I was looking at 3 rivers string materials,and was wondering about the size of the new material for serving.

I currently use 16 strands of b-50 for bowstrings.What size do I need for this new serving material?

I am using the braided nylon now.

Bill, can I ask why so many strands? Do ya have trouble with nocks fitting? I shoot 10-12 strands of B-50 out of bows up to 60#s with no problems. Shawn

That's just the way I've always done it.My previous bows were all 70# to 85#.Old habits I guess.Is there any advantage to shooting 12 strands?

I did find out that the braided nylon serving is 021,and the new stuff has 3 choices,one of them is 022. So I ordered a spool of it.  

12 strands of b50 and .022 fits the classic nocks nicely.

Tim

More strands in yer bowstring = more mass string weight.

Heavier mass weight strings are slower and more stable.  Lighter mass weight strings are faster and less stable.  Keeping the center serving and nock point(s) as light weight as possible helps lots (as that's the part of a bowstring that travels the farthest).  

Flemish twist strings need lotsa wax as opposed to an endless spun string that needs very little wax.  Wax is added string weight.

Strings that stretch/creep more (i.e. - Dacron and Flemish twisted strings) are less consistent than strings that stretch/creep less (i.e. - Dyneema and endless spun strings).

More stretch/spring in yer string = slower arras.

Somewhere in the above text there is a compromise - ya just need to experiment a bit to find what works best for you and yer bow(s).

All my 50-55# hybrid longbows are strung with 14 strand Dyneema'02 endless strings - works best for me.    

I can't use fast flight on my bow.I can try a 12 strand flemish and see what it's like though.  

As bad as I hate to, I got to disagree with one point Rob--flemish strings don't require a lot of wax, it's just a lot of folks add a bunch--makes it easier to work with.  I order my material "lightly waxed", add a little of my own wax to make the string, but then remove most of it when I'm done.

.022 on a 16 strand dacron string is going to be a real tight fit on most any nock I can think of.

Chad

QuoteOriginally posted by LBR:
As bad as I hate to, I got to disagree with one point Rob--flemish strings don't require a lot of wax, it's just a lot of folks add a bunch--makes it easier to work with.  I order my material "lightly waxed", add a little of my own wax to make the string, but then remove most of it when I'm done.
...

Right, Chad - Flemish strings do need more wax than endless, but not that much - but I do see too many Flemish strings literally dripping with excess wax.  Another reason why folks should be getting your strings!        

I use a 16 strand dacron string on one of my bows and I use a .018 size center serving for the classic nocks.  The Easton super nocks get a .017 center serving.

I made a 12 strand string out of b 50,but I didn't serve it yet.I'll wait for the new fancy kind I ordered to come in. I don't know if the bow shot faster or not. The pitch (sound) in the string was higher.  

I Use 15 strand Fremish twist B50 strings with Number 4 braided Nylon serving-great fit on Classic Nocks. .018 monofilament always worked well for me on 16 strand B50 endless loop strings.