Resurrection of an Old Friend

[tippit]

I have a lot of old bows that have grown to heavy for me to shoot.  Some are just irreplaceable so I have been drastically reducing weight on some of my favorites.  I would never sell a bow that I reduce weight as I'm not a bowyer...but they shoot great for this old man.  So far I've not had any failures.  Plus I stress them to at least 30/32 inches on my tillering tree before I shoot them at 28 inches.

Resurrected beautiful Bamboo backed & belly Saluki longbow with inner lams of Osage & Maple, riser stained Curly Maple, and horn tips.  Originally 54#@27 (57#@28) reduced/retillered/refinished to 40#@28...tippit

[Sockrsblur]

 Beautiful bow Jeff....

[drewsbow]

very nice

[ron w]

A very cool piece.........

[Greg Szalewski]

Wow, that is a drastic reduction. I am glad it worked out for you Jeff.

This is a very common issue for many of us these days and I hope you inspire others to do the same. It seems a shame that so many great bows get ignored because they are now to heavy.

[PV]

Well done

[cacciatore]

Great Job Jeff

[Longtoke]

Awesome, how much did you have to grind off?  I think a before and after pic would be interesting.

[tippit]

Longtoke,
They are all different.  This one being bamboo both back & belly, I could only take wood off the sides and trap the belly.  Glass bows are easier as I remove glass from back and belly first.  Recurves are the hardest because of the minimal amount of wood in the limbs. Then if I need more weight reduction, I'll trap the sides.  I'm taking these bows to my knife grinder so not just sand paper by hand.  Most bowyers will remove up to 5# as it is a liability risk.  I've probably done 30-40 bows with out any problems.  I'm not recommending this technic...but it works for me.

[Pine]

Wow, very nice and I'm glad it worked out for you.