Terry asked me to repost an old topic that I authored over a decade ago on another forum, as he thought that topic may be of interest or beneficial to some of the participants here. Since I am the original author of the topic, no one on that forum.
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FIELD TESTERS NEEDED. This is much easier to do than it may sound/read, but after you have done it once it is very easy if you have a tape measure and a perminent marker.
After some research in the physics of sound I came to learn a little about string harmonics.
Sound has several factors that effect it...string tention, amplitude (slang - loudness), frequency (slang - pitch), duration. These things are all based on physics and math. It turns out that a strings "harmonics" includes several notes. The loudest note being in the center, the next 1/3, the next 1/4, and on and on with the numbers that are divisible by 2 or 3. Which is where we, according to a professional musician that I discussed string harmonics with, should place our siliencers if we wish to quiet the bow. I tried some of his suggestions and it seemed to work well, so I thought I would share some of his suggestions with the readers here to see if others noticed any improvement.
Obviously, we don' want to put siliencers in the center of the serving, so the next best spot would be a 1/3 of the way from the last contact point of the bow. By "last contact point" you don't measure your bow or your entire string. You ONLY MEASURE the amount of string that does not touch the bow when the bow is stong...measuring from "contact point to contact point." I find 1/3rds to still closer to the center than I need as I tend to shoot quiet longbows most of the time, but if I was shooting a recurve type bow that was really noisy I might try it there. My favorite spot for a longbow is 1/4 (the next multiple of 2) of the string length between contact points. These are where the notes are created. Further to the tip reduces high pitch sounds, closer to the center reduces the low pitch sounds. Low pitch sounds (low frequency wave length) travel the farthest.
Well, in my BRIEF testing this holds true and I have found this spot to work great and I would like to hear what those of you who are willing to try it find.
TO DO THIS and have it work, it must be done as accurately as possible. To be accurate...
A. Measure the length of the string between the last contact points of the bow.
B. Divide that length by 4 (or 3 if you have a noisy bow).
C. Measure calculated 1/4 distance (or 1/3 if you have a noisy bow) from the last contact point (when the bow is strung) and put a mark with a perminent marker. (If you have a very noisy bow, you might wish to try the 1/3 spot, in that case devide by 3).
D. Unstring the bow and place the siliencer in the string so it goes in between the strands, don't just tie it on, but open the string up. Have it positioned so the CENTER of the siliencer is on top of the mark.
E. String the bow up, double check the position of the siliencer, and go shoot. If you have dewaxed bowstring material for a siliencer (wax can be removed with acetone and a paper towel) or a yarn type siliencer, they will tie themselves in after a 100 shots or so and you won't need to tie them in. If you have catwhiskers, I suggest tying them in with some serving material. Beaver balls and other such fur types will stay where you put them, but are a little more difficult to "center."
Shoot, enjoy, and let us know what you find.
Looking to hear from you with your results...Maybe no more guessing on where to put those siliencers.
I don't think it will be a cure all for a very noisy bow, but it may help more so than othe methods and is certainly worth a try. The reason it won't be a "cure all" on a recurve is because a recurve not only has string harmonics, but also limb slap.
Topic: Here is an OLD topic on quieting down a bow... (Read 416 times)
