B50 Flemish Twist, how many strands.

[IrishJay]

I just received my first spool of dacron B50. I've practiced my flemish twist, uh twisting technique with some other materials but they weren't suitable for actual use.

My question is how many strands of B50 for a 50lb draw?

[Woodely]

For a 50lb draw I think you can get away with just 10 strands, sure others know more about that.
Most of my bows are between 34-44#  and use B-50 14 strands.  The reason I use 14  is better more me putting on the center serving having a thicker string. Go on Youtube and you will find people making Flemish.

[IrishJay]

I was thinking either 12 or 14 strand for a 2 ply flemish twist. I want to be sure the string is safe and will have minimal stretch, but I don't want to go overkill and put an unnecessarily heavy rope on the bow which will slow it down. 

[Slipper]

http://primitive-bows.com/about-strings/

This was shared with me and is what you need to know

[IrishJay]

Thanks Slipper, it seems that article is recommending 6x draw weight, which for a 50# bow using B50 would be 6 strands. 

That seems awfully light. Have you be using the 6x rule of thumb on your strings?

[Slipper]

Does seem light but I'm going to give it try. The author more knowledgeable than me

[DC]

I believe Simon is talking about BCY452 or it's equivalent. Completely different animal than B50

[Eric Krewson]

I use 12 strands of B-50 for a bow like yours, my main objective is to have a good nock fit on the serving, 12 strands and .023 serving fits my boning nocks just right.

If you go up to 16 or 18 strands your bows performance will really suffer.

[IrishJay]

I think I'm going to give it a go at 12. I'm going to make a single loop string, extra long and use a timber hitch on the other end as I tiller the bow. That should give me a good idea on the stretch. Then once I work down to final tiller I'll make add the second loop to the string to use it as a shooter.

[Bayou Ben]

That’s a great write up by Simon.  If you notice the chart, B-50 is about half the strength as standard FF.  I would go with 12 strands of B-50 for a 50 lb bow like Eric suggest.

[Pat B]

I use 14 strands for 45 to 65# and 12 strands for 45 and below. It might be a little over but I've never had a string break.