FF question ?

[Blayne]

I only use ff now. It does stretch a little bit for the first little while, then it is good. I leave my glass recurve strung all the time, and after a month it dropped about 1/2" in brace. I make my flemish loops with lots of weave, they never slip. I do a double loop, no timber hitch. Takes a bit of fooling around to come up with a system for accurate string length. No need to make an endless loop!

[DC]

I've got a 2" nail in the wall filled with my attempts at getting the length right on double loop Flemish twists. As for slipping I twisted as tight as I could and used 8 or 9" tails(everyone says 6" is enough) and still my loops get bigger. I'm assuming that if the loops get bigger something is slipping. Don't know what I'm doing wrong. maybe my bows are so good that I have really high brace tension? Nah, that can't be it    I'm doing something wrong.Next time we get together we can go over it.

[Blayne]

You bet. I will bring my jig up and we can go over it. And get my clamp lol!

[osage outlaw]

I made an adjustable stretching jig for my strings.  I crank down on them enough to squeeze all the excess wax out of it.  When I put a string on a bow for the first time it never moves. 

[Frodolf]

As for how I make double loops, I follow clay Hayes' example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfyPOikbBvA

It really works well, and pretty fast once you get the hang of it. It's easy to undo if the string turns out too long or short, or if the bow breaks or something and you'd like to fit the string to another bow.

[BowEd]

Good video.I do mine a little different but end up the same thing.You can just twist the string tighter to shorten or lengthen it too.

[DC]

I've watched almost all the vids. Obviously I'm doing something wrong. As far as getting the length right, most vids show how to do one loop and then just say, "Do the other end the same."

[loon]

if FF is reverse twisted and then served, would a knot like this hold?
(even better if it holds without serving :p)



I made a D-10 flemish on both ends with turkish double loops, it might've slipped a bit... might continue slipping

Nice to see the way he does the 2nd flemish loop, I was having a lot of trouble with that, had to not twist the "main string" so much..

[BowEd]

I don't know about that type knot for fast flight.That stuff is slick.Doing the second loop loon can confuse some in how to do that if you don't do it very often.Better to see first hand over someones' shoulder but here goes.
When the second loops' ends are matched into main string and your flemish twisting is going you have to untwist the lengths or plys of the main string a bit as you progress.Keeping them parallel.Not so much as to undo your first loop at all but just the main string itself.When you've twisted your ends into main string completely then make sure your main length of string is parallel before pulling on both loops to stretch it.If not your twisting will undo themselves.It's different than the video and hope I did'nt confuse you but it works.Then to shorten the string to what I want i just twist it till it's the right length.

[George Tsoukalas]

A properly tied B-50 string will  not stretch excessively. Most put way too many twists in it and then, of course, it will stretch a lot. Jawge

[loon]

yeah, the thing is if I twisted the plies of the 'main string' too much then I couldn't take the twist out of the sections when twisting in the second loop

[Stick Bender]

I wonder if I put a serving on the last 8 in. Of the botom of the string if that would help lock in the double hitch ?

[BowEd]

George may be right I hav'nt shot B50 for such a long time,but I remember when I switched to FF the difference in stretch and it was significant.
These strings are'nt that terribly tough to do you have to keep trying or at a bow gathering have someone show ya or what I did was call a friend on the phone..... lol.
The timber hitch on FF most times I'll loop it up to 5 times to get it to keep from slipping when using it as a long string.Keeping it waxed good helps too.

[Pappy]

Yes twisting up to shorten will cause any string to stretch, you want as few twist as possible, I use about 3 twist per inch, if it is to long I redo instead of twisting it shorter, I use FF most of the time but as Jawges said a well made B50 with very few twist will preform very good and not stretch much after the first shooting. When you twist them up with lots of twist it is like a coil spring. I see lots do that, it hurts performance of the bow and seems to never stop stretching.
 Pappy