String help

[BigBucksnTrucks]

Hey guys,  I need some help making some strings.  Let me start off with, I've made several strings before, however the bows were all marked with length and pounds.  My issue is a buddy was given three bows by a lady who's husband passed away and she had no need for them.  They are fairly old bows, but have absolutely no markings on them and of course no strings either so he requested some strings from me since he knew I made them.  I of course said sure, no problem...d'oh! lol.  I've measured them tip to tip, but that's all I have to go with.  My questions....when bows are marked with their length, how are they measured?  Tip to tip, nock to nock? I've measured my bows and compared them to what they are marked and the marking don't match up exactly with their measurements.  He's giving the bows to his daughters for xmas, but they have never really been into hunting or anything so they'll mainly just be shooting targets in the back yard for fun.  My other conundrum is I don't have the bows so I'll need to get the length of the strings pretty close to correct and mail them to my dad so string them up, let the strings stretch and then nock them.  

Thanks for any help!
Brad

[dfrois]

As far as I know, bows are measured nock-to-nock, along the curves on the back. Most bows take strings that are 3 to 4 inches shorter than their length. It might help to know what kind of bows are involved: recurves, straight longbow, reflex-deflex, whatever...maybe even a pic of them.
But I`m just starting in this bow and arrow thing...I`m sure some of the more experienced members will answer you soon, and hopefully correct my newbie advice if needed.

Good luck. DF

[Sigmazxcs]

Hi,
I'm new to bowyer-ing too!
From what I heard, what dfrois said should be pretty accurate. You might want to check up the archives of tradgang. I recall seeing a rather detailed explanation on the "how to" section.  
Good luck!

-Aaron

[David Flanrey]

Brad,
What kind of string material are you going to use?

To be on the safe side since you don't know the weight of the bows, I would over build them.  Make them for say a 60# bow.  I would make a 16 strand B50.

Measure nock to nock.  For longbows I subtract 3".  For recurves I subtract 4".

David