Bow strings

[Kagehide]

I work at Sushi Nabe, in downtown Chattanooga. Of course, the owner is japanese. I was cutting chicken, and the amount of sinew I found in it was alarming, and I made a note to him, saying that traditionally sinew, of course from large mammals, was used for the making of bowstrings, (and also to laminate the bow, or at least layer it.) I asked him what yumi bow strings were traditionally made of, and he replied with:

"I think vegetables."

So what are they made of?

Do they use a flemish string nowadays, or something like that? My uncle told me that they might've used hemp.

[Date Saburou Yukiie]

The better strings are still made of hemp hardened by kusune, a pitch...You can get semi-synthetic tsuru now-a-days, but serious practitioners do not seem to like the tsurune - the sound...
Date

[Kurodachi no Mykaru]

The hemp release MUCH faster. Adjusting the timing for my hanare was.......interesting. Most students (high school and college anyway) use the kevlar strings.

VERY traditionally seshime urushi is used the protect the bowstrings. I hand spun and laquered *1* while in Japan. I didn't use enough threads however.

Laminations for a takeyumi are facings bamboo, the sides wood (preferably yellow sumac) the core is sumi (smoked bamboo). Traditional glue is fish glue but even the traditional bowyers use archery glue these days.

[Saionji Shonagon]

I suspect that Fast Flight (Kevlar) would be very BAD for a yumi......

S.