A pull-out test was developed to measure the bond strengths and frictional forces between steel wires, and polycarbonate and epoxy matrices when the matrix was under tensile stress. Some debonding occurred due to the matrix stress. Despite this, the nominal bond strength, in the polycarbonate case, increased with increasing matrix applied stress. When the pull-out force had caused complete debonding, sliding under approximately constant friction coefficient,μ, occurred. The value ofμ for steel sliding in polycarbonate was 0.6, and for epoxy it was 0.19. The values were reduced to 0.12 and 0.10 respectively when the steel was coated with a fluorocarbon release agent. The normal stresses at the interface, in the absence of any applied stresses, were found to be about 7 MN m−2 in the polycarbonate, and 3.0 MN m−2 in the epoxy case. It was observed that the frictional forces due to these residual stresses could be less than one third of those generated by the applied stresses on the matrix. Thus residual stresses are not as important for fibre reinforcement as are matrix Poisson's shrinkage stresses.