Bowstring Material

[Crogacht]

Hi all,

I'm about to get going on my first bow, but I was wondering about bowstrings.

I was planning on making some cordage and bowstrings from New Zealand Flax, but then I wondered about the performance of plant fibres vs. something like fastflight plus or B50.

Can a handmade bowstring from plant fibre like NZ Flax perform as well as fastflight?

It just seems like you get way more strength for much less volume/mass with fastflight/B50.

What do you guys use? Do you prefer synthetic material?

[IdahoMatt]

I have used linen before.  It works okay and will work, but I like B50.  It's relatively cheep and works great.  The ticket to linen I have found is get it as close as you can to the actual length it needs to be.  If you twist it too much (in terms of shortening) it will become weaker.  That is a newbies findings anyway. 

Matt

[Crogacht]

Hi Matt, Thanks for the advice. New Zealand flax is not really anything like the flax used for linen and I know it's not as good.

[nclonghunter]

No doubt many here are more qualified to answer your question, but my understanding is that it all deals with mass and weight. Fast flight is less mass and weight with equal strength, therefore faster than any plant string you can make.

Now, having said that, some like traditional strings better. Dogbane is an excellent plant material for strings. The B50 is also a proven and efficient string that I use often due to the ease of making a Flemish string.....Good Luck

[Crogacht]

Going off TBB,  a 200lb, 63" long, best quality linen string will be around 90 grains. Whereas for New Zealand flax you are looking at around 225 grains for a 200lb, 63" string. B-50 is listed as similar to best quality linen, but fast flight is about 40 grains for same strength/length string.

The values are rough estimates, but it gives a pretty good idea of relative strength per grain of weight.

I'd like to use New Zealand flax, I can actually see a plant from my computer desk , but I can't see myself using it exclusively if it's requires 5 times the mass to make a safe string. I kind of want to make efficient bows as best I can, and if I know there's a component that's "dragging the chain", it will probably just annoy me, haha.

[osage outlaw]

I use Fast flight and D97.  My bows have a modern design and finish so I use modern string material.  If I ever get into native american style bows I'll probably learn how to make a primitive string from sinew or something.

[wood_bandit 99]

I use b55 which is b50 that is less stretchy

[Crogacht]

Thanks guys,

Well it seems like synthetic is the preferred option unless you're specifically going for a more natural themed bow.

I can see real high quality well-made linen bowstrings challenging the synthetics, but I don't think my humble NZ flax has much of a chance performance wise, haha, oh well.

[missilemaster]

D-97 All the way for me. Once you try it, you wont go back!

[Crogacht]

D-97?! There's too many kinds, haha.

Well, I pretty much only have access to the materials listed on this page. One of the couple of archery stores in New Zealand imports their products. What would be the best choice for a 50-60lb bow?

http://www.brownellarchery.com/products.htm