Old kodiak brace heights/tuning specs

[Longtoke]

Got this old 1961 60" bear kodiak I have been playing with.

Messing with  the brace heights some it seems to like it somewhere shy of 8 inches.  This is an old bow and I don't want to stress it too much so I was wondering if anyone knew the recommended brace height, I assume like most bears its 7-8ish?

Also I kinda have been wondering to myself why these older kodiaks cant use modern strings.  The limb tips seem to be laminated glass. Why isnt that enough for these old bows but lam glass tips are fine for new bows?

[Pine]

I would think , 7 1/2" - 8" would be about right .
As far as far as modern string material , it might handle it , but if it was mine , I would only use B-50 or B-55 .
Why take a chance with a nice classic like that ?

[damascusdave]

If you do some reading there are a lot of us using modern low stretch strings on those bows for exactly the reason you give...I always expect my 60 inch Bears to work right around 7 1/2 inches...some a bit more, some a bit less...as far as stressing the limbs goes Bear tested their limbs back in those days by drawing them until the string pulled off...I am sure that if Papa Bear had HMPE material available in 1960 he would have used it

DDave