Confused...

[WillS]

Right. I feel like a moron posting this, but I'm utterly stuck and need some guidance.

I've finished long string tillering my 130# yew warbow.  It's been ready for brace height tillering for about a week now.   I made a new string from 14 strands of FastFlight Plus.  I put the string on the bow, and unstrung but held tight the top loop is about 2 inches from the nock.  I put the long string on, wind it back on the tiller until I can string the bow.

The real string now sits tight with a 5 inch brace or so.  I let the winch down slowly to take weight off the long string.... And the bowstring just stretches until the brace height is zero.  Over and over again! I cannot get this bow to brace. 

I've even resorted to tying the new string to the tiller and winding it back on it's own, leaving it at 160# so it stretches.  Doesn't make a bit of difference! I've never come across this before.

The real problem is that to get the bow back far enough to string it, it takes about 100# and I have to leave it sat at that weight while I wrestle the string on which is causing the bow to start taking some serious set and nothing I do will get this damn bow to brace height!

[toomanyknots]

I've never heard of ff stretching significantly. I don't know, but I would opt for more strands, as I have read it is more stable. And I am really not the person to give advice on strings, but I would just keep reducing the length a bit until you have an acceptable brace height I guess. Sometimes if you have a lot of twists in a flemish it will need to settle in a good bit. If you using a flemish, try out an endless loop with as little twist as possible, it will stretch/settle less I find.

[WillS]

Awesome, cheers dude.  I'll make up an endless and see what happens! This one does have a LOT of twists in it...

[adb]

Are you positive it's FF??

[WillS]

Yup! Brownell FF Plus.  According to the sticker on the spool.

Sure as heck doesn't feel like FastFlight though.  I dunno if the "Plus" stuff is lower quality than "FastFlight"?

Think I might start calling it FartFlight for all the good it is...

[Del the cat]

I used some BCY Dyna Flight 10, First time I've tried it. It was fine, virtually the same as Angel Majest, but with a waxy feel at half the price... no prob on the warbow I'm doing at the moment.
I originally made a Dacron tillering string, but it was no good... just kept stretching, couldn't get it to a decent brace.
Then I used the last of my Angel Majesty, a little stretch at V low brace heights as it settled in, I adjsuted it with my toggle thingy to slowly get to full brace.
I then used that as the length for the Dyna Flight 10 string (endless loop)... It was spot on, with V little stretch. I got it online. £17.44 for a 1/8 lb reel.
Got it in white... looks good on a warbow.
Del

[WillS]

I'm thinking of just going for linen, but I had high hopes for this bow as a performance bow, so modern strings are the only option I reckon. 

As you said on your blog Del, the number of "fastflight" strings out there is boggling!  I've heard great things about AstroFlight, good things about D-75 and the original FastFlight (can't get that anymore!) and mediocre reviews on FastFlight Plus which is what I'm using. 

I think I'll have one more go with the FF+ but take almost all the twists out and use a stronger version of a bowyers knot so I can adjust as I go.  If that doesn't work, I'll go with your recommendation of Dyna Flight.  Thanks!

[Del the cat]

AAAAARRRRGGHHH You said Bowyers knot...
I'll give you a pound to a penny it's the bowyers knot slipping. Maybe as an experimnet put some masking tape on the string by the knot as a marker to see if it's moving.
The diffeence between linnen and a modern material is huge in a knot.
When I make my econtinuous loop strings I tie the ends with a reefknot before whipping over the join which ends up being in the V of one of the loops. The knot just keeps it in place during whipping, but it will pull apart under pressure as the material is so slippy.
Del

[mikekeswick]

Yes make sure you use 3 full turns around the loop with your bowyers. Some fastflight can slip[ at the knot because it's so smooth. After sll the bowyers knot is called a timber hitch for good reason! Loggers don't use slippy rope!
Also add no more twist to the middle portion of a flemish string than absolutely necessary.

[WillS]

It's not quite a bowyers knot.  Its like a..... Warbowyers knot.  As Mike said,  more turns round the loop and double twists as you go back round the original loop to fasten.  Theres no way it's slippin'!  I thought it was the knot at first but checked and re-checked and it's all good there.  Some guys use two bowyers knots on their warbows so as long as it's done right there's no problem!

[toomanyknots]

I don't like bowyers knots on heavy warbows too much anymore, not because it slips, but because it has a tendency to damage the nocks at heavier weights. (Well this is mostly really for bamboo backed bows, but I have been making a lot of them lately). Like clockwork, it always starts to split the bamboo. It's aggravating sometimes because it forces me to put the horn nocks on before I can really be certain of the weight, potentially causing me to come under weight. I'm surprised I haven't read of anyone else having this problem, I don't make my temp nocks any different than anyone else. I have switched to using two loops on bows 100+, which really ain't too big of a deal if you make the loops like I do. The way I make em, I can just unravel the string and lay the tails of the loop in and then twist the string back up, however many times I need to, to adjust brace with a two loop string.

[WillS]

I find with yew it's not actually too bad, although until you get the final nocks on, you do get some denting of the wood from the string (although that happens with knots or loops really.)

I definitely prefer two laid-in loops, but I like the adjustability of bowyers knots as it does tend to prevent over-twisting.  Although not in this case...