B-50 strands for 40# bow?

[D. Tiller]

How many strands should I use for a 40# bow? This will be for my mother since she asked me to build one for her. Should be nice when Its done. tri-lam of Hickory/yellowheart and Elm. Almost done putting the hand rubbed finnish on it and then a handle wrapp for the longbow design.

David T

[ricktrojanowski]

I would do two plys of 6 strands of B 50. For a total of 12 strands.  I usually do a 2 ply of 7 strands for 55-60#

[kayakfisher]

All of my bows are #45 and my son's long bow is also #45 and I use B 50 dacron the strings are 14 strands in a continues bow string 7 on each side have not had one break yet
                                                                                                   Dennis

[D. Tiller]

Thanks! Appreciate the help!

[Eric Krewson]

To be on the safe side you need 6 times the bows weight in string strength. With B-50 having a breaking strength of 45lbs, 6 strands would be OK. This would make a really small diameter string and arrow nock fit would be a problem. I use 12 strands for all my B-50 strings. When I make a much larger string of 16 to 18 strands I see a noticeable drop in bow performance from the over sized string.

[Karl-Heinz]

I use 10 strands for my Longbow with 74 lb without a problem.

Regards

K-H

[Hillbilly]

I usually use 12-14 strands regardless of the bow poundage. A lesser number of strands is strong enough, but the smaller diameter is harder to fit to the arrow nocks and is hard on the ol' fingers, too.