My Experience with Brace Heigth 101..

[JINKSTER]

Well gents..as i continued on my obsessive path of learning trad and tuning such beasts i have come to the conclusion that there's as much (if not more) to proper tuning of a trad bow as there is a compound...and in my never ending quest for optimum tuning of my trad bows i decided to revisit my Brace Heigth on both bows..as i understand it is like "The Place" to start..and with much thanks to great xperience given and shared by many and my local archery pro and the fact that after i took my best guess at things i was almost a full inch out of spec from what my bowyer recommended on my new Bushmen LongBow...so under the tutilage of others who know far more than i?..i proceeded with great anticipation and?..

Step1: Was to run to the crafts store and buy some yarn..cause as soon as i got home with it?..it was hello Mr Razor Blade and Goodbye Catwhiskers and good ridence..(more on that later)..

 

Step2: This was a little tricky at first cause i just wasnt quite sure how i was going to go about finding this elusive "Brace Heigth Sweet Spot"..so i started shooting right from ground zero..sans any string silencers so i could hear and feel what was going on with my bow..so from right where it was at i shot repeatedly summoning up all my spidey senses all the while listening intently and leaving all my fingers in a light full wrap of the grooved grip with about the same amount of pressure one might use to pick up someones pulse at their wrist..listening to the string noise and feeling for vibes from the bow and?..it really wasnt that hard! LOL!..and without string silencers on'er?..my bow sounded like a detuned bass violin..i then put 3 twists on the string bringing her to 6 3/4" and here's the weird part..soon as i restrung it and took a couple short "Seating Pulls"?..i could tell the first several inches of draw the limbs seemed..i dunno..less muddled..less confused..and i shot it like that just to see but knowing she wasnt there yet..better..and the string note cleaned up a bit..but not there..two more twists took her too a hair over 7"s..and wow..sweet..tried one more twist and?..oh yeah baby..7 1/4"s...drew clean from the very start..the sustain of vibes in the riser where cut down to about 1/3rd of what they were and she sounded like roy clarks banjo..and i knew that was it..i didnt dare go any further..and viola.  

got so excited with the first 3 at 20yds i yanked the 4th..just so i'd have a place to rest my sans string silencers bow. LOL!

 

and now that optimum BH dimensions were established?..it was knit 1 pearl 2 time...

 

and yes...i found "Camo Yarn"..and i loved the way it blended with my string.  

 

Now..after all this?..i hadta ask myself...."Self?..why in sams hill did you ever take your new longbows BH down that low in the first place?"...and amazingly?..i remembered..when i was tuning my arrows i wound up putting 145gr tips on my almost full length 30" GT3555's to bareshaft tune..and for some reason?..the bow picked up a noise..and i noticed that the catwhiskers the bowyer put on the string (that he made as well) that the whiskers were getting tangled..and i had no clue why but..tangled whiskers?..new noise?..i started fiddling with BH till she sounded better and quit tangling whiskers..and in hindsight?..i think the whiskers were just cut too long..but in the end?..it's a good thing..cause these yarn balls rock...about 10X's quieter than freaking cat whiskers and cost?..about .0000000001 cent.

Hope sharing that bad experience with a oh so happy ending helps save somebody else from my own lame ignorance! LOL!

Mr. Lee is gonna hafta wait till another day..i got black yarn for him..and i'm doing the mountain muffler serve the ends deal as well but straightening out one bow for today is enough and?..

L8R, Bill.  :cool:

[cbCrow]

I love your cynical style of writing, but ask yourself this; were the results and the things learned worth the hassle?

[JINKSTER]

Originally posted by cbCrow:
I love your cynical style of writing, but ask yourself this; were the results and the things learned worth the hassle?

and i'm "cynical"? LOL!

but to answer your question?.."absolutely".

[njloco]

It's always worth it when things work out, and also when you learn something new.

[TSP]

Glad you liked your results but I think you were a bit unfair to the catwhiskers.  Maybe you used vinyl whiskers in your test (they're not nearly as good as the rubber type), had them at the wrong spot on the string or had them inserted rather than tied on the string?  I have multiple bows with whiskers on them, others with yarn puffs and another with furballs.  If anything the whiskers tend to be much easier to 'slide tune' than are the normal-sized puffs.  The extra weight and deadening qualities of rubber might have something to do with their effectiveness as well.

[JINKSTER]

Originally posted by TSP:
Glad you liked your results but I think you were a bit unfair to the catwhiskers.  Maybe you used vinyl whiskers in your test (they're not nearly as good as the rubber type), had them at the wrong spot on the string or had them inserted rather than tied on the string?  I have multiple bows with whiskers on them, others with yarn puffs and another with furballs.  If anything the whiskers tend to be much easier to 'slide tune' than are the normal-sized puffs.  The extra weight and deadening qualities of rubber might have something to do with their effectiveness as well.

unfair to catwhiskers?..vinyl?..nah...they were definantly rubber..and more than likely too long...and one thing i did fail to mention is that all through the changes i made?..a bud and i discovered years ago that we could use a TV screen as an ocilliscope of sorts where if you lightly pluck the string in front of a playing tv screen?..you get to watch your bowstring do the hoola (so we called it)...like a high speed strobe affect...it helped us make some good decisions with interesting effects...oh well..i'll stick with the puffs for now.