Question Re: String Mass, Strand # & Performance

[ItzaKen]

Hello All,

So, I've gathered enough evidence to convince myself to twist up a BCY 652 string, rather than a Force10, or many of the other materials I have.  My bows:  42# Omega Hybrid; 47# GN Fireball; 53# Sovereign Recurve.

Looks like strand numbers are all over the place, from 8 strands to 20 strands, min. of 652 for 40# and up.

"I would think" that there must be a balance, where there's a string mass that's best, given the mass of the limbs and the mass of the arrow.

I'm not concerned with speed, but with stability of shot and less noise, before adding any dampening stuff.

I'd like to hear from those of you who have actually tested these variables and have some findings, whether specific to 652 in these poundage ranges, or whether general and stating the parameters, like the bow and poundage and number of strands of which material.

Many thanks!....  Ken

[McDave]

I've tested some of the variables you've mentioned, but by no means all.  One reason I haven’t done more testing is that when BCY-10 came out, I bought approximately a lifetime supply of it (bearing in mind that I’m 78).  I'm sure that there is better stuff out there now, but it works fine, and I’m not inclined to leave a bunch of bowstring to my heirs.

I would think that the ideal string mass would be zero, but as that would be impossible to achieve, we should look for the lowest mass string that will deliver the characteristics that we want.

In my pursuit of this, I passed through the stage of building skinny strings, padded at the nocks and double served.  I think that the actual mass of a padded, double served, skinny string is not much less than a string that has sufficient strands to protect the limb nocks and can be used with a single layer of serving.  So with my BCY 10, I make all my strings now with 2 bundles of 7 strands, which gives adequate limb nock protection and arrow nock fit with one layer of serving, and is overbuilt for the 50# and under bows I now shoot.

Fortunately for me, when I bought the BCY 10, all bowstrings were about the same diameter so everyone knew what everyone else was talking about when they said a 14 strand string.  Now, some bowstrings have significantly smaller diameter than was formerly the case, and more strands are needed to make the same diameter finished string.

Most bowstrings these days are overbuilt as far as breaking strength is concerned, which is comforting given that synthetic string material weakens over time, so may not be overbuilt if you are shooting the same string 2 years later.  The rule of thumb is to have a breaking strength in the finished string at least 4X the load placed on it.  One interesting fact is that the tension along the bowstring may be two or three times the force exerted by the archer.  So for my 50# bow, the tension along the string may be 150#.  4 X 150# = 600#, which would be the minimum recommended breaking strength of the finished bowstring.

And that just about exhausts my knowledge of that!

[ItzaKen]

Thank you!
What is it you like about the string combo you've been using?

[McDave]

What I like is that the strings I have made from BCY10 are as quiet as any other strings I have ever made, and seem to perform well.

What I don't like is that the diameters of the different colors are not the same.  So for example, if I make a string with brown/yellow bundles, after I make the second string loop, one bundle will be longer/shorter than the other.  To avoid this, I blend the bundles together.  So for a string with 7 strands of yellow and 7 strands of brown, I will blend the bundles 4/3 yellow/brown, which makes the bundles come out even.

[ItzaKen]

Wow!! I've heard questions about diff diameters; that sounds like a lot!!

I've heard that D10/Force 10 and was quiet.  I have 2, 1/8lb spools, but seeing that they're not continuing it, I was hesitant to go down that road and set up my arrows for a specific string, only to have to change it all up.