Recurve String Making

[Nailhead]

OK. So again, I am last minute cause I let my brothers birthday sneak up on me. Anyway, he mentioned a few weeks ago that he is interested in starting to make his own strings for his recurve. The research I have done seems pretty straight forward. I just want to get the opinion of the GS and make sure I am getting him decent stuff. He is currently on his 2nd bought string, which I believe are B-50 Flemish strings. This second one just needs to be reserved, but he wants to start making them. I figured for his birthday I would set him up. I can make the string jig pretty quick and easy. I think it was Sam that provided a sketch to make your own. I will have to go back and find it.

But my main question is on string and serving jigs and any other misc. tool he might need or be beneficial. If yall could give me a crash course and recommendations on string and tools I would appreciate it. We are both new to trad shooting, but he is getting pretty into it, which I think it awesome. So I want to keep his interest peaked.

Thanks in advance! - Johnny

[LeanMachine]

Opinions on string material is as diverse as opinions on arrows or broadheads. I never had any complaints with b50. Im shooting excel now. A serving jig is a serving jig. They all get the job done. I made a diy one and it works just as well as the store bought ones i have used.

[Cwag]

As long as you follow the directions that Sam or Rick put out, you'll be fine. I make all my strings now. Doesn't take a whole lot of effort.

[RickBarbee]

There will be lot's of trial & error, including failure during the learning process.

Knowing that, I suggest two things that will reduce the amount of frustration:

(1) Start out with a cheap material to eliminate the frustration of waste & cost.

(2) Get a good serving tool. Until one has seen the benefit of a good serving tool as apposed to a bare bones tool, you just can't appreciate it. I recommend the Bear Paw tool as a really good tool with a middle of the road price tag.

http://www.lancasterarchery.com/bearpaw-serving-tool.html

Outside of that, I recommend find & watching as many tutorial videos as you can. There are lots of them out there, and they all stem from the same basic principles. Once you get a handle on the basics you can start to expand on them.

Rick

[Horn chaser]

There will be lot's of trial & error, including failure during the learning process.

Knowing that, I suggest two things that will reduce the amount of frustration:

(1) Start out with a cheap material to eliminate the frustration of waste & cost.

(2) Get a good serving tool. Until one has seen the benefit of a good serving tool as apposed to a bare bones tool, you just can't appreciate it. I recommend the Bear Paw tool as a really good tool with a middle of the road price tag.

http://www.lancasterarchery.com/bearpaw-serving-tool.html

Outside of that, I recommend find & watching as many tutorial videos as you can. There are lots of them out there, and they all stem from the same basic principles. Once you get a handle on the basics you can start to expand on them.

Rick

Rick is spot on.

[RickBarbee]

I'd like to add this to the string material:

You need to decide what type of string you want to build. Fast Flight (low stretch), or polyester (high stretch). There is a huge difference in the successful building of the two.

Honestly, I recommend you learn how to build both.

To that end:

Decent cheap fast flight materials are Brownell Fast Flight Plus, and BCY Dynaflight 97.

Non Fast Flight materials are Brownell B50, and BCY B55.

None of those are expensive, and will do quite well to learn with.

Rick

[Nailhead]

Awesome. Thanks guys. Looks like I was on the right track. I was actually looking at that very serving jig earlier. And I plan on just getting him some Dacron B50 to start cause its cheap and what he is already shooting with.

[Nailhead]

Thanks for the additonal tips on the string material Rick. We will be sure to try it out. Ill set him up with some B50 to start and move from there. I would like the try some of the other strings anyway as he and I get better at shooting trad.

[RickBarbee]

Awesome. Thanks guys. Looks like I was on the right track. I was actually looking at that very serving jig earlier. And I plan on just getting him some Dacron B50 to start cause its cheap and what he is already shooting with.

Yep, you're on the right track.

I still suggest he learn with both the B50, and one of the fast flight varieties. The reason being - That will help in the learning curve on just how much difference there is in the build of the strings according to their stretch factors. There is a lot of difference.

Rick

[Nailhead]

Yep, you're on the right track.

I still suggest he learn with both the B50, and one of the fast flight varieties. The reason being - That will help in the learning curve on just how much difference there is in the build of the strings according to their stretch factors. There is a lot of difference.

Rick

Roger that. Will be sure and learn both.

[4dog]

You can always pre stretch b50 to a degree

[RickBarbee]

You can always pre stretch b50 to a degree

That's a fact, and something that needs to be done with all strings regardless of material used.

However, there is some shrinking that goes on from loaded to unload with all materials, even after all the prestretching is done.

This is called recoverable stretch, and it will vary from as little as 1/4" on very strong fast flight material, to as much as 1 & 1/2 inch with polyester materials, so the relaxed length of a prestretched B50 string will always be shorter than the relaxed length of a prestretched fast flight string, even if both strings give a bow the exact same brace height.

This is why (in my opinion) it is important to learn how to work with both types of materials.

Rick

[Nailhead]

That's a fact, and something that needs to be done with all strings regardless of material used.

However, there is some shrinking that goes on from loaded to unload with all materials, even after all the prestretching is done.

This is called recoverable stretch, and it will vary from as little as 1/4" on very strong fast flight material, to as much as 1 & 1/2 inch with polyester materials, so the relaxed length of a prestretched B50 string will always be shorter than the relaxed length of a prestretched fast flight string, even if both strings give a bow the exact same brace height.

This is why (in my opinion) it is important to learn how to work with both types of materials.

Rick

Great info Rick! Makes total sense. Do you by chance have a layout or sketch of your string jig? Just curious how people are marking them and such. I notice most use a similar layout but different folks mark different additonal information. I plan to make a string jig for him this week. Wood working tools arent a problem. Step Dad is a carpenter. Comes in handy.

[RickBarbee]

Tried to upload an image of my jig plans, but the site shrinks it to much to make it out.

Rick

[Nailhead]

Tried to upload an image of my jig plans, but the site shrinks it to much to make it out.

Rick

I will fire you a PM with my email address if you don't mind sending it to me.