Dan,

I don’t have a lot of experience with different strings, but I’ll try and shed what little light I have on the issue at hand. B-50, I believe, is the material used to make a Dacron string that can be used on older bows. It has more stretch than Fast Flight. Fast Flight is a newer material, and while I don’t know exactly what it will do to the older bows, I know it’s not good for them.

You mentioned flemish. My understanding is that it’s just a style, or way, of building the string. It’s actually a flemish twist. The other style of string that I know of is the endless loop, but I don’t know anything about that, really.

Hope this helps a little bit. Even a pen light in the dark of night can give you an idea where you’re headed. LOL. Anybody else out there that knows more, feel free to chime in.

Michael.

Montana Ford pretty much has it in a nutshell. There are further details of course. Things like the concepts of stretch and creep, or the actual materials that the strands are made of and the possible blends of those materials, etc. etc. You can pick up those details in time, but we also don’t need to go into overload. It is a lot of info.
You did mention using a modern string material on an older bow in conjuction with double served (padded) end loops. Some folks swear by it. Bumps the performance on cool old bows. However I myself blew the tips off an old bow trying that. The tips came off in chunks, and the string was actually pulled down into the wood one limb by about an inch. Scared the crap outta me! So I don’t that anymore. Old bows from the 80’s and older all get Dacron (B-50) Newer bows, if there is any question in my mind I try and conatct the manufacturer or ask those familiar with the bow. Just because a bow is newer don’t always assume the bow is compatible with the new Fast Flight, low stretch low creep type of string materials. Many of the smaller bowyers still make bows with limb tips that although they may look reinforced, they still aren’t up to it. Nothing wrong with that, they’re just still making their bows to run with Dacron that’s all.

I had always wondered the same thing. Thank you both for the answers, cleared up alot mis-information.