Re: Fustian and Linen for bowstrings

[Jörg Bellinghausen]

Hi David!

AFAIK, there is one surviving bowstring from the "Mary Rose" and it is
said to be made from linen (I don't have the ressource handy, but I
believe that it was from the  Journal of the Society of Archer
Antiquaries. I'll check this out).
Silk is definetly a good bowstring material, for certain, many Asian
composite bows had strings made from silk. But: bowstrings are
definetey "consumables", they are now and they were then. Silk offers
no real advantage over hemp or linen and is much more expensive, so why
spend a lot of money on an item that is supposed to last only about
1.000 shots?

The trouble with finding good linen cord is that nowadays only a few
manufacturers are able to produce a cord that has a high breaking
strength per individual strand while retaining a relatively thin
diameter. I
*can* make a string of ordinary linen cord, sure, but the breaking
strength of ordinary cord is not high enough, so I would end up using
lots of strands, which makes the string too thick, too heavy,and it's a
pain in the rear end to twist. This is the problem.

Best,
Jörg
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