Wood chimes are wonderful decorations that cast a beautiful sound whenever a gust of wind comes through. You can get simple wood chimes or beautifully decorated wood chimes with a fairy-like touch.
No matter what kind of wood chimes you have, they are amazing to have outside, at least until you have to restring them.
There will eventually come a time when you will have to restring your wood chimes.
Don’t worry, the process of restringing your wood chimes isn’t hard and we will go through each step.
Why Is Restringing Wood Chimes Necessary?
Wood chimes are an outdoor accessory that can be damaged over time by the weather.
When your outdoor decorations get damaged, you need to fix them so they can continue to look good and make your house more put together.
The strings on a wood chime can get tangled together. If it gets to the point where you are unable to detangle your wood chimes, restringing them might be the only solution to getting your wood chimes working again.
Depending on the weather or what animals come close to your house, there is a possibility that one of the strings on your wood chime can break. At this point, you will have to restring them, so your wood chimes are balanced.
You will also need to restring your wood chimes if the actual chime becomes damaged. You will have to replace the chime and restring it, so it is connected to the other chimes.
Restringing your wood chimes is necessary when your wood chimes have sustained damage that can’t be fixed without taking the chimes off of the string.
How to Restring Your Wood Chimes
When you have all of the needed materials, restringing your wood chimes is a relatively easy process that won’t take too much time.
Know the Damage
The materials that you will need will depend on the reason why you are restringing your wind chimes.
If the reason is just that the strings got very tangled, all you will need is a new string. The string for your wood chimes can be bought at any craft store. If worse comes to worst, you can always use a fishing line.
If the chimes have sustained damage. You will need to buy a replacement piece. Replacement parts can be bought from many online stores and you may be able to find them in a craft store as well.
Make sure that you buy a replacement part that matches the rest of the chimes as best as possible.
Matching your chimes doesn’t just mean matching the wood color. It also means matching the length of the chime.
The different lengths of your chimes correlate to the tone of the music that they will make. Get a similar chime size so you can replicate the same sound your chimes make.
Once you know what needs to be replaced and have bought all the necessary materials, you can move on to the restringing.
Gather the Rest of the Materials
To restring your wood chimes, make sure that you also have a strong pair of scissors (or wire cutters if your chimes use wires) and needle-nosed tweezers. This will make the restringing process much easier.
Remove the Old String
Your first step to actively restring your wood chimes is to remove the old string.
This can be done by untying the string from each chime. However, if they are tightly secured and you have trouble, you will want to use scissors to cut the string.
Depending on the level of damage, you can untie just the affected chime or you can completely restring your wood chimes by removing all of the strings.
As you untie each chime, line them up in the same order in which they will be hanging. This will keep your wood chimes balanced and sounding the same as they did before.
Replace Damaged Chimes if Necessary
If you are restringing your wood chimes because one or several of the chimes got damaged, this is when you should replace the chimes.
After your chimes are lined up, take your replacement chimes and put them where the old chime was.
Make sure your replacement chime is the same size as the old one so it can replicate the same music.
Add the New String
Take your new string and start lining it up with the chimes. You will want to use a needle-nosed tweezer to push the string through the holes of the chimes.
Weave it through the holes of the chimes several times to make sure that each chime is tied securely together.
When the chimes are together, thread the string through the holes of the top piece of your chimes to connect the chimes to the top. At this point, your chimes should start to look how they did before you untied the string.
With each chime, tie a not after threading the string through the top piece. You will want to tie knots to each piece to make sure everything is super secure.
Of course, make sure there is enough slack so that the chimes can still move freely in the wind.
Once you are done restringing the chimes, cut off the excess string and you will have your newly tied wood chimes.
Test the Tune
Of course, you will want to make sure that your wood chimes are properly tuned. This can be done with a tuning fork or even just a metal spoon. Gently hit your tuning tool to each chime and listen to the music it makes.
If you are happy with the sound each chime makes, then your wood chimes will be good to go and you can rehang your chimes.
If one of the chimes makes it weird noise, you will need to restring that chime with less or more slack depending on the sound that it makes.
Be Mindful of Where You Rehang Your Chimes
For wood chimes that needed a chime replaced, consider why it broke in the first place.
Was the wind knocking the chimes against a pillar or the side of your house? Were debris getting thrown at the chimes?
Depending on the damage that your chimes sustained, consider moving your chimes to a spot where they are less likely to hit hard objects. This will keep them from getting damaged again in the future and causing you to have to restring your chimes again.
If your chimes were just tangled, consider taking your chimes inside whenever the weather gets bad. Wind and rainstorms can cause your chimes to get super-tangled much faster.
3 Tips and Reminders for Restringing Your Wood Chimes
See If the Wood Chime Brand Company Has Replacement Pieces
For those that have to replace specific chimes on your wood chimes, see if the company has replacement pieces.
Getting replacement pieces from the same company will ensure that each piece is the correct size and has the correct tune. It makes the entire process easier, and you won’t have to return pieces that don’t end up fitting.
If the brand of wood chimes doesn’t have replacement pieces available to purchase, at least try to match the specific type of wood (most product descriptions will tell you the specific wood material used) so the tuning can be as close as possible.
Use Wire Instead of String
Using wire instead of string may be more expensive, but it will be much more durable than using string.
Wire is less likely to snap and tangle than string. However, you will have to be more cautious during rainstorms as some wires can rust.
You can get wire in various colors so you can either match the color of the original string or add a pop of color by using a bright wire.
Glue the Knots for Extra Security
Even if you have tied each chime together several times, you can use superglue to glue the knot down for extra security. This will make sure that no chimes will become undone in the wind and fall to the ground.
Adding the glue can make the string or wire stronger so they will have a much harder time breaking.
If you do plan to use glue, make sure that each drop of glue dries before adding another chime. This will keep each piece from getting stuck together which would prevent it from making beautiful music.
Final Thoughts
With every lovely outdoor decoration, there will come a time when maintenance is necessary.
Restringing your wood chimes is an easy way to save money having to buy new chimes and will keep your favorite chimes around for longer. All you need is any necessary replacement chimes and some new string.
If you have fancy wood chimes with pretty designs, restringing your chimes will keep them around for longer. For cheap wood chimes, restring them when you get them so you won’t deal with more damage later.
Let us know how this tutorial worked for your wood chimes in the comments!