Re: Fustian and Linen for bowstrings

[Jörg Bellinghausen]

Hi David!

> >My reply: I doubt that silk is so expensive that
> you would be unable to 
> >afford it for a bowstring. We have definite
> references to its use as a 
> >superior material in the 15th century, although it
> would take me some time 
> >to get hold of the reference for you (French). So
> it presumably has the 
> >advantage of extra tensile strength and is
> probabaly easier to spin to size 
> >than linen.

I haven't got those references. Any information you can can provide
would be much appreciated.

 If you have difficulties getting linen
> of shoemakers quality, 
> >waxed or unwaxed,(What's wrong with it being
> waxed?) I should be able to 
> >help.
That would be great!
IMO, there's nothing wrong with waxed cord for bowstrings. Modern
materials, such as Dacron, come *very* heavily waxed. Moisture
protection aside, the wax helps keeping the plies of the string
together.

> BUT, why not use hemp? this is to be found
> everywhere in all sorts 
> of qualities and sizes and is cheap, and DEFINITELY
> stronger than linen.

Yup, hemp is much stronger than linen, a hempen string almost equals  a
Fast-Flite string in terms of performance.
The problem with hemp is that is was illegal to cultivate in Germany
without a special permit. But the law was changed a few years ago, so
that it is possible for everyone to cultivate the hemp variants with a
low THC content. So hemp is an option, I must admit that I was just too
lazy to search for usable cord.

Best,
Jörg

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