Hey Planter, use what the mfgr suggests for deck and string. Some guys use bee's wax on their Excals. As far as the bolts go, I use aluninum but just bought some carbons this year after more than a decade. I use carbons on my compound because I have on occasion bent aluninum shafts when pulling them out of foam targets. I have yet to bent my xbow shafts buy pulling them out of targets. I still do not trust carbons completely. I am paranoid of carbons coming apart on the shot esp after seeing a pic of what happened to one guys hand when a carbon shaft did come apart. PM me if you want to see the pics. It enough to make you check them every time you shoot them. I check carbons for cracks before every shooting session or if the arrows look lilke they may have made contact with each other and all of them every five shots or so. Check out the thread called "Got a legend XT175 need some help", looks like deerslayer had a carbon come apart. Kinda scarey, could have been worse. I wonder if he was wearing glasses????
I like using the dacron flemish string because its easy on the limbs and a bit quieter.