Does string follow lead to set?

[sharpend60]

Originally, I misinterpreted string follow. This bow does haver some string follow, temporarily.

As a good number of other folks, clearly, also have done. I am 100% sure many others have the same idea of string follow as I did...

Whenever you read a post or even the the TBB series it refers to them separately, indicating related but separate conditions.

Folks say things like, 'has 1' follow bit relaxes to less than 1 inch set' or 'followed the string a good deal but settled into 2.5" of set".

Which is misleading, I have been building bows for quite a few years but only recently started reading on the forums what not.

[BowEd]

If used a lot they don't last forever....grab the chain saw or axe and get another piece of wood....OK......LOL.What's the oldest bow anybody still got on this forum?I've heard of bows shot 15 to 20 thousand times.None of mine yet but a bunch a couple thousand for sure.There still fine yet knock on wood.It's not the answer to your question but it's my solution of your question.

[BowEd]

Your asking whether soft set like just unstrung set will lead to permanent set at same heigth.Right?

[sharpend60]

Yep,
but Ive never heard of 'soft set' though.
But the term does make sense.

[BowEd]

Then yes I would say as the years go on with the same bow eventually it will slowly take on the soft set as permanent set.With even a very well tillered bow but not as soon as a poorer tillered bow. IMHO.

[SLIMBOB]

Your in good company, as this thread indicates, in not fully understanding "set vs string follow".  These are relatively new terms when you think about it, so we can't go back to the original Latin or Germanic phrase.  Just a bunch of hairy legged boys who began to refer to it as this or that, and then the terms were put into print.  Heck, I think I know less about it now than I did earlier today. 

[PatM]

If you want to get people disagreeing on something  put it in a book and put "Bible" on the cover.
 Bows tend to be pretty good at holding their shot in profile if they are routinely shot in very similar conditions over time.
 The trouble can arise when it gets a bit humid and and a bow designed for a specific drawlength gets overdrawn multiple times for whatever reason.
 That can happen quite easily. If you shoot a shortish bow with overly long arrows you'll find yourself more likely to overdraw it when the adrenaline rises or your buddy challenges you to a flight shoot.
 
 

[sleek]

Hey, this looks like a great discussion to join in on! I wanna have fun too!!!!

I have always looked at string follow and set as two terms to described wood bent in the same direction for two different reasons. Way I see it is this...

I have a log with some beautiful reflex, 5 inches even, and its thick enough for two bows if I split it right. So I do and get a perfect split. On stave has 5 inches of reflex, the other has 5 inches deflex ( or string follow ).

Both bows are made to the same draw weight/ length. The reflex stave now has only 3 inches of reflex after unstringing, ( wow, is that a word? ) and the deflex bow has 1 inch of set to add to the original 5 inches of string follow. ( It will have very low brace height string tension and would be a great candidate for recurved tips )
That is ( in m book ( which I will put the word Bible on just for fun )) how set and string follow work. String follow is the woods fault, set is the bowyers fault. These two terms are a great way tell folks the conditions your bow was built under.

Example, The bow looks like it took a bunch of set, but it only took one inch, the stave followed the string 5 inches before I started. OR, The bow had 5 inches of deflex and lost 2 inches due to set. The terms help describe the quality of your bow.

[soy]

Sounds good to me

[SLIMBOB]

  Sleek...The hole in that theory...I have a bow that was given to me.  I know nothing of it's construction.  The tips lie 1.5" behind the handle.  Since we don't know what caused it, we can't call it either?  To me that is 1.5" of string follow.  The degree to which it might have been caused by set is not knowable...I think.

[PatM]

That's what I've been saying. Only the maker really knows. You can make an educated guess as to the original profile though.
  I notice sleek saying that Deflex is like string follow.
 Deflex in the proper sense is making  the whole limb bend towards the Archer from the handle. The limbs aren't being manipulated themselves. Their plane is just being moved through a "pivot point".
 I really don't see how you can call anything in a stave string follow until you put a string on it and cause that bend with the string applying force. The two halves of the trunk are just curved pieces of wood.

[blackhawk]

I totally understand what you are saying pat...I just don't agree with the fact you think its irrelevant to distinguish the two as two seperat definitions and that its only a moot point. Because we as bowmakers( the one who made the bow) need to distinguish the two as different to help us make a better bow. If you didn't keep track of the fact you started with 3" of reflex and ended up with 3" of string follow in a properly seasoned stave, then you wood be unaware of the fact that your design is flawed.

[tom sawyer]

You'd know because it would shoot like a dog and probably would continue to deterioriate.  But I agree that the amount of set you get from tillering, is a combined measure of your design and tillering job.

[George Tsoukalas]

PD, I don't know if you were asking me to define the 2 terms in one of your previous posts. I already did. Way back! Like I heard a baseball announcer say on a home run call. BTW those definitions in TBB 4 did not come up all of a sudden in a vacuum. Let's just say opinions were asked.

I spent a good part of my life teaching or trying to teach teenagers chemistry. I always repeated and summarized often times several times in the same period. I  always liked it when a kid finally got it and said, "Now why didn't you tell us that?"

Still waiting for that "aha" moment here. LOL.

 Jawge

[Josh B]

I'm real hesitant to jump into this mele, however I will throw my two cents into the pot.  My understanding is that there is a difference and that difference has more to do with the back of the bow than the belly.  This is just my understanding of it, right or wrong.  Set is the permanent  deformation of both the compression side and the tension side of the bow.  String follow is the more pronounced deformation of the compression side(belly) than the tension side(back).  I usually have more string follow in bows made of extremely tension strong woods than I do on woods like walnut that are pretty well balanced.  However walnut takes more set.  I believe that is because the walnut is not only deforming the belly, but permanently stretching the back.  Woods like hickory will show more string follow because the belly reaches plasticity before the tension strong back.  Since the back is still in the elasticity range when the belly goes plastic, the back will pull it back into reflex even though the belly is still deformed.  I hope that makes sense.  Once again, that's just my take on it, right or wrong.  Josh