rawhide bowstring question

[riverrat]

if i was to make a rawhide bowstring for a 50 lb. draw bow, what width of rawhide should i use? i mean how wide do i make the strip? its cow rawhide. its decently thick.thanks Tony

[ajooter]

Hey Tony happy new year.  I have been wanting to try a rawhide string for awhile now.  Here is a YouTube link to a guy making a squirrel rawhide bowstring.  This is only the first part.  I know your using cow rawhide but I thought it might help.  I use goat rawhide to back all my bows it's pretty thin and works well.  I was thinking about trying to make a string from the goat as well.
https://youtu.be/2hiLGlznVlo

[riverrat]

thanks for the info. happy new year. Tony

[paulsemp]

I've made two of them both out of deer. I did a three ply and the strips were cut maybe a little wider than a quarter of an inch each. Both strings failed. The first one broke right where I knocked my arrow and the other one broke about two thirds up. I believe part of the problem was the rawhide was over twisted. Both of them were on Bows right around 50 pounds. I would love to learn more about it also but to date I think the strings I made would have only been good on 30 pound max

[riverrat]

thanks for that info. ill try 1/4 in. 4 ply.with not so much twist.ive used gut before i bought . it worked decent on a 50 pound bow. i use store bought hemp right now and it lasts several hundred shots.only broke one and it was at a splice on one of the plys.just a bad splice. i want to try nettles soon. ive read it works. i have access to nettles when they are growing. but id like to use rawhide. ive used squirrel rawhide on a bow before. it took 4 skins.just a tad over 1/4 inch. it lasted a month of shooting every couple days as i had days off of work. it did break as well. but it worked for a good  number of shots. if i remember right i wrapped all 4 one direction each separate, hung a weight on them let set awhile but they never dried. then i took all 4 and reverse wrapped them the other way together. kind of like cordage.tied a weight to that and let set till it dried. it made a kind of fat string but it worked. it was fatter than the hemp strings after it dried. anyways gonna give it a try again soon with cow rawhide. Tony

[BowEd]

For some reason rodents I've heard make the best rawhide strings.A ground hog maybe even a beaver.

[BowEd]

Oh and this the neck skin off of snapping turtles.

[TimothyR]

I like linen strings. I get my linen from ebay.  I also have some flax and silk rovings that I would like to spine into bow string.  If I can get the hang of the drop spindle.

[autologus]

I have read that squirrel makes a fine rawhide string.

Grady