Hi folks! I am a new member, and grateful for all of the help that I have gleaned from these boards. I am in the middle of a few different boo backed ipe builds right now and I am confused about string slap, brace height and the relationship between the two. I am experiencing some string slap on the wrist with most of the bows I am building, and wondering if I have to live with that, or if I can tweak the string length to avoid it all together. Any insights would be greatly appreciated!
By way of background I have built a few Osage self bows in the past, and recently bought two ipe 4x4's which I have sawed into 1.75"x.5"x72" boards. I also bought a pack of bamboo strips, which I am using to back the bows. Handles are made from walnut, or rosewood, and the nocks are either Osage or whitetail antlers. title bond 3 for all of the glue work. I have 4 almost finished, except the tuning and the string selection.
The lower the brace height the more string slap you will get. Try 6.5 to 7 inch brace height. Where ya at in Pa, Paul? Westmoreland County here. Welcome to TG.
With longbows string slap is more often seen.
If my brace height is at least 6 to 6 1/2 inches I'm ok.
A lot of times if I'm getting some slap low near my wrist itis because I torque or turn the bow after the,shot and the string is still vibrating.
With a recurve I don't wear a bracer. With longbows I always wear my arm guard.
I am from Chester springs, Chester county, SE pa. They are longbows I am building and the strings slap is very low on the wrist.
Raise the brace height and see if that helps.
Will do. I have just ordered some b50 to make my own strings. The off the shelf ones don't seem to fit my odd sized bows. Thank you for your reply.
I find string slap relates to two things, string tension at brace height and the brace height itself. More string tension at brace = less likelyhood of slap. It's like a higher pitch guitar string, it vibrates faster but the distance is less.
Obviously, more brace height less chance of slap because the string is moved away from the wrist.
Raising the brace height will help. Also if you lock your elbow you are more likely to get string slap.Try to be sure your elbow is slightly bent, not locked. Since I figured this out I don't even need an armguard anymore. Bob