Flemishg Strings--Explain This One To Me

[Danny Rowan]

Chad,

I have owned several of Jacks bows and I have shot them with the supplied endless and just because, I have made 450+ flemish strings and shot them with that. I could tell no diffenence, I prefer a flemish myself.

Danny

[LBR]

I prefer flemish myself, but my goal here is to learn what is being said and hopefully dispell some myths.

Not sure, but I think I have an endless on my bowfishing bow right now.  I make both, and I shoot both (I do shoot flemish more).  I don't want folks to think I have an agenda for one or against the other, or some kind of agenda against anyone's bows.  Jack's bows have a great reputation, I just can't understand the misinformation on strings.

Funny thing, most of the other bowyers with similar opinions--at least the ones I've heard of--also have great reputations.  I can't figure it out, except I know one of the ones I am thinking of was trained by one of the others.

[Running Buck]

I would love to see how the "tests" were performed. Not everyone has the equipment to give a non-bias comparison. JMO

[blueline]

Chad  What I got out of Jack's words that Orion posted is he used a FF endless and compared it to a Dacron flemish, And IMO the endless was tuned and the flemish was just thrown own.

Also a question I have is how old are these statements, I may have changed my mind on at least one thing in 25 years!!!!!

enjoy

[Orion]

Blueline -- Nope.  Read it again. He compared Fastflite against dacron with both endless loop and flemish strings.  

The book was published in 2005

LBR, I provided the info for everyone's edification and discussion.  Jack is one of the few to put his views in print. A courageous fellow.    I didn't say I subscribe to these particular views though.  In fact, I don't.  His book is a good read though and a wealth of information.

[Jeff Strubberg]

Go ahead and beat me up for this...

Jack seems to have a lot of opinions and test results that back those opinions up.  Strange thing is, noone else seems to get the same test results.

[LBR]

I even determined if the Flemish-twist bowstring was made with FastFlight, it was still not as effective as a FastFlight continuous-loop style bowstring.

I dunno how old the statements are, but that came from his book which was published a few years ago?  I also recieved (via e-mail) information that was sent out with his bows--said some of the same stuff.  It even went as far as voiding the warranty if a flemish OR dacron (endless or flemish) string was used.

He may have changed his mind since the book was published--I dunno--but the information given is incorrect.

 

I would love to see how the "tests" were performed.

Me too.  Test results can be skewed if you don't make sure everything is equal, use a shooting machine, etc.  Even different sizes of serving on the strings can affect results.

I can't say his results didn't show 8-10 fps difference, but I know that doesn't correllate with other tests I've read and talked to folks about, and the handshock thing goes against my personal experience.

FWIW, it kind of goes with what I've seen over the years.  Some of the nicer bows I've seen on the racks had some of the most awful strings I've ever seen.  I never understood why someone would put a $3 string on a $1,000 bow.

[Hatrick]

LBR - "FWIW, it kind of goes with what I've seen over the years. Some of the nicer bows I've seen on the racks had some of the most awful strings I've ever seen. I never understood why someone would put a $3 string on a $1,000 bow."

Ain't that the truth!    

Seems like nothing helps improve bow performance better than a good string.

[Bjorn]

Like many on here I buy a fair number of bows. Very few bows arrive with a string I like. In fact I have started telling bowyers to forget the string.
Personally, EL strings only go on my 50 year old classic bows-and just for 'the look'. Everything else gets FT strings-they just handle so much better.
Bowyers blaming strings is beyond amazing!

[LBR]

Well, a few minutes ago I got off the phone with the guy I call when I have a technical question about strings.  He's the only person I know that's made more strings than I have (a lot more), and has done extensive testing (shooting machine and chrony).

Long story short, gobs have tests have proven one thing.  All else being equal (nock fit, draw length, arrow weight, etc.) two strings that weigh the same will shoot the same speed--doesn't matter if they are endless vs. flemish, or dacron vs. Dynaflight.

Still, I'm scratching my head wondering where some of these guys got their "information"?

[wtpops]

LBR just a thought a FT with the same strand count as a EL would be heaver on the ends of the string and in that case would steal some energy from the limbs. Just a thought.

[LBR]

I'd thought about that WT, but there's two things to consider there.  One, weight on the very ends of the string make a minimal, if any difference and, two, the endless strings have the weight of the serving on the ends that flemish doesn't.  It's pretty much a trade off there.

[Running Buck]

Hey look on the bright side of this, in the world according to Jack if we all switch to endless strings we can expect another 8 to 10 fps. Everybody to his own thing.....

[LBR]

While I'm thinking of it, has anyone ever seen any "B-60" string material?

This is from the paperwork that came with a Harrison longbow.

"Strings that stretch, e.g. B-50 and B-60 in Flemish style strings are the worst to use on contemporary epoxy laminated longbows of any design and especially Black Wolf bows."

I've never seen or heard of "B-60".  Can someone fill me in?

[SHOOTO8S]

Originally posted by Running Buck:
Hey look on the bright side of this, in the world according to Jack if we all switch to endless strings we can expect another 8 to 10 fps. Everybody to his own thing.....

Yeah, when pigs fly