Want to make hickory bow FF compatable

[bowhuntingrn]

I've got a U Finish hickory long bow ordered for my son. Was thinking about building up the tips to make it fast flight compatable before finishing and sealing. I have a micarta scale (used for knife handles) lying around, would it do the job? Here's the product description: The ultimate material available for custom knife handles. Micarta is made of multiple layers bonded with phenolic resin. Moisture resistant and impervious to rot, corrosion and wear, yet easy to work into a beautiful handle by just sanding and buffing. Scales are 5” x 1-1/2” x 3/8”. If so, how thick does it need to be? Any other tips suggestions appreciated, this will be a first time attempt at anything like this for me. Thanks in advance...Cory

[Art B]

Micarta will work fine. But you wouldn't have to use anything if you make your own flemish twist strings. Pad your loops real good with B-50 material. Heck, bet you could use the same fast flight material for the padding. Make the loops big enough and no way they'll cut into the tips. Be sure and not cut the string grooves into the back of the tips if you go with extra loop padding and no overlay.

[bowhuntingrn]

I had heard that you could just pad the string loops, was just a little leary 'cause of all the horror stories I've heard. Granted I'm not going to have much in this bow, but I didn't want to intentionally shorten it's life either.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Most horror stories arent true. They are just past on stories with zero experinece to back them. I have a few 10 strand D10 strings on self bows with no overlays and no padding. One is over a year old and has been shot thousands of times with zero wear showing. In order for the string to "saw" the tip off it would have to be more abrasive than the wood, I dont believe it is. With that being said, I still wrap my loops with heavy wool yarn, or pad them with cheap B50.

[bowhuntingrn]

Cool, thanks guys! Hoping this summer to actually build a bow, so I've been lurking, trying to pick up what I can. Great to have a resource at your fingertips with so many years of knowledge. Thought I'd take the first "baby steps" by maybe customizing this bow a little.

[Pete W]

I have 10 strand DF97 strings on all my self bows. I pad the poops with DF97 to 16 strands too. The padding is just dead filler that is only there to distribute the contact area into a larger area. You can use any material for padding. No need to buy a spool of Dacron just to pad loops , but if you have it in the same colors as the string  you can use it too.
 I round the nocks  on my tips, and have not seen any sign of a problem on any of the bows.

[Sal]

I use six strands, with well padded loops, talk about skinny!  Never had a  problem, and only wood as reinforcement.  

Most of those stories are stories, as said above, and all involve glass bows.

[LittleBen]

I use from 14-18 strands of BCY 8125 on all my bows, either endless loop with served loops, or I use flemish twist without padded loops. Honestly I think the string take more of a beating than anything else. Never had a tip failure.
FWIW, i wouldn't be crazy enough to try one of those strings on one of my old glass bows. I trust my own hands more than I trust the industrial mold used to produce them.
I believe this relates to the ratio of shear to bending strength of wood and glass. Pretty sure wood is alot more worthy of a material than the modernist crowd would like to believe.
"if glass breaks then wood must break" simply isnt true