There's a difference between these strings, and it's not colour.
Now many people want to get into making bow string thinking "Man, I really want to make this awesome red bow string."
And we go online, and then you see this:
Wh... wha... what the heck is all this? What's BCY? What's dyneema? How much do I need? What's the difference?
It really isn't as simple as just picking a colour, and with so many options, it's really confusing.
As with most things, people will point out that which material you use is a matter of preference, but if you've never made a bow string before, it's really hard to be selective.
Don't worry, this video will cover the basics of string material.
Firstly, let's go over why there are so many different choices.
Now, strings traditionally were made from natural fibers, modern strings are made from synthetic materials.
You see names like dacron, vectran, spectra, dyneema, and a few others.
A particular string may be made from a blend of two different materials. Each material has particular properties to suit different bows.
One of major properties is elasticity.
Now there are a couple of terms that come with this:
Creep is used to describe the permanent stretching of the string, and this is generally undesirable.
Modern strings are designed so that there is minimal creep.
Another term used is stretch, and that's the amount of stretch the string has when it's actually being used.
And depending on what bow you're using, this may or may not be desirable.
Compound bow strings are made so that they don't stretch while being used.
While recurve bows actually need a bit of stretch so there's less stress on the limb tips.
This is especially true for traditional bows.
Another property to consider is speed and weight.
Compound bows will use stronger and more durable materials with more strands.
Whereas recurve strings may have lighter, faster materials.
Again, traditional recurve bows aren't made for modern strings and need to use something slower and strectchier.
Since we've already mentioned it a few times, older traditional bows would commonly use dacron.
I have a couple spools of dacron here.
What makes dacron really appealing is that it's quite stretchy.
This is a good thing for the older recurve because they're not made to handle the speed of modern strings.
This can cause limb tip damage, or damage to the strings themselves.
Additionally, it's a very cheap material and if you're looking at practicing making bow strings,
dacron is by far the best choice because a spool of dacron may only cost around $15 and you can make a dozen strings.
Very good for practice, and I wouldn't really use expensive materials for your first bow strings.
Dacron used to be the go to material for all recurve bows, but with the advent of modern materials, composite layers, such as fiberglass and carbon,
these bows are made to handle the speed of newer, lighter materials.
Of course modern bows can use a dacron string. In fact many packages that are made for beginners will provide a dacron string with the bow.
However most people who use modern bows will move away from dacron as soon as possible.
Now, you come across a string material called Fast Flight.
You hear this mentioned a few times in different guides and by veteran archers.
It's actually a slightly confusing term because it's kinda outdated.
Fast Flight refers specifically to Brownell Fast Flight, which is a product made by The Brownell company.
But in modern usage, fast flight refers to basically any modern string.
Now, the reason why fast flight became ubiquitous as a string name is because it's like the miracle material of the day.
i.e. you have the slow, stretchy dacron and then you have Fast Flight, which is very light, it was less stretchy. It was superior performance.
And every archer begin using Fast Flight.
In fact, compound bows used to use Fast Flight until the non-stretch materials were created.
You can still buy Fast Flight, it's probably out of vogue at the moment, there are other materials like dyneema and spectra and even vectran,
which are blends of by dyneema and vectran, which are more popular.
But you can still buy Fast Flight. But the term fast flight is used to describe most modern bow strings, not just Fast Flight.
But because this used to be industry standard, you still see the term "Fast Flight compatible" used to describe a bows.
The most common example is the Samick Sage. People love the Sage, it happens being so cheap, it come in high poundages, it is advertises as being "FF-compatible".
And what that mean is that it has reinforced limb tips, so that you can get rid of the dacron string it comes with and get a fast flight string.
If your traditional bow, which is made of wood does not have reinforced limb tips, excessive use of the modern fast materials can cause limb damage.
Whereas the bows like the Sage, do have reinforced tips, and can handle that stress.
Modern bows will never advertise themselves as "FF-compatible" because all modern bows can handle modern materials. It's a given.
Now that's out of the way, let's look at some recommendations.
If you've been looking at bow strings online and you've been confused. It's because there's no sections for "recurve strings" or "compound strings".
The reasons for this is that the string materials can in fact be used for both kinds of bows.
Nonetheless some strings are better suited for certain bows, while others are universal.
If you're not sure, unfortunately the product pages on the site usually don't have a distinction.
But you can check out the manufacturer's website for their recommendations.
We'll cover dacron first.
As I said earlier, dacron is used for older recurve bows.
You come across brand names and products such as Brownell B50, BCY B55, and BCY B500 and that makes things really easy.
If you're not sure if your traditional bow can use modern strings, go with dacron or dacron-like material.
For modern recurves, you want a light, faster material.
Now, you can still get Brownell Fast Flight, which is made from spectra, and other spectra materials such as BCY652.
Very popular choices today for modern recurves include dyneema and vectra blended strings, such as BCY/DynaFlight 97,
BCY 8125, 8125G, Dyneema-02, Brownell D75, and Angel Majesty.
Most of these strings are made from dyneema and vectran
The really subtle difference is how much percentage is used.
Some have more dyneema, some have more vectran.
So that's a very subtle choice which for most of us we can't really tell the difference unless we've shot a lot of strings.
Compound shooters tend go for BCY 452X, or BCY Trophy.
Some strings though are marketed toward both compound and recurve shooters.
And that include strings like BCY X String, BCY 8190, and Angel Majesty, just to name a few.
Just remember though if you making compound bow string you need more strands than a recurve bow strings.
So, typically recurve bow strings will use no more than 18 strands of any given material.
Whereas a compound bow will require 20 to 24 strands.
And there are other materials designed for crossbow, such as BCY Force 10.
And they're made to withstand the powerful crossbow release.
Huh... that was quite a lot to get through.
Now bear in mind these recommendations are preferences, you can in fact make the string from any material.
If you shoot enough strings you will eventually get that experience and be able to pickup subtle differences in strings.
But, apart from dacron only bows, there's really no "wrong" choice.
What I've said, based on recurve and compound shooter's preferences, is gained from researching through forums and trawling through posts.
And it's basically what works for each person.
If you have your own recommendation, your own preferences as to what works, please share them below the comments.
But wait, there's more.
One of the reasons why there are so many different items on the string material page, is because the materials come in different sizes spools.
The standard sizes are 1lb, 1/4lb, and 1/8lb.
And you might be wondering, "why are they measured in weight and not in the length?"
The reason is, well the strings do weight slightly differently and it might be covered in wax.
In a factory setting, it's easier for the factory to sort materials by weight rather than by length. That's the reason why.
Now in terms of how many strings you make with a spool, it really depends on several things:
how long your string is and how many strands you use.
As a very, very rough guideline, a 1/8lb spool like one of these can make around 10 strings or maybe 10-15 depending on how much you use. Use this as a very rough guideline.
By extension, a 1/4lb spool can make around 20 strings, and a 1lb spool can make over 30 strings.
Obviously, the larger spools are more cost effective but they do cost more.
So if you're only making a few strings, get the small spool.
But if you're making many strings, then you should get the largest spool.
Wait, there's more.
Colours.
Now this is actually the easy part if you've already chosen a string material. If you're making a one coloured string, then you just pick a colour.
Black and white strings may be slightly cheaper. And by slightly I mean by, like $1.
For the most part, strings cost the same regardless of their colours.
What you see is what you get. So if you buy a red string at the shop, you get a red bow string. No surprises.
If you're looking at making a multi coloured string, you have couple of options:
some materials are made with a blend of two different colours, such as orange-red or blue-green.
This spool of BCY Trophy that I have is silver-black. You can see, it's a silver thread, with black splotches.
It's actually quite hard to see the contrast, this is the string I made using this material, and you can see, that it's kind of splotchy pattern.
Even if I twist it, it's not as clear as what you might think it is.
It looks pretty cool, but it doesn't have the stripey look that you might be looking for.
If you're looking for the two-tone stripe candy cane effect, you actually need to buy two different coloured strings.
That's double the cost.
If you want to make a three colour string, that's three colours.
That can be a little costly for just one string. And think about that if you're making string for yourself.
Obviously, generally speaking, try to use the same material for the colours.
That way, you get the same consistent performance for each strand.
By the way if you've ripped the packaging off, and you're not sure what material it is, check the bottom of the spool.
That's a lot of information.
Hope you find this interesting and helpful, stay tuned for more videos of string making.
Thanks for watching, this is NUSensei, and I hope to see you next time.