How many strands in a string.

[Marlin]

Hello, Friends
All the bows in my past have never pulled more than 65# or so. I am new to war bows and it's another dimension for me. This Osage stave is reflexed and has attitude 1" thick 1.25" wide about 70" long. I have a 21 strand string that just seams to keep stretching. Do I need more strands or do I need to shorten my string?
I am hoping for a bow that's in the 110# range. Marlin

[heavybow]

You can used a 22 strand fastflight if you got horn nocks or pad the loops. cheers Marlon

[Ian.]

You should get away with 14 strands of FF, you really cant use dacron on a bow more than 70 as it will have you have noticed stretch, I wouldn't make the string shorter that's a false economy.

Good to have you back on the forum Marlon

[Marlin]

Allright then I have another question. What did they use in days of old when Knights were bold and those bows as effective as they were to pin a man to his horse? I guess I may have to buy some fancy new fast flight string.
Marlin

[bow-toxo]

When Knights were bold, or bald, the strings were of linen, hemp, or silk {the strongest}for anyone that could get it. I got a big hank of raw silk in Thailand and have made strings of it, you can also get thin Chinese hemp 20# cord. Three strands {medieval strings were 3 strands] of three or four cords each. You do the math. For linen you used to be able to get Belfast linen thread but I don't know if that is still available.

[adb]

When Knights were bold, or bald, the strings were of linen, hemp, or silk {the strongest}for anyone that could get it. I got a big hank of raw silk in Thailand and have made strings of it, you can also get thin Chinese hemp 20# cord. Three strands {medieval strings were 3 strands] of three or four cords each. You do the math. For linen you used to be able to get Belfast linen thread but I don't know if that is still available.

Medieval strings were 3 strands? I wasn't aware there were any medieval era strings in existace? None were recovered from the Mary Rose, and I'm unaware of any other sources. Please enlighten us.

[bow-toxo]

Sure, adb. I guess you were on vacation when, in response to a challenge, I posted a full page of my sources on the topic of mediaeval and Tudor bowstrings. In response to a threat, I posted the whole page again. The source is Lartdarcherie translated by Colonel Walrond.  Mediaeval bow strings were mostly of the single loop type, now known as the 'Flemish' string. LARTDARCHERIE refers to the single loop string tightly twisted of three strands of fiber or thread, You can look it up in the Archery library online. That should cover it unless you are addicted to string boards and refuse to believe original mediaeval and Renaissance sources.

[adb]

So, there is a medieval bow string in existance? Where?

[Ian.]

On the archery library the two oldest books are The art of Archery 1515 and Toxophilus 1545 to memory I cant remember reading anything on actual string making only that the author didn't feel qualified enough to talk about the subject.  Could you point us to the chapter in either book that the reference is in.

[Ian.]

Art of Archery (1515)

 "And if you wish to know if a string is good, untwist the middle of it, and if the three strands are separate and distinct, it is a good one, provided always that when the string is twisted up again, it is hard and firm, for the harder it is, the better it will be." 


Toxophilus 1545

 "Now what a string ought to be made on, whether of good hemp, as they do now-a-days, or of flax, or of silk, I leave that to the judgement of stringers, of whom we must buy them. Eustathius, upon this verse of Homer,"

It goes on to say

 "Eustathius, upon this verse of Homer, doth tell, that in old time, they made their bow-strings of bullocks' thermes, which they twined together as they do ropes" this is talking about the ancient Greeks not the middle ages.


Thats is the only reference to construction, its not concrete.

[bow-toxo]

So, there is a medieval bow string in existance? Where?

 Who told you that one had survived ? You are getting incoherent.

[bow-toxo]

Art of Archery (1515)

 "And if you wish to know if a string is good, untwist the middle of it, and if the three strands are separate and distinct, it is a good one, provided always that when the string is twisted up again, it is hard and firm, for the harder it is, the better it will be." 


Toxophilus 1545

 "Now what a string ought to be made on, whether of good hemp, as they do now-a-days, or of flax, or of silk, I leave that to the judgement of stringers, of whom we must buy them. Eustathius, upon this verse of Homer,"

It goes on to say

 "Eustathius, upon this verse of Homer, doth tell, that in old time, they made their bow-strings of bullocks' thermes, which they twined together as they do ropes" this is talking about the ancient Greeks not the middle ages.


Thats is the only reference to construction, its not concrete.

 Good. You did find the chapter on bowstrings! The quote "if the three strands are separate and distinct" constitutes evidence.

[Ian.]

It would seem so, there isn't much writing dedicated to strings and the period images don't tell us much, but I wouldn't think that they would have changed how they made strings through the few hundred years that they were used.

[adb]

My point, Erik, is that no one (not even you) knows FOR SURE the make up of a medieval bow string, because one does not exist.

[CraigMBeckett]

It would seem so, there isn't much writing dedicated to strings and the period images don't tell us much, but I wouldn't think that they would have changed how they made strings through the few hundred years that they were used.

Why a few hundred? the oldest bow remnant is 10,000 years old, where there is a bow there must be a string. Otzi the iceman had a length of cordage in his quiver, bow string or not is apparently the subject of argument, but he certainly had a bow so must have had a bow string and his remains are 5,300 or so years old. So strings have been made for a bit more than a few hundred years.

As for did they change the way they made them, do you not believe people can get better at making things over time? Maybe the way they were made became static during the historical period but during pre-history there must have been changes.


Craig