Lowering draw weight on osage bow...

[ishoot4thrills]

I made myself an osage flatbow back in '98 that is too much for me now. It's 67#@28" and 68" long with about 1.5" of string follow/set. It's almost 2" wide at mid-limb, tapering down to about 5/8" at the tips and very straight with excellent tiller. I'm thinking about taking wood off of the sides, since it is very wide, so as not to disturb the tiller too much, to bring the draw weight down to around 50-55#. Would this be an effective method of getting my target weight?

[Shaun]

I would take it off the belly and leave the sides alone. Long even strokes with a scraper and shoot it 20-30 times after each adjustment to make the wood "learn" the new bend. It won't take much to go from 68# down to 55#. Check tiller only after each shooting in.

[ishoot4thrills]

Thank you for your response, Shaun, but I really don't like the width of it anyway, too much mass. It has a very big "bite" to the hand when shot. It was my first osage bow so I made it kinda wide. I really like some of the osage bows I see with the really narrow limbs. So, do you think I could accomplish my goal if I did remove wood from the sides? I'm talkin' about laying it out all over again by drawing on the back and keeping everything symmetrical and all. Thanks...

[No-sage]

With the dimensions you provided, I would lean towards narrowing it.

Double the width, double the strength.  With that in mind (if you're better at math then me), you should be able to figure just how wide to make it to get where you want to go.

Definetly get the tips down from 5/8 to reduce the jar.

[ishoot4thrills]

Thanks for the posts, guys. If anybody else has any other ideas please let me know. I hope I won't make the bow have anymore set than it already has. I wish I could steam a reflex/deflex into it, but I guess it's too late for that?

[Pat B]

I would reduce the length first to 64" or 66", then the width to 1 1/2" or a bit less at the fades and either a straight taper to the tips or go out a few inches before tapering to 3/8" tips.
   You can clamp the tillered bow to a form(for 2" to 3" of reflex) with the back down and with a heat gun heat to a light brown char(heat treating, tempering) and let it rest in the form for 3 or 4 days to rehydrate a bit. This might remove the set and will increase the compression strength plus add zip to your bow.
     Pat

[ishoot4thrills]

Pat, If I shorten the bow that much, causing it to increase in poundage, will I still be able to remove enough wood from the sides to get it down to my target weight? Please explain in detail where I'll be bending the bow in the form you mentioned. And, is there an alternative to a heat gun? I don't have one but I do have my wife's hair blow dryer, lol!

[Pat B]

A hair dryer doesn't get hot enough. If you can swing it, a heat gun can be purchased for less than $20. My form is a 2x4 that I cut a radius along one edge with the full width in the center and a curved taper to each end with about 1" at each end. I put reflex in the entire bow and heat treat only the bending(working) portion of each limb. It might be a bit tedious but you could hold the bow/form over a hot plate or stove eye for tempering.
    You will be able to remove wood from the sides and belly to achieve your goal weight.  You could leave it full length and reduce the width, then remove more from the belly if needed. You will probably have to remove wood from the belly anyway to be sure both limbs bend evenly and together.
   Pat

[John Scifres]

That is a very overbuilt design.  You could narrow it to 1.5" and still get the weight you want.  If you shorten it, you might as well consider it a total rebuild.  That might be OK but you will have to retiller completely.

If it were me, I'd narrow to 1-1/4" to midlimb, make the tips less than 1/2", retiller and see where my weight was.  If I'm under, I'd take an inch off each limb until I had my weight.

This will minimize set, still be overbuilt and make it a sweeter shooter.

[talkingcabbage]

Help me out here guys, but a bow that's twice as wide is twice as strong, but a bow that's twice as thick it 8x as strong.  (did i get that right?)  Anyway, I'd take a little off the sides, just to narrow it up a little, and you'd prob get real close to where you want it.  then take just a few scrapes (10 or so) off the belly to even up the tiller.  You'd get right to where you want to be.  And take Shaun's advise and shoot in after each adjustment, to get the bow used to it's new shape.

Joe

[Shaun]

Yes, taking wood off the sides has much less effect on weight than from the belly. You could definitely change the width down to 1 1/2 or even 1 1/4" and still have plenty to make weight. I like the suggestion to do the shape rework first and then shorten to bring weight back up if you get too low. Narrower tips will help with the hand shock.

[ishoot4thrills]

Thank you all so much for an overwhelming amount of great information. I will chew on all of this but I'm leaning towards John Scifres recommendation. I believe that is more of what I wanted when I built the bow in the first place, but I was a novice. I built and sold to a guy a solid osage recurve in the late '90s that turned out great. It's just that it's been around that time since I got away from making selfbows. I sold all of my staves and everything    . Again, thanks to all of you that responded and I will try and post some before and after pics of it whenever I get to it.

[ishoot4thrills]

Well, I'm back with some "before" pics. Don't know when I'll get to working it down though.
 
 
 
 
 

[Roy Steele]

Yes as long as the wood comes off both limbs the same.And don't take wood off the tips no closer than the fade down to the tips.If your bow comes straight taper down from the fade out to the tips stay back 6"s from your nocks.