I think it's easy for unsubstantiated ideas to gain traction the bow making world (and everywhere else!). One person has a belief and tells it to everyone who asks who then go on to tell others. All it takes is a couple charismatic people to really push an idea forward and before you know it everyone is saying the same thing. We've all heard that fastflight is bad for wooden bows but we've pretty much never heard or seen that this is the case. But we've all seen countless bows that have performed just fine with fastflight. Even if a bow does get damaged while using fastflight can we really know that fastflight was the culprit or just poor wood/design/craftsmanship?
How many other things do we pass along as gospel that are perhaps worthy of consideration?
That's exactly what I've been thinking ever since the incident. The one guy I've talked to who claims he's seen Angel strings break bows describes glue failures, not cut nocks, and so I am lead to believe the old glue, as opposed to the old wood/gla**, was not up to the more abrupt stop.
huisme,
I have read (somewhere and more than once) that normal shooting of a self bow with a fast flight string can harm the bow. If you don't object, I will add to your thread the question: aside from cutting into the wood, what would be the theory behind such a concern? Of course, the FF does not stretch as much--but once the bow is braced, with equal arrow weight, why would that hurt the bow? Harsher and less forgiving vibration perhaps?
That's what I'm thinking, less give in the string means a more abrupt stop right?
Well, I've beat bushes with my bows, dropped them, sat on them, hit branches upon release because I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings, and I even stabbed a few sandbags with a molle lever to see what would happen. I think little/no stretch in a string is nothing compared to some of the abuse you can put a bow through.
