endless loop string- fast flight vs B-50

[ozy clint]

in regards to endless loops, is fastflight still louder than B-50? also how many strands of f/flight would i need to make a string the same diameter as a 16 strand B-50? thanks.

[sweet old bill]

I have had new bows that come in with FF strings on them and change over to endless B50 in 14 strand. Why, I know the b50 works very well and can be used on new or older bows. The B50 seems also to be a lot less noise when shot.I stock in my shop only the b50 and all other are by special order etc. The B-50 price is also about 1/2 the cost of FF strings.

ask that questions of one of the major string makers like at recurves.com....

Bill

[Orion]

A lot of the string noise on endless loop strings on recurves is created by the string slapping against the recurved tips as the string comes back to brace height at the shot.  So, it's the material that is wrapped around the fast flight at the nock ends that will determine how noisy they will be on recurves.  Nylon would be much quieter than monofilament, for example, and probably quieter than a fast flite material like Halo.  On longbows, this isn't an issue.

Don't know how many strands of fast flite you would need to create a string of the same thickness. That would depend on the fast flite material used.  But why would you want to do that?  The advantage of using fast flight is it's thinner, lighter and stronger so its possible to build a thinner, stronger more efficient string than B-50. Just use a heavier/larger diameter serving material to get the same string diameter at the serving/nock point.

[killinstuff]

The TS-1 strings on my longbows are more quiet then fastflight or B-50 to my ears. I have had a number of people at shoots say my bows were very quiet. Makes a soft thump sound on the shot. 12 strands for a 60lb and 64lb bows.

CJ

[Jeremy]

Well, I use 12 strand FF, or 14 strand TS-1 with the same serving.  With 12 strand B50, I have to go to a thinner serving.  So maybe 18-20 strands of FF will match the diameter of 16 strand B50... both are some pretty stout strings!

FF is actually the harshest sounding material I've tried.  I only use it for tillering strings now or for stitching leather if I run out of saddle thread.  I've come to prefer TS-1+... a little softer feel after the shot than D97 and seems to settle in much faster and doesn't have near the wax content.  Of course, all but one of my bows now are from before 1960, so I'm mostly making dacron strings.