string material

[stuckinthemud]

Hi All,

I have finished roughing out a short war-bow stave (65") and need to make a string for it before I tiller it. I have no idea how strong it will be, but it could be in excess of 100#. I usually make my strings from linen but have only made a few light and medium weight bows so far.  Is linen OK for such a heavy bow, or do I need to invest in some B50 or FF?

[dylanholderman]

well from all i have heard linen was used in period so.... yeah. but if your going to invest in a modern string material go with FF or one of its equivalents, Dacron stretches too much especially at the warbow weights.   

[Del the cat]

65" English Warbow 
You'll not make a 100# English warbow with a 30" plus draw length from 65", unless it's a flatbow design, in which case it isn't an English Warbow....
Not that I'm worried by the definitions

You are better off starting with a 78" stave, you can always take an inch or two off, but starting with 65" is IMO doomed to failure.
Mind, if you can do it you'l get my vote for Bow of the Month!
Linen is ok, but much better to go with FF... forget Dacron, you'll never brace it!

Del

[stuckinthemud]

Hi Del,
I started off reading up about bow X1-3 (thanks Jeremy) and have reduced the dimensions on this bow a few mm all around.  With its rounded-rectangular cross-section, Bow X1-3 is a lot like a fat flat bow, or so it seems to me.   As to the finished draw-weight, well if it finished up as a heavy long-bow, so be it, I'm not averse to turning it into a flat bow at a later stage........
Any way, at the moment, leaning all my weight on the centre of the bow deflects it less than an inch, and I have finished roughing it out, so the draw weight is starting off at 160#per inch.  Once I have a suitable long string and put some horn nocks on, I can start tillering it, but for now it can just stand in a corner and scare me to death each time I look at it 

[Del the cat]

Ah, yes I've re-read some of that article...
Maybe you'll be ok if you go fr the 28" draw. Many of the Mary Rose arrows were 28"
I look forward to seeing it at full draw
Del

[stuckinthemud]

Although 30 would be nice, 28 inch is the target draw length; my normal draw is 26.

[Lucasade]

I've got a big spool of linen so I hope it's okay for warbow strings... 

[toomanyknots]

If it's 65", than aren't you gonna have like 63" nock to nock at the most? That's pretty darn short for a heavy bow. I wouldn't try for a heavy bow myself from such a short stave. As for linen, if it's good stuff it will work, but the quality can vary a lot I find. I buy my stuff from firework stores online, they seem to have a better standard for the linen they sell than fabric stores, and usually will advertise the breaking strength. I actually did a 100# bow with b50, it was ridiculous. The string was probably over 4" shorter than the nock to nock length, and about broke my back trying to brace it. At the time it was either that or some really crappy quality linen I got from a fabric store, and the crappy linen ended working better (after I broke about 3 strings of it, )

[son of massey]

The weight is not going to be throttled by the length. You can make a short bow that pulls 160#...just at a relatively shorter draw length. And there is nomenclature to think about as calling a short bow a long bow seems counterintuitive. But none of that says much about what the weight of the bow is allowed to be.

To the original question I would agree that linen of FF is going to be better than B50, although I tend to think that is the case across the board not just for warbows.

Let us know how the bow comes out. Are you making a recreation true to specs? The article I saw suggested that it may have been modified in the intervening years since it was first made. I would be curious if you gain any insight into whether or not that looks like the case or if it turns out just fine as is.
SOM

[stuckinthemud]

Not a completely true replica, the stave is holly and the dimensions for width and depth have been reduced by about 10% as it is my first attempt at a heavy bow, am also very interesteds in how it will turn out!

[WillS]

Hope you haven't roughed it out yet.  If it's holly, it needs to be a fair bit wider than elm, especially with such a short bow length.  I'd be inclined to go WIDER than the given dimensions for the X1-3 but drop the thickness slightly. 

[stuckinthemud]

Already roughed it out, but if it goes under-weight, then I still have the other side of the stave to go large with

[WillS]

Its not the weight.  Its the fact that holly likes to chrysal like mad if its not wide enough.

[stuckinthemud]

Oh. Was chatting with someone who had made a war-bow with holly to normal dimensions, except a little flatter in section than usual, and his only comment was it was a bit 'elastic', didn't mention trouble with chrysals.  Since this one is ready for tillering, I guess I'll just try it and see what happens; if chrysals are a problem I'll skinny it down to a 40# narrow/flat/long-bow.

[WillS]

I've had horrible luck with holly, but as we know all wood is different! 

Good luck either way, its awesome to see more meane wood bows being made out of the lesser uses stuff.