Can 550 para cord work? I have unlimited amounts to that, if not what would work?

That would work fine if it stays in the grooves safely.

Ill take a couple hundred feet!

I use something like para cord, I cut the thumbs off and old pair of welding gloves and tied each end of the cord thru a hole I punched at the cut off. This creates a nice pocket for your limb tips to set in. This is to get it bending to almost brace.
Once at brace, I go to the dacron bow string for final tillering. Your para cord can work then too if they don't slip from the grooves.
You certainly do not want to shoot with it though.
Pic of thumbs on cordage

A strand of para cord is rated @ 550 lbs. @ 10 ft. Will i still need 100 + feet?

A strand of para cord is rated @ 550 lbs. @ 10 ft. Will i still need 100 + feet?

Roger that, osage. No shooting with the para cord. Thanks for the picture. That broke it down for me, barney style.

I try to cut temporary string grooves asap...then I use a longer string than the bow, with the string in the string grooves...it definitely pulls differently than a cup on the end of the limb...and it's easy to do.  
Bob

I highly suggest cutting in the string grooves and using a tillering string that just reaches the grooves with the bow un-strung. Those extra long tillering strings lie.

That is true Roy.

Note the right limb pocket in my pic above. It allows you to adjust string length according to the bow's length that you may be working on. In a word,,, adjustable.

I don't know why I had the string so long in that pic  

I know what you are saying Joe. For me, I cut my string grooves in 3/4 of an inch from the end of the  limb tips. So overall that would be a bow 1.5 inches shorter using the string grooves compared to the leather cups over the ends of the limbs. I have used one of those extra long tillering strings in the past, learned the hard way not to trust them.

thanks everyone, but roy what happen to learn the hard way.

thanks everyone, but roy what happen to learn the hard way.

Lost a few bows the hard way to the extra long tillering string:)

Para cord stretches a lot. I used it on my Osage bow, and kept shortening it and shortening it and but could not figure out why the string was not coming off the belly with the bend I was getting. I put a real bow string on it and it was at a full brace height with a real string but the 550 cord would be taught across the belly.
Just food for thought.

I use hardware store sash cord for my long string. My string is 1.5 times the length of the bow.

George, why so long?