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I've been told that a bow string with "less strands of fast flight material" shoots harder and quieter than a heavier (more strand material) string. Padded loops in both cases..... Is This True?

... mike ...  :dunno:  ...

On some bows Mike....yes

I have one Kwyk Styk that shoots better(quieter) with a thin string, and one that doesn't.

Just my experience   :archer2:

Have them on two of my bows and they both shoot harder and quieter.  With one of my bows, the string change caused me to have to go to a stiffer spined arrow.

I would have to say Yes, but skinny to me is 12 strands of Dynaflight 97, I'll leave the real skinnies up to the other fellas ...

yes

I don't think it is an absolute. It's kinda like bows,they all have their own personality.It didn't seem to make that much difference on mine. One bow doesn't like the skinnies at all. I would buy one and try it. Or buy a spool of string and tie your own. Gary

I went from a 16 strands FF string to a 6 strands ultra string with padded loops from SBD. I didn't recognize my bow afterwards!     :scared:      Much faster, silent and death in the hand! I must have shot thousands of arrows with it, and it doesn't show any wear yet. I wax it very frequently however, as recommended.
SBD is sponsor here and makes very good ones. Besides of that, Pierre is a real gentleman and a pleasure to do business with. Here's the link:     http://www.sbdbowstrings.com/index.html

As said above, there will probably be some bows that will like a thicker string, though it sort of defies the laws of physics.. A thinner string will have less resistance and less friction going from the release and back to brace height.
As for noise, a thinner string will have a smaller surface to cause vibrations with, but the added speed will make the vibrations more powerful.. This will also depend on the stretch/density of the string material. At least I think it will.. ^^

treat each stick bow as the unique entity it is, and experiment with string fibers and strand count - you may be well rewarded for your efforts ...

Thanks To Everyone!

Wax prevents abrasion and acts as a lubricant for the strands, but it stop all wear nor does it heal strands that are broke. It will however hide the failure of the strands by preventing them from getting the fuzzy look.

I have no problem with someone going on the "light side" (down to 9 or better yet 12 strands dynaflight) but I think going extremely light (this 6 strand stuff) is a major no-no and I am sure people will run into problems in time with such strings.

QuoteOriginally posted by Lee Dogman:
Wax prevents abrasion and acts as a lubricant for the strands, but it stop all wear nor does it heal strands that are broke. It will however hide the failure of the strands by preventing them from getting the fuzzy look.

I have no problem with someone going on the "light side" (down to 9 or better yet 12 strands dynaflight) but I think going extremely light (this 6 strand stuff) is a major no-no and I am sure people will run into problems in time with such strings.

I think every string is better of with waxing on a regular base. I am aware it won't stop wear  or heal broken strings ofcourse!  :D  I didn;t say that!

Using 6 strands strings (with padded loops) depends on the poundage of the bow. i.e. SBD recommends 6 strands strings for bows till 53 lbs.
I don't see how you could run into problems with such strings?

HEY Mikey!!!!

I've found the lighter strand (10 or 12 strand) strings shoot a bit quieter, but all my lighter strand strings have 6 strands of dacron in the loops which definitely helps.  For the most part I shoot dyna 97 with 10 strands on my ACS.  Funny thing is the 97 is noisey on my Shrew   ....the Shrew prefers the 450 plus.  

Ed was shooting ultra cam on his widow not long ago and I thought it really helped reduce any bow noise.  You might want to give that material a try.

Take care my friend!......Tim

QuoteI've been told that a bow string with "less strands of fast flight material" shoots harder and quieter than a heavier (more strand material) string. Padded loops in both cases..... Is This True?

Like others have said, it depends.  I saw a post recently where Ron LeClair's string maker adds some dacron to his 450+ strings and they are quieter.  That's adding weight.  Mike Treadaway has added dacron to his FF strings for years and years--he says it's the quietest string for his bows.  The 450+ and FF are carrying the load--the dacron in those strings is just added weight.

There are lots of variables to consider other than just strand count.  How it's made, what it's made from, type of bow, brace height, arrow weight, proper spine, your release, nock fit, silencer placement, etc. etc. etc.

I haven't had a bow I can't get hunting quiet without a tiny string.  I haven't done much experimenting with tiny strings at all, because with them I loose the things that make me prefer HMPE materials to begin with.  Those things are durability, lack of stretch, and lack of creep.

The only way to know if you will gain anything is to experiment, but be aware that "everything is a trade-off".

Chad

"Everything is a trade-off" equal to the smart way of thinking. Everyone has been helpful on this thread.

... mike ...  :notworthy:  ...

I'm relatively new to this stuff but I started making my own stings in January just to play around.  I tried 8 strand 8125 with padded loops and it helped my 57# Big River LB somewhat, certainly quieter not sure about faster.  I put the same string on a 51# HH Big Five and the result was nothing short of amazing.  With a Dacron string the Big Five would rattle my teeth, with the 8 strand the vibration is almost nothing.  I was going to sell the Big Five until that skinny string - now it's part of the arsenel and has a place on the bow rack.  One of these days I'll chronograph my bows with and without skinny strings just to satisfy my own curiosity but from what I have experienced so far, they are on my bows to stay.

I have 3 bows with skinny fast flight strings.  They are all faster and quieter with them.  I like an 8 strand fast flight material for my 55lb bows.

I doubt if it would be for all bows but for all mine the answer is yes. I have the same setup on all with D97 at 8 strands with padded loops to 16. Makes my low poundage 50 pound bows come to life.

They are quieter on most of my bows.I shoot 6 and 8 strand strings on most bows.I pad the loops to 12 strands.

I just ordered an SBD string..

 :archer2:    :archer2:    :archer2:    :archer2:

My Kempf Stealth shoots quieter with a thinner TS-1 string.  I had a Rick Lepp Summit T/D that shot best and quieter with a D97 FF with padded loops.

Every bow is different Mikey but it's fun to experiment. No matter what string, a good pair of heavy duty whiskers will quiet the bow down.

I have SBD Strings on all my bows.Incredible differance.in three cases I had to change arrows.It was like getting a new bow.Pierre at SBD is second to none,you can't go wrong.

I noticed a dramatic loss of handshock when I switched to a thin string on my HH big 5

The folks at Schafer advised me shooting fast flight (if your bow is made for it) will add 8FPS (on average) to the set-up. That didn't ring important to me until she also said this was like 5 more pounds of draw weight.  That is signficant to me because with my short draw of 25.5" I need all the help I can get without being over-bowed.  Any bows I have made in the future will be built for fast-flight strings.

Frankly, before that information I preferred non-fast flight because I thought they would be a bit easier to silence.

I wouldn't change a thing this close to season, experimentation is for late spring and summer. JMHO

Something I haven't noticed in this thread is folks comparing say 12 strands of Dynaflight'97 to 8 strands.  It's more like 16 strands of dacron to a super tiny string.  Of course you'll see a difference--my bet is most of the time that you'd have gotten basically the same results switching from 16 strands of dacron to 12 strands of Dynaflight or 8125.

The comparisons I've seen so far are similar to saying "I switched from a 35# straight limbed longbow to a 55# recurve and picked up a huge amount of speed!".  Not suprising at all.

Like most on here have stated; it varies from bow to bow. I purchased an eight strand D97 FF string from a popular string maker. I tried it on my 60" widow recurve, and couldn't get it as quiet as my dacron strings. The dacron is noticably quieter.
I also hear about the increase of speed.  That is very likely.  I never checked it out.  I do find it funny that people will front end load their arrows to get an EFOC, because they are not concerned about speed, but usually want the 8 FPS increase the skinny string will give them.

Guru has it right, it will increase speed 99.9% of the time but shot noise varies from bow to bow. Shawn

I have an 8 strand string on my BW. Comparing it to the standard string issued by Black Widow for spped I can not answer one way or the other-don't have access to a chrono. But what I can tell you that the 8 strand string is so much quieter and its not even close. The standard BW string sounds like a gun going off compared to the 8 strand.

Have one on my Thunderhorn 3 pc takedown and don't even need silencers on it.

I shoot the "skinny" strings just for the quieter shot-speed doesn't matter to me-never did.