Bowstring Material Recommendation Wanted

[ItzaKen]

Hello All,

I'll be getting an R/D Hybrid bow and shooting wooden arrows, fir or ash.

I'll twist up my own Flemish strings.

I've gone the other way from "the fastest"; for me, it's too much Impulse, whether it be a bow/arrow, a rifle cartridge/powder, or a fly rod.

I'm currently using B55.  Is there another string material I should consider and how does it compare to B55, for the softer/slower, yet efficient experience and results I'm looking for?

Thanks!
Ken

[McDave]

Any modern R/D bow you buy new will probably be built to shoot with fast-flight string.  In order to do this, the limb tips are built stronger than necessary for dacron string.  Stronger=heavier, and you are giving up some level of performance for nothing if you use fast-flight designed limb tips with dacron string.  You were torn between sacrificing performance for comfortable shooting in making your decision between a 62” and a 60” bow, and yet I would say that the decision on type of bowstring will have more of an impact on performance than the decision on limb length did (or will, I don’t know if you’ve made that decision yet).

A middle ground would be to pick a tried and true fast-flight string, like D97, and use a normal strand count rather than making a skinny string.

[The Whittler]

McDave 2+. Some think using low stretch strings is all about speed when most of the time it's performance how the bow feels and shoots.

It all boils down to you, your bow your choice.

[ItzaKen]

Great points!!
And thank you for the recommendation.

What then do you think of X-99, formerly "X", compared to the D97??

[Kirkll]

McDave nailed it on his post. I’m not familiar with the 99 material, but using D97 in an 18 strand count would be far superior to B55. Save that stuff for self bows or older vintage bows without reinforced tip overlays.

I’ve been building bows for about 15 years now and I suck at building Flemish twist strings. I hate building strings too. But when I have to do it, I build endless loop strings on a jig. I don’t mess with Flemish strings any more.

I use a professional string builder for all my custom bows, and am real happy with
Ricks work.   Check him out. I’ve been using the Mercury material  lately and it’s added a bit of performance over D97, and zero creep.

  https://rickstraditionalbowstrings.com/

Kirk

[ItzaKen]

Thank you, Kirk.