mainly cords. Anyone willing to add to this guide is more than welcome!
1. Sweaty palms / fingers will degrade just about anything over time, as your sweat is acidic. Try soaking your cord every few days in water, let it air-dry overnight and apply a light coat of something like coconut oil or even ArmorAll. There's salt in your sweat as well - and that salt will tear the $^&* outta most everything... especially on the contact point where the string rotates in the bead hole. Just to be clear, the coconut oil / Armor-All was just an educated guess, on my part. Paracord is comprised of nylon and strong cleansers, including bleach and detergent should not be used on nylon components. If you want to wash the cord with actual soap and water, I'd recommend using something like Ivory soap. -David Rabbitt
3. For beads, it depends. Simple alloy beads I kinda mod with different coatings. Then they got a good 12 months of dings, and figured I wanted to keep them, but ditch the bright surface. So a kinder container with some steel bearings and a chemical etch, kinda suits the old look:) Thank you. -Luke Voysey
4. For beads: Depends on the surface, if painted and really dinged and not looking great I used a Dremmel with very fine sand attachment and make it raw, polish with some Mothers and leave it at that, prefer raw metals dinged, though also like painted till it's gone. -Paul Murphy
5. Occasionally I'll get a really heavy ding that raises up a sharp spur on the bead. Just use my nail file to smooth things out again. -Joshie Allen
6. For cords that bust out: it's good always to straighten it up by keeping other end tight and slide with fingers couple times. It straightens inner cords. Remember to do this before burning the ends of your cords. It usually should be done before you cut cords because if it's messed inners comes out it needs to be re-cut. Or I recommend you burn other end and then do that side so inners stay put and then cut and burn again. -Tuomo Tillander