Linen string break

[Hawkdancer]

All of the above!  I don't have experience with linen, but if you keep it waxed and reenforce the loop/knot area it should fairly durable. 
Hawkdancer

[Selfbowman]

I found getting them good and wet Pryor to stringing adds strength . Old flight trick they have been using for years. Arvin

[avcase]

The linen arrived, it’s packaged with the Barbours red hand trademark box saying “This brand the best and the best now”. Its 5 cord and soft, and broke at just over twenty pounds. I made a Flemish twist string with ten plies for a fifty pound red elm D bow. So far it looks and shoots great. With the serving, the string just comfortably fits the self nocks of my 11/32 diameter arrows. My serving is Brownells nylon. In order to make a 12 ply string for my sixty pound bows, I am getting some thinner sewing thread for use as serving.

That is a bummer about the linen thread breaking. The Barbour Pure Flax Sinew with “Soft” on the label is about 30-35% weaker than the standard linen thread. The soft version is made with shorter brushed fibers.  A good roll of Barbour 5-cord will have a breaking strength of about 35 pounds. A exceptional roll will break at 40 pounds. The breaking strength also changes quite a bit depending on humidity levels. It becomes much more brittle in very low humidity.

Alan

[burchett.donald]

  This is the loop I have been using for around 5 years now?...Very durable... It starts as a 16 continuous strand using 7 ply wrapped and soaked in hide glue at the loops...Then cut 8 strands away...See "strings" in Bowyers Bible for instructions...
                                                                                                                                                          Don

[Black Moshannon]

That looks like a better string that the ones i'm making, which are standard Flemish twist.

Alan, the stuff I bought is five cord and broke at just over twenty pounds. Ill have to see where I can get Barbour linen that is not soft. Hopefully this company carries it. So far my strings have held up.

[burchett.donald]

Black Moshannon,
                            This string was also soaked in a very thin hide glue solution before stringing and then allowed to dry strung for a few hours in the AC...Water and a few crystals of hide glue mixed into a lite syrup, very lite...I usually get hundreds of shots and change out every hunting season to a new string...The bowyers knot that I tried early on would break quickly, seems it would cut itself or at least fail in that area...Once I went to a carefully made continuous string with proper even tension on each strand I had no problems...
                                                                                                                            Don

[Black Moshannon]

Thanks for the tips, Don. Hoping mine will last at least one year. I may try the hide glue.