To wax or not to wax?

[dwilley]

I seem to remember reading that some wax should be applied to the loops at the ends of the string, not just the middle, and that bee's wax might be the best wax to use. Does this seem reasonable? If so, how does one go about getting the wax to the right places? Must the string be removed? I have a big chunk of bee's wax and have used it on the strings of my compound vertical bows,
cheers,
David

[cevans]

Last Fall, deciding to archery hunt again after a 8 yr layoff, took 2 - 10 yr old like brand new Hoyts out of the hardcases,,always waxed the strings and ff cables,,always,,,when opening the cases,,both bows,,still shot like new,,looked like new,,no fraying anywhere,,I had the limbbolts backed out,,and all I did, was screw the limbbolts down and shot them until my arms and shoulders hurt so bad reminding me why I gave up bowhunting with vertical,,but the point is,,wax on,,,as all my life,,bowstrings can keep almost forever if you take care of them.. I know everybody has a opinion, but some of the recurves I have as well are 20-25 yrs old with their strings waxed and they look as good as new as well..I also think,,,if you occasionally clean your rail whether it needs it or not,,with a wipe down of wd-40 or what ever is your choice,,,its just tender loving care as well,,All manufacturers recommend waxing, so there must be a reason they preach that as well..just my 2 cents, but Boo has his good points about it too.

[Joystyx]

I lightly wax my arrow's vanes and body with a grease usually used for leather (eases up the removal from my target), I wax the sides of the string with Bohning's arrow wax (until the tiny whiskers gets all sticky) and the serving with Excalibur's serving wax. I wax the serving every 25 shots, the sides of the string when the whiskers are getting all fluffy again, usually every 50-60 shots or so, depending on temperature and humidity.

I heat up the waxes by putting them near a heat source before applying when possible and clean the string before and after the waxing.

After more than 200 shots, the serving and the string still look as new. Trigger system area looks mint too, I clean it after every shooting with WD40.

[blackjack]

g'day, in my opinion its the heat & friction from being shot which causes the damage to strings, l find it hard to believe that people dont wax there strings & only wax there servings how lucky they are, here in aussie we have to wax the loops servings the whole string or l do, maybe its the heat down under hot hot hot. l do mine every 50 to a 100 shots thats the whole string or after shooting which ever comes first more 50 than a 100 in my case, but the serving every maybe 25 shots or so but saying that when l'm ready to load l grab the serving & just rub in the wax thats there & spread the wax again just to be sure at maybe every 5 shots l do this. as for cleaning l use on the rail which will help keep wax out of the trigger l clean it with wd-40 or silicon spray but only wd-40 inside the trigger unit. regards frank