Just before the invent of Dacron?

[Kendaric]

Just before the invention of Dacron for use in bow strings, what was the most common material used as a bowstring just prior please?

[Mick Smith]

I have a couple of old bows from the 1940-50s which have what I believe to be the remains flax linen strings on them.

This might be of some assistance.

http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb. ... 1;t=086148

[DrAK DaRippa]

this is an interesting read from 1901

http://www.archerylibrary.com/books/gal ... r04-1.html

[GrahameA]

Morning.

If you read "Hunting the Hard Way" you will see that H.H. used and recommended "Barbers Flax". i.e. Linen Twine. Similarly Stemmler used Flax Twine.

Maurice Thompson said:

string.jpg (40.39 KiB) Viewed 3239 times

[Stickbow Hunter]

There was another synthetic material called Fortisan which was commonly used for bow strings prior to Dacron more or less taking over the market. I believe it had a lot less stretch than what Dacron had.

Jeff

[CraigH]

Interesting stuff about the old strings, sometimes I don't think we realize how good the modern materials are today as far as durability, easy to work with and performance.

Thanks for the info.

[Kendaric]

Thanks for the information.

Was any indication given as to tread count to suit a particular poundage bow with flax types of string?

[Nezwin]

In Gordon Grimley's "The Book of the Bow" published in 1958 - not long before Dacron came about - he states.

"Bow strings are made of linen, Fortisan or Terylene... Very general breaking-loads of such threads are; linen, seven to twelve pounds; Fortisan, 16 and a half pounds; and Terylene, 10 pounds. Barbour's linen thread No.40, which is excellent bow string material, has a breaking-load of some 7 pounds per thread; that of Fortisan and Terylene should be checked with the dealer."

He then goes on to describe how to select the number of threads for a load, tweaking this if it's a steel bow, which indicates a fairly common usage of steel bows in the time. Surprising, I thought.

[Dennis La Varenne]

Among my collection of old bows from the 1930s to the 1950s, I have also bought some of the old strings in their original packages. The most commonly sold bowstring commercially, at least in the US, was linen followed by hemp. Ben Pearson produced a 'superior' linen string which he called his 'Lay-latex' string. It was an unusually thin linen string well impregnated with latex and has a rubbery feel to it. His catalogue ads from the time advertised its durability and that it would 'never' need waxing. On a bow, they have the twang of a fast-flight string.

In the later 1940s, according to my old magazines, with the invention of Rayon from wood fibre which was the first synthetically manufactured thread material invented, a company by name of Celanese produced the product called Fortisan which was used extensively during WWII for parachute material.

This was later used for bowstrings and impregnated with resin as a backing material for bows - a process invented by Dr Clarence Hickman.

At the same time as these three materials were being used, ads were appearing for a bowstring which would NEVER wear out. It was a bowsting which would impart much greater speed to arrows and never never stretch. That material was a very thin cabled wire. The ads lasted for close to 10 years in the NFAA magazine 'Archery' after which time, Dacron had well and truly come along. One of the stranger bows in my collection has such a string and I have another one on its way.