Damaged Limb

[JamesMac]

Hello All
I’m new to this forum, I’m a longbow shooter/hunter but recently a friend gave me an old Bear Grizzly recurve bow (1953). It has some cracking on the lower limb that appears to be contained to the finish only - I think?
So I strung it up and it shoots just fine so I would like to strip the entire bow down and refinish it myself.

Dose anyone have fist hand experience with this type of maintenance? And or can you recommend a good source i.e. printed publications or videos?

Or should I go to a professional?

Thank you
James

[talkingcabbage]

I'm assuming that this is a wood bow and not a glass one?  I've refinished wood bows like that before.  You might wait for others to chime in, but I refinished it just like any other piece of wood.  Take down the finish with sandpaper, just try not to take off too much wood in the process (you might change the tiller), then refinish with a few coats of poly, boiled linseed oil, tung oil, whatever.  If you do find cracks in the wood itself, take real good care of them before you do any refinishing.

[JamesMac]

Correct it is a wood bow. Also I’m in no rush in fact I’m in the middle of a move so I won’t attempt this till Q1 2009.

I should probably also point out as another forum member pointed out to me that this is a classic so is it worth altering or should I just keep it as a wall hanger? I would really prefer to fix it and use it – but if it has value (historical that is) then maybe it deserves the wall?

Thank you “talkingcabbage”!