I'm new to this....

[Kellog]

Hello,

I've been shooting recurve for a year and have just brought a long bow, it's a Pignut hickory back, Tapered Goncolo Alves primary core, secondary Yew core and a Yew belly. And is 40lbs @ 28".
When I brought the bow it came with a 16 strand string.

I took my new bow to our local club tonight, where we have quite a lot of long bow shooters.

I was told that a 16 strand string is too much for a long bow of this poundage, and that I'd be better off with a 12 strand string.

What do other people use?

Also string materials.... I make my own strings for my recurve and I use BYC8125, is this suitable for longbows?

Any help/advice would be very appreciated!

[TJ Mason]

Do you know what material your current string is?

For wooden bows, it's best to use only Dacron. 12 strands is usual for this material, varying to 10 strands for lighter bows and 14 strands for stronger bows.

[Kellog]

I think my current string is probably B50 but I'm not sure

[English Bowman]

Originally Posted by TJ Mason

Do you know what material your current string is?

For wooden bows, it's best to use only Dacron. 12 strands is usual for this material, varying to 10 strands for lighter bows and 14 strands for stronger bows.

That's a matter for debate. I always used to be of the opinion that dacron was best for wooden bows, until talking to a bowyer (I can't remember who) he pointed out that hemp has very little stretch, and he would only use fastflite. His reasoning was that the stretch in dacron shook the bow as it stretched and recoiled which did more damage than the single sharp shock of fastflite. When I got my osage bow from Pip Bickerstaffe he supplied it with a fastflite string. My lemomwood/hickory from Ron Palmer and my self yew from Don Adams both had dacron. The Lemonwood and Osage are going strong, the Yew snapped at the lower nock.
My take on it, stay with the string material that the bowyer recomends.

Daniel

[TJ Mason]

Good point, EB. I've just noticed that the Quicks catalogue mentions that linen strings were very much like FastFlight. Oh well, so much for conventional "wood+Dacron" wisdom!

[laminatekid]

i would never use dacron on a longbow...too stretchy useless stuff although fastflight does have to be "laid in" and not a recurve style endless loop string so it has some give to it or you may end up with a broken bow!!do not be tempted to use too many strands as it is stronger than dacron and overbuilding the string will also stress you bow

[English Bowman]

Good point about the laid in string, I forgot to mention that one. Pip said that the string must be laid in, not endless.

Daniel

[Kellog]

Originally Posted by English Bowman

Good point about the laid in string, I forgot to mention that one. Pip said that the string must be laid in, not endless.

Daniel

I'm sorry, could you explain what an endless string is? And what is laying in?

[English Bowman]

An endless string is the type that you are most likely to see on a recurve. It is made by looping the string material around posts several times then serving (whipping) the ends to make the loops for the nocks.
A laid in string has the loop(s) made by laying in or platting the end loops. These have no serving on the end loops and are most often seen on longbows. If that isn't clear let me know and I'll post a couple of pics

Daniel

[morphymick]

Check out this site for making a Flemish twist jig and laying in.

http://www3.sympatico.ca/ragiwarmbea...h/flemish.html

Mick