Fast Flight strings on wooden bows...

[medicinewheel]

I'm wondering whether or not my understanding is correct here, so I'm asking everybody's opinion:

I keep hearing FF puts too much stress on a self bow, or even a laminated wooden bow.
BUT: shooting FF results in a noticeably faster arrow flight and at the same time minimices hand shock drastically!
Which means: more energy goes into the arrow, less energy remains in the bow.
Doesn't that read: FF stresses a wooden bow LESS???

[Del the cat]

Blimey... you have been fed some really nonsense.
What follows is just my opinion, others may vary.
1. Fastflite is no problem at all on a self bow, unless is it very high poundage and a soft wood self nock. E.G a fast flight string will dig into a Yew sapwood back, but overlays or horn nocks prevent this. (I've had a 70# Yew self nocked ELB with fastflite  no problems.)
2. Fast flight will give higher arrow speed, and the bow limbs will stop slightly more abruptly at the end of the stroke.
3. Hand shock... I have not noticed any difference and don't want to guess. My general opinion on hand shock is that it's down to, poor tiller or arrows being too light.
See the replies on this thread:-
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,52781.0.html

My advice is to ignore everything you've been told, try a fastfite string and draw your own conclusions.
Del
(I've heard Fastflite is to blame for global warming )

[Marc St Louis]

FF can put more stress on the nocks but only on mishaps, like an arrow nock failure.  I've had 2 or 3 bows fail at the nocks after a dry fire situation.

[Lukasz Nawalny]

One english archer said to me - there is not such thing like handshock, you just need havier arrow I agree. Turkish hornbow can shoot 3 GPP arrow without handshock, longbow 10 gpp, manchu need 13 GPP. Each kind of bow have differend energy storage, effeciency, mechanics. Turkish is not better than manchu or d/r longbow is just different and need different arrows. I dont have any problems with ff on selbows or laminated bows.

[huisme]

These exact nocks were dry fired with 16strand D97. Furthermore the bow tillered to twenty eight inches was dry fired from thirty. The bow took no set and the nocks showed no damage.

[medicinewheel]

Sorry, gents, maybe I wasn't clear with the question:

First of all I use FF since years, all my friends do, too, no problem.

What I meant is that (some) bowyers (at least over here in Germany) keep telling, FF puts (to much) stress on the limbs of a wooden bow (not just the tip) for the more abrupt stopping of the limbs.
I personally believe the opposite is true, since more  energie goes into arrow speed that energie cannot stress a bow limb, and my question is: is my logic correct??

@ Del: people react very differently on the 'hand shock'  and I'm really sensitive about it. I.e. I once shot a few passes with a glass LB with a layer of carbon in the limb, and I for a while felt a strange sensation in my bones even.

[Del the cat]

,..., since more  energie goes into arrow speed that energie cannot stress a bow limb, and my question is: is my logic correct??

No...

With either string the total energy in the system is the same (draw weight x draw length, put in by the archer).
With Fastflite, more energy goes into the arrow, but less is absorbed by the stretching string as it stops therefore more shock.
Think of it as a shock absorber (damper) on a car suspension.
The dacron is like a soft shock absorber... replace the shocks on your car with rigid steel bars and the bodywork will get all the impact and punch through before you've driven very far.
Del

[Tuomo]

I have slow motion filmed difference between Dacron and FF (Astroflight).

Dry release with Dacron:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jKOEkvJt7I

Dry release with Astroflight:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdRKIPUI2U4

Althought the quality is not great and differencies are very small, I would say, that with Astroflight the bow is vibrating more after the release, just because the string is not stretching. No noticeable difference in handshock. But, with an arrow, modern ff string is more comfortable and "better" - more energy to arrow. It may be true that ff string is stressing bow limbs more than dacron string but it has no meaning. I have had just zero problems with wooden selfbows or laminated bows using ff strings. And I have many bows that I have shot thousands of shots, even more.

[Marc St Louis]

All of the nock failures I had with FF and a dry fire were with high string tension RD bows.  I guess a straight limb bow is able to tolerate it

[huisme]

All of the nock failures I had with FF and a dry fire were with high string tension RD bows.  I guess a straight limb bow is able to tolerate it

It seems like the string would be pulling down the grain of the wood more in those cases where a flat profile would keep the string pulling across.