I was trying to work out some bugs and find a new solutions to existing problems. In the process i made a few new discoveries, which i will now share.

Habitually reading through old sources on glue, ink and such, i stumbled in Fenners Complete Formulary from 1888 onto a way of dissolving shellac in the water. I always looked at shellac with a great desire, as far as silk string making is concerned, but as i presumed that it dissolved only in spirits, i used it as finish only, in some cases. It turned out, that a water proof india ink was made by dissolving shellac in the water. The trick is to dissolve Borax first, and then add shellac, in proportion 2 parts of shellac to 1 part of Borax. It worked like a charm, with a bit of patience, and water heated up to about 80C. The resulting mixture is yellow - clear, smells like rosins do, very nicely, and readily penetrates silk. The strings cooked in this mixture come out slim, in diameter about the same as plainly cooked in water, but, they are waterproof, very well glued together, have great sound both plucked and bowed. Adding sugar to the mixture keeps strings pliable in a good range of air humidity. I truly love this shellac treatment, and my instruments do too. I did notice that it does not mix with animal glues or glycerine. Also with honey, and i would guess anything containing animal proteins.

The second idea has to do with the fact that silk strings do tend to be stiffer then gut. This affects the sound in some less desirable ways.  Lately i've been making strings twisted from two strands. Most ropes are twisted from three and four. Two-twist offers the most flexibility.  However normally the strands are twisted quite tightly , and then assembly is twisted to about half the twist of the strands. Tight assembly twist leaves the string "bumpy", and also somewhat dulls the sound. After due experimenting, i decided that it works best if the strands are twisted left with coefficient of about 14 - 15 (look up my first post), and the assembly twisted right at coefficient from 34 to 40, less for higher strings, more for thicker strings. The resulting string is close to being smooth (smooth enough not to bother me personally, experiments on human guineas are in process), is noticeably louder then a smooth one of the same diameter, has longer sustain, and basically offers all the advantages of better flexibility. The top high stress strings have to be smooth, however, as being stronger.