Brown Hemp

[JeremiahVires]

I recently bought some "Brown Hemp" from walmart, and I was wondering if anyone has used it with any luck?

On the white hemp, if you read the label, it says "Hemp and mixed fibers".
On the brown hemp, it doesn't read that ANYWHERE.  I looked all over the label.
While I was at the walmart, I also kinda checked if it was strong or not. I waited until nobody was around and gave a long strand a good hard yank and it didn't break (this was also the absolute thinnest they had too) and i did the same with the white hemp and it snapped. 

Later, I put a single strand on a 15 lb recurve bow I made a while back.  Short and bendy handle.
I pulled it back, and it didn't snap.  I let it go (No arrow) and it DID snap, but at right next to the area where i had tied a knot for the knocks.

So bottom line is, has anyone used the stuff with a a bow around 60 lbs?  And, if so, did you have to make it into rope thickness, or just about the same thickness you would use for, say, b50 Dacron?

[blackhawk]

You want the "green kind"  

I've messed with long ago and couldn't get a decent string out of it without making it a half inch thick(a lil exaggertsed)..but u get the point

[JeremiahVires]

 
Funny you say that...   
But yeah. That sucks.  It does work well for fletchings!

[blackhawk]

I coukdnt even make good cordage out of it for a bow drill(fire starter)...but I use it for handle wraps and that's about it....

[JeremiahVires]

Damn....

[Squirrelslayer]

so you dry fired your bow? SS

[JeremiahVires]

I didn't really care if that one broke anyways.  It was made out of a big strip of elm I pulled off and said "I could use this to test designs"

[Thesquirrelslinger]

I didn't really care if that one broke anyways.  It was made out of a big strip of elm I pulled off and said "I could use this to test designs"

Elm is quite tension strong and hard to break.

[Pat B]

For the last few years I've made handle wraps from the tan hemp cordage from WalMart. I saturate it with Massey finish(2ton epoxy thinned with acetone) once it is wrapped. It makes a great, all weather handle wrap. I don't use it fror strings. I prefer Dacron.