No Stretch verses Stretch String for handshock

[Rob DiStefano]

i've always wondered if there was a stigma placed against hmpe string fibers by the older bowyers, and passed on to the younger bowyers, by the old guys equating hmpe to that nasty kevlar krap?

i dunno what the tensile strength of those skinny kevlar strings was, but they had almost zero stretch, like stainless steel trolling wire.  yikes, what the heck were we thinking back in the 70's?!?!

[Doug Young]

I have tendonitis, so am pretty sensitive to handshock. A while back when awaiting a replacement 10 strand 450+ string for my Shrew, I temporarily substituted a 14 strand Dacron string I had. Definitely louder and definitely more handshock (as measured by my elbow-OW-meter).

Oh, and add me to the list of people who have been shooting non-Dacron strings on supposedly Dacron-only bows without problems for years. I have an older Cascade that LOVES skinny D97 (padded loops, yes).

Doug

[Jmgcurve]

Thanks for the input guys. I will continue to shoot both on this loaner MOAB to see what I think....

[LC]

I ditto what everyone else has said about the new "skinny" strings. I just got to wonder if 10 years from now if we won't all laugh about when we use to say all OLD bows couldn't use FF strings when in reality it wasn't the bows, the glues,etc at all but the way string grooves were cut with no thought on how to help balance the load all the way around the tip! Just my opinion. I honestly think a FF skinny string is more forgiving on any bow IF the string grooves are made to DISTRIBUTE the load across the limb.

[Bear]

I'm running D97 on everything now, including my 65 Kodiak and selfbows, with minimal strand count. Plenty of shots through all of them. It's a no-brainer.

Make sure your string grooves are properly radiused around the back, pad the loops appropriately, and shoot the high performance string of your choice.

Honestly, if I did own one of those old cheapies that has no tip overlays, thus making a proper radius impossible, I would add tip overlays before I would use dacron. Once everyone catches on to the truth, dacron will go the way of the dinosaur. There's just no comparison. The speed increase is just the icing on the cake. The "cake" being the feel of the shot. I might even switch to skinny-endless soon, just to get an even snappier feel. I dont really get into all the performance fads, but string performance makes such a huge difference in feel if nothing else, it's worth it.

[frank bullitt]

Well, to follow what Doug Young says about Cascade bow and modern materials. A gentleman I have known for over 20 years, back in the early '90s bought a solid phenolic riser bow with yew limbs from Steve. It had alot of vibration and we put a F.F. string on it. Made a huge difference!

Hoyt, years ago, had a video, showing in slow motion the differnce in the F.F. string and dacron at release. Big eye opener! Just like the paradox of an arrow at the shot.

I have shot F.F. strings on selfbows since 1991, the bows still shoot! Speed is not the issue, performance with the heaviest arrow is!

As for the "skinny string" folks, be careful. Like telling your teenage children, "it only takes once".

There's alot of new folks out there, and shooting form and technique, and being comfortable, and having fun is the important first step!

[UKarcher]

I make and sell Dacron strings, both flemish and continuous loop. I have not made a fastflite string in years, since giving up target archery. The reason I don't make them is simple. Cost of materials. I can get a pound of dacron for less than the cost of a quarter pound of the fastflite, plus some people would want one type and other people would want another type. So that is why I stick with dacron.
Saying that, I shoot a forty year old bow that means heck of a lot to me. Am I going to risk breaking it with skinny low stretch strings? You can bet your D97 I'm not. I'm happy with the way it shoots the arrows that I have tuned in to it. I'm not interested in getting a few extra fps out of it. I'm happy with the way it is. And I'm sure there are a lot of people just like myself who have been shooting for years and are quite happy with the set up they have.
I just wanted to put my 2 cents in to point out that it's not always necessary to keep pushing the envelope. Form and tuning are more important to me.

[Rob DiStefano]

Originally posted by frank bullitt:
...

As for the "skinny string" folks, be careful. Like telling your teenage children, "it only takes once".

...

and by that you mean ... what?

there are extremely safe margins for 'skinny' strings.  

low strand count strings are for modern hmpe fibers that rate at 100# tensile strength or above.

i would never use dacron for a low count string as that would be marginal at best.

as an example, take a modern 50# holding weight stick bow that's rated for hmpe string fibers as an example ...  

most folks are using 14 or 12 strands of hmpe.  12 strands x 100#/strand = 1200# tensile strength string on a 50# bow.  that's mega overkill.  

at most, a good and very safe tensile strength bowstring forumula is 12 x the bow's holding weight.

do the math and see why a 6 strand hmpe string is more than safe for that 50# bow.

then compare that to a 12 strand dacron string, which will break at or below 600#.

a proper 'skinny string' is a very safe string for any modern stick bow capable of using an hmpe bowstring.