Give us your Favorite String Material and why!

[Marc St Louis]

If you just tend to build your standard straight limb bow of modest draw weight then B50 is perfectly adequate.  Once you move into the high string tension designs or high draw weight bows then using a FF material makes a world of difference.

Im not sure I agree there Marc. Anymore, I tend to build a lot of what you described and boy o' boy does it matter with that style bow. Matter of fact I've yet to build or shoot any bow that didn't have instant and obvious benefits. Yes some more than others, but there is drastic improvement in nearly all bows.

I wish we had slow motion video of the same bow upon release with a B50 string and a dyneema of any flavor. Then we could decide which Is better for a bow real fast.

That's why I said "adequate".  When I mentioned high string tension design I wasn't referring to the performance benefits, those are nice, but rather the stretch.  High string tension bows just stretch the crap out of dacron and that by itself makes it a pain to use on these bows.   Now I'm pretty sure you wouldn't use FF on a 20# kids bow 

[George Tsoukalas]

Pat, PD and I are just having fun. He'd win a pissing contest for sure. I'm 65. Jawge

[Pat B]

George, I understand. I'll be 64 in July.     This was just a little reminder after the thread that got away a few weeks ago.

[Badger]

  I really appreciate fast flite on a bows first brace, with b-50 you have to bend it about 3 more inches.

[George Tsoukalas]

OK, my friend. Jawge

[PEARL DRUMS]

Pat you can bet your wonderful life I would NEVER take anything that far on here. This place and most of the people on it mean way more to me than my strong minded opinions. Matter of fact, I didn't even read 99% of that thread you speak of, it was too uncomfortable for me.

Im not trying to sell anybody on FF, just trying to de-criminalize it. Its spoken of as if its poison and very dangerous to handle!

[Pat B]

Like I said Pearlie, just a reminder. I also didn't read most of that previous thread.
 It is obvious from this thread that FF ain't poisonous and B-50 is in the minority. 

[MWirwicki]

I'm primarily an old school B-50 guy.  Yes, it does stretch some at the beginning but it settles in for me.  I think that it's quieter on my hunting selfbows than the FF material.  Also, I'm basically cheap.  I've never been enough of a speed freak to make the switch.  For me, B-50 is plenty quick enough in my hunting range of 0-20 yards.  I suspect it might make a difference out farther with deer ducking the string, but then again, I don't shoot that far at deer.  I rarely install tip overlays on my selfbows.  If I decided to make a FF string for one of my selfbows, I would feel the need to.  I do however, like Cody's idea of a FF tillering string.  I think I'll make one just for that purpose. 

That being said I have both materials, but my plentiful string box contains mostly B-50.  I save the FF string material for my glass bows, mainly because that's what people want.  I've noticed that my glass bows have a sharper, noisier "twang" with FF material than with B-50.

 

[_Jon_]

I make a few strings from time to time.

I started out with B50.  It works, just not as well as D97 IMO.

All our B50 is gone now from Twin Oaks(only had a few tiller strings left and they went home with folks from the Classic), so Strings even our Tiller Strings are D97 now on.

I like D97 best.

[Knapper]

Yes I like strings on my bows too
Knapper

[Crogacht]

B50 because everything else is too expensive.

B50 costs me about 20 USD for a 1/4lb incl. shipping, but even D75 is about 65 USD 1/4 lb incl. shipping. Nearest archery store is a 12 hour return drive and I live in a city

I'll probably upgrade when I'm better at making bows but for now it's fine.

[PEARL DRUMS]

I just did a quick check and some basic math.

A 1/4# spool of B50 contains 1,075 ft
A 1/4# spool of d97 contains 1,675 ft

B50 requires no less than 12 strands, most use 14 or 16 strands

D97 requires 6-10 strands to cover any and all bows most of us shoot or build

Im not so sure B50 is cheaper. It would require about 75 feet of B50 to make a 64" string. It would require about 43 feet to make the same string with D97.

My rough math tells me I can get 38 string from a 1/4# spool of FF and about 15 strings from a 1/4# spool of B50.

Please correct me if my math is wrong, Im not good with numbers.

[Crogacht]

You're probably right PD. Fastflight is 100 dollars a 1/4lb here though. How much do you guys pay for a roll of B50 compared to FF?

[PEARL DRUMS]

I can find D97 for around $20 usd, B50 is around $8-12 usd. If you ask me? Its a dead heat, neither is cheaper, in the states anyway.

[Crogacht]

I think at those prices I'd get the D97/FF. Seems like they would be about even if you used a similar number of strands, but if the strands are fewer, then the D97/FF starts to become better value.

I think my  next purchase will be something better, but I think I need to try to get something in from outside the country. It's just overpriced here.