What makes a bow FF ready, and will this work?

[Bear]

I posted over on powpow about wanting to use D97 on my 1965 Kodiak. I have also made some phone calls and have yet to find anyone who has experienced a failure. It's always "I know a guy who knows a guy... but it was a skinny string and he didnt pad the loops". Well, that will hurt any bow. Everyone who has done it properly has had great sucess.

So, I put a 6 strand D97 string on it with an extra 12 strands of B50 in the loops. WOW! This bow has always been my tack driver, but it collects dust because I dont like the feel of dacron, and at 46# it was a little slow. With this string it is amazing. Absolutley no limb tip wobble like many light bows. It out performs most modern customs I've shot, and I can break nocks at 20 yards.

It has three layers of overlay on the tips. They appear to just be glass, same as the handle overlays. I thought about taking the tip overlays down to a flat gluing surface and add some micarta or even bubinga to match the riser. I'm pretty confident to do the work, just not sure if it's even necessary.

I'm also curious about the sudden stop with FF type strings. I sure love that feel, but some people express concern over the older bows ability to handle it.

Sorry to ramble on. I'm sure you can tell I love this bow. I build self bows, do overlays,  and have tinkerd with glass. So I'm comfortable with the work and feel like I have a pretty good grasp on works, what doesn't, and how much stress a thing can take. I cant see how this could be bad, but I'm not 100% on it. I would really appreciate your opinions on this. Actual experienced reports would be VERY appreciated.

[Jesse Peltan]

Soverign Ballistik is fast flight safe and it has glass tip overlays so I would say you are fine. Padded loops and a skinny string is even better so the bow should have no problem with repeated use.

[Apex Predator]

Your 65' probably has paper phenolic tips.  Good luck!

[DCM]

Have not found you need super hard or tough material for overlays, the shape being much more critical.  For example, I put elm on glass for an r/d longbow.  Has worked fine.  Similarly have hackberry, yew (very soft woods) selfbows w/ FF and no problems.  Micarta is overkill, imho, heck even glass is unnecessary.  Exception being, orientation of the grain on certain woods is important, or you can split out the grain, on a back nock for example.

My old 70s Wing Gull recurve is lovin' it's FF string.

[Apex Predator]

I agree with DCM.  Shape of groove is most important.  Your SK has wide tips and a pretty sharp corner on the edges of the tips, and that would be my concern.

[Bear]

AP,

After our pm's earlier I decided to take a better look at my tips. I had already rounded them a bit, but honestly I don't know that they needed it. I know the type of older bow you're talking about, and maybe someone had already gotten ahold of these tips, but they are't sharp, wide between the groves, or blocky like some of the older bows. Along with the touch-ups I made I think the string follows a nice radius all the way around... comparable to any costum I've had.

Chrono'ed it, and weighed it on a good scale today. 47# at my 29.5 draw. 475 gr arrow moves 174 fps. That drops to 166 or less with a twelve strand B50 endless. Not to mention the sweet end-of-shot feel with D97.

Maybe I should post pics.