Well, this weekend my great uncle gave me my grandpa's old longbow. It's a very nice looking bow but it doesn't say anything about the string length or what company it's made by. The only thing it says is the poundage. I was wondering if anyone could give me a method on how to find the correct string length for long bows. I tried measuring certain points on my other recurve bow to see if I could find the length by measuring from tip to tip or something like that but it never gave me the correct length.

There's no foolproof method, but the older bows usually went by AMO bow length. Use a cloth tape measure and measure from the top of the string groove, along the contour of the limb, through the center of the riser, to the top of the other string groove--that will give you the AMO bow length (the same goes for a recurve). Your longbow should get a string about 3" shorter than the bow length. Since it's an older bow,only use a dacron string--flemish twist or endless will worth, but the material should be B-50 or B-500.

Chad