Bowstring

Flemish twist is not very Asian, but whatever...

Making strings is not difficult - especially the Asian continuous loop string. Making your own string will reduce the risk that somethong you ordered does not fit well. Better to learn to do it yourself.

S

There are flemish twists offered in the 3 rivers archery catalogue. You can get them made from FastFlight? or B-50. I haven't got a chance to try them yet.

i think i've gotten to a point now that I am considering making my own bowstrings,
does anyone know of a good resource to learn about the technique and materials needed to make a continuous loop string?
thanks much
-Greg

You might find this site helpful:
http://www.mac.asn.au/string_making.htm
It is pretty straight forward. Making your own jig is very easy. You can do it with a board and some pegs.

I searching good quality silk thread. To this time i use dacron strings but silk is natural vith composites. Have anybody info. where i can buy silk ?

Dusan,
You need to get filament silk thread. This is made from silk unravelled from the cocoons and twisted into thread. It is the same type used in the old days to make bowstrings. If you search with Google for filament silk thread, you should be able to find some. Mostly it is dyed, but undyed is stronger.

Ordinary silk thread is spun from short pieces torn from the cocoons. It is not as strong, but is cheaper. It is useful for serving.

Thank you Bede, i wil try in net. Mi first silk bowstring and experience is vith mi korean bow and is amazing.

thank you Bede,
I will give this a look
cheers
-Greg

Dan T,
I second the Stephen?s advice, making your own isn?t really difficult, and does save your money a lot.
If you would like to try your hands on a double looped Flemish string someday I strongly recommend you a little booklet ?Laying-in, the Flemish Twist? by Martin Maynard, it really explains the process well.
Laid-in strings stretch more than endless strings when bedding them in on a bow and when you make one of stretchy material like Dacron you need to do them a bit shorter to allow it to stretch to a correct length, for example for a 45# 62? recurve bow I make my strings ?? shorter than the final length of the string when bedded in.
What kind the bow of yours is anyway? Does it need a bowstring with long or short loops?
Maybe you just can try to use a string with knotted loops e.g. like explained here: http://198.170.107.188/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1006
by Bede?

Greg,
When making a modern continuous string with Dacron my experience is to make them to a required length or even a fraction of an inch longer but no shorter, it won?t stretch like a laid-in string will do, but some sources will tell you different.
Anyway, my first three or four continuous strings I had made ended up to short.
What you need is a sturdy string jig which will allow you to make the skein taut when serving. A serving tool is also essential piece of equipment.
What is worthy of consideration is that is good to make the parts of the loops where they contact the bow nocks somehow thicker ( to protect the nocks) e.g. by adding some additional strands in that place or some additional serving (There is no such problem with laid-in strings.).
I write this because I once felt an urge to do a new endless string for my laminated Hungarian Grozer bow because I didn?t like the colors of loop serving on the original string as well as the ugly ?fishing line? centre serving which caused arrow nocks to be loose and my fingers to sore.
But after a two day rainy tournament I discovered compression marks on the bow nocks caused by too thin loops of my self-made string. Then I realized that Grozer?s strings were somehow thickened at loops.

I wonder if there are any major differences between the modern and the traditional Asian continuous loop strings. Is it just the way the string is knotted at the end vs. the modern served loop? Or not even that? (That is, did some traditional strings have served loops as well?)

Strings for what the Chinese called "monkey bows" did not have separate loops knotted in and look like modern strings. These bows did not have large ears and really were equivalent to modern recurve bows.

Manchu strings had the separate loops fully served. There were some strings that had no separate end loops but were knotted back on themselves to form long loops for the large ears of Manchu bows.

I offer this solution as only a starting point which works well for me. I make extra long strings with extra layers of string; 20 strands of B50 dacron. This is wound between two large nails. Bee's wax is rubbed on the strings. The entirety is cut at one end, the two halves twisted gently together starting at the top and working down, Knot the end and burn. I tie a bowline on the top and wind the excess around the lower tip and tie with a slip knot until the string is "shot in".

If serving is wanted in the middle it is done by hand with more waxed string when the bow is strung. Use a smooth awl to separate the string for knotting the serving.

I like a thick string to help protect the fingers. I also add a string knocking stop on the serving above the arrow.

I rewax the string from time to time to keep the feel the same.

When we talking about strings. Have anybody experiences vith gut , or raw hide strings? I mean pracztice experiences vith shooting, speed , etc. Is any historical or archeologist information , about mongols bow strings ? From all sources its looks like mongols use predominantely hide from horse tail or gut bow strings. Or if mongols conquer China , use silk strings too ?

Dusan; I have used hand made musical instrument strings made of gut from East Germany. They stretched like rubber. I also used multiple strands of gut tennis racket string. It stretched like rubber. Makes me wonder if the identification of these materials is correct.

I have a very old Chinese bow that has a rawhide string.

I also use sisal strings which work well. Have used hemp and linen also which are ok. But it is not pleasant when they break. So I use dacron as described above. Knotting the string leaves a lot of material over the nocks. -j-

:lol: Thank you Jack. 20 years ago i play tenis vith this tipe rocket. I know about gut strings in many old musical instruments too. I asked special about bow practice .Hemp or linen i use too. But in komposite bow its very risk. I self made fue rowhide and gut strings but not in composite bow. I interesting special , how worked this strings in composite. :shock: /before than i broke mi own bow.../

Dusan,
Last year I made some gut strings with Dr Grayson. The technique was to soak tennis racquet gut (sheep's intestine) in water and the unravel it when it softened. The gut was flattened out and then re-twisted under tension with a heavy weight on on one end. After it was thoroughly dry, we softened the ends with water to tie the knots.

The bowstring was hard and exhibited no stretch aside from the tightening of the knots on an eighty pound Turkish bow. I have shot another Turkish bow with a gut string a few years ago (it's the one in my photo) and it performed quite well. I have not chronographed bows with different natural strings yet.

Sheep gut would have been available to all nomad groups and probably was a good performer in dry climates.

Bede; Good to know.

Thank you Bede . Thats sound better if you personaly shoots vith gut string :) .Your string is from only 1 gut layer ?You worked vith tenis gut , not vith fresh sheep gut from butcher? Like i wrote , i worked and shoting too vith vith gut sring but only vith wood flat bow about 50 lb. This is somthing diferent, shooting vith composite /80-100 lb /bow

I made it with three strands twisted together and smoothed down. The tennis racquet gut I used was made from sheep gut (in English we call it catgut).