String Material

[Alexander Traditional]

Someone just did a post on string making,and I think I want to give it a try. I wanted to know what the difference if any there is between B55 and fast flight plus?

[Pat B]

B-55 is a thicker, stretchier string material and Fast Flight types of strings have a lot less stretch and are thinner.

[Alexander Traditional]

I got ya Pat,but I thought there was one called fast flight plus that was real close to B55. I think I'll just start out with B55.

[McDave]

If your bow is rated for fastflight, I would recommend going with one of the fastflight strings, of which there are many. In order to rate a bow for fastflight, a bowyer has to reinforce the tips to withstand the extra shock.  Doing that adds a little weight to the tips, that you don't need if you're shooting dacron.  If you've got the extra weight of fastflight tips, you might as well shoot fastflight and get the extra performance.

[Alexander Traditional]

I got you McDave,but there is a guy on here that has one of the same bows I do. I told him how loud my bow seemed to be,and it has a string made with Fury. He said he had one made with B55,and I just wanted to try my first string making with this material as it's cheaper,and he said it worked really well for him with this particular bow.

I just wanted to know how close the materials that I mentioned were. I guess I'll just go with b55.

[degabe]

I make mine out of artifical sinew and haven't had one break yet.

[Pat B]

B55 is very similar to B50 but slightly smaller in diameter. B50 is no longer manufactured so B55 is the substitute. These 2 are the only string material I use with my selfbows. I have selfbows made by others with FF type strings but I'm not fond of skinny strings so I'll stick with the B50 and B55 I have. I've even made strings with both B50 and B55 in them.

[Gator1]

I would certainly not hesitate to learn string building with Dacron. I have to believe more economical

I have 2 fast flight bows that the b55 really quiets them down.

[SteveB]

I got ya Pat,but I thought there was one called fast flight plus that was real close to B55. I think I'll just start out with B55.

Never close - totally different materials. FF+ was formulated after the 2 engineers who developed the original FF left Brownell to form BCY. They owned the process to FF but not the name. Brownell changed the formula slightly and called it FF+. BCY still makes the original FF as 652. All are grades of dyneema/spectra.

B50(Brownell) and B55 (BCY) are both polyester materials.

[Keefer]

   Pat B and for those who like Brownell it is coming back !
I just recently read a Company called "Badinotti Group" bought all trade righs etc. from Brownell on Oct.26 2019 and trying to have a product line of the string materials Brownell made out for available distribution somewhere in June 2020 ...
  I stocked up with 24 rolls of B-50 and some went to a friend this past Christmas from Big Jims .
I like B-50 and use it on a lot of old bows and New ones that are F.F. READY.
  The Badinotti Group makes fish nets and other twines like mason lines and ropes as well.
I did a little research on the net and sure enough I found some information about them and Brownell.
   I for one am glad someone will bring it back...

[Alexander Traditional]

I got ya Pat,but I thought there was one called fast flight plus that was real close to B55. I think I'll just start out with B55.

Never close - totally different materials. FF+ was formulated after the 2 engineers who developed the original FF left Brownell to form BCY. They owned the process to FF but not the name. Brownell changed the formula slightly and called it FF+. BCY still makes the original FF as 652. All are grades of dyneema/spectra.

B50(Brownell) and B55 (BCY) are both polyester materials.

Good to know.

[Pat B]

Thanks for the info, Keefer. I usually get B50 from Chad Weaver(LBR) at the Tenn. Classic. He is a distributor for BYC and used to be with Brownell. Chad told me about Brownell not making B50 anymore and that's when I started using B55.

[Alexander Traditional]

All right going with B55. I don't know where I heard or got it mixed up that fast flight plus wasn't much performance difference.

[Wudstix]

Keefer,
 
I heard that on the other site.
 

[Hoosierarcher88]

I recently picked up some b55 to try. Ive always used b50 in the past for dacron and bcy x or bcy 452x in the past for my fast flight strings. Yesterday i did a little blind test using my wife to tell which was quietest. I would swap between my b55 string and 452x skinny string with padded ends and every single time i shot with the b55 she stated that not only was it quieter but the shot itself sounded softer.

[Gator1]

Exactly what I found out on my ACE recurves.  My daughter shot hers with b55 and no string silencers.  And I’m picky about noise. 

[Hoosierarcher88]

As much as i like the little extra speed and the imcreased stability of fast flight to me it still doesnt trump how quiet the b55 is. I do feel the b55 is more stable than the b50 i used in the past was. On my longbow after the first day of shooting it heavy i havent had to readjust the braceheight in 2 weeks.