String Materials

[sharpend60]

What do ya guys think about fast flight strings on all wood bows?

I know it's not primitive but lets face it, we all like a fast bow.

Do you use fast flight?
And do you feel nock overlays are essential with the high tech strings?

PS.

Ive got a bow I built with a very well known bowyer, we built a fast flight string for it sans overlays...

[Bevan R.]

Is the few fps you 'might' get worth the extra cost of the string? Not to me. I read an article some years ago compairing Dacron to the new high tech string and the author got between 1 to 3 fps gain. I will stick with B50. reasonable cost, easy to work, easy on the bow. just a win/win all around in my view.

[sailordad]

i dont use fast flight
i use b50
its sheaper,works great and it wont hurt a bow that doesnt have overlays 

[crooketarrow]

   I use to put FF on lots of my bows. Back in the early 90's mostly just to see but some people wanted them. I'm not into the speed thing. Depending on the bow you can pick up 7 to 10 feet a second. My best was 12 a nice release can gain another 5 or so.
 With recurves I out shot my friends with there own bows as high as 8 feet a second.

[DEllis]

I plan to try fast flight but not for speed but rather for less stretch on heavy weight longbows. I have seen b50 stretch a lot just after bracing and hopefully FF will remedy this.I have heard that it is much easier to brace a heavy bow with a FF string compared to B50 just because of the strech factor.

Darcy

[dragonman]

I dont know if its only a rumour cause I never tried it but I heard from several bowyers that FF slowly destroyed wooden bows, because there is no give in it, it puts a lot more shock into the wood, or glue lines etc. but like I said I never tried it.

[DEllis]

Tim Baker stated in TBB vol 2 that the main problem with fast flight is not the lack of stretch.......it is only slightly less strechy than linen (1.5% to 2% after break in respectively), but much smaller diameter for equal breaking strength. And being thinner cuts into the nocks. He also stated that if you are going to use artificial string "fast flight seems the best choice"
All theory for me at this point but I plan to try it soon.
Darcy

[Marc St Louis]

I have been using FF for many years.  It is more expensive that a roll of dacron but then I only use an 8 strand string for most draw weight bows and that is half that of a dacron string so a roll goes a long way.  I pad the loops and use overlays as well

[Bullitt]

I've been shooting selfbows since 1989. Started putting the original Fast Flight, Brownells on mine. 16 and 18 strand strings. Always pad the loops!

2 bows, in particular, have been shot with HPM, such as Dyna 97, 450 plus, and Astro flight, since! 1 an osage sinewed backed of my making, 55lbs at 27", and the other, a black locust, 58Lbs at 28"flat bow built by Gary Davis of Michigan.

No overlays and thousands of shots! Both have taken animals!

My reason for using, I can shoot a heavy arrow for hunting with good performance!

Benefits, quieter, less hand shock, and the material wears like iron!

Personally, IMO, overlays are for looks!

[avcase]

I always use nock overlays because it makes it easier for me to make the outer limb narrow, lighter, and more durable, but I've seen plenty of great performing wood bows use fast flight without overlays and never a problem. I always pad the loops of the strings too.

I really enjoy the challenge of making high performance all-natural material strings for my all wood bows.  Unfortunately, high quality linen and silk cost more than the very best no-stretch material.  As a second choice, I use the new Astroflight material and it works great.  It only averages out to a couple dimes more per string than B50.  I use B50 to clamp wood laminations together during glue-ups and that's about it.
-Alan

[DEllis]

That's good info and compares to what I've heard. Nice to hear from guys that have actually tried it
Thanks,
Darcy

[adb]

I use both. On most bows <60#, I use B-50. For bows >60#, and all warbows, I use nothing but FF. B-50 is too stretchy for heavy draw weights.

[JW_Halverson]

There is a definite advantage for the heavier bows to go with FF.  But I really don't think it's that big a bang for the extra bucks on bows under 60-65#.

A friend of mine went over to the FF crowd for the extra FPS.  But then he didn't like the thinner strings cutting into his fingers so he made 24 strand bowstrings!  So much for the added speed of the FastFlite!!!!  He thought it shot faster, and we can't refute how confidence improves your shooting. 

On my 50# bows I use 10 strands of B-50, serve it well under the nocks and watch for any fraying and toss a string if I see anything that looks the least bit hinkey. 

[John K]

I use b50 14-16 strand, i'm going to try a rawhide string one of these days