Weight reduction on my old osage selfbow?

[Mike Bolin]

I have an Osage selfbow that I built 15-20 years ago that is 62" nock to nock and is (was?) 58#@28". With my aging shoulders I am only good for 45-50# now and am looking for advice as to taking some weight off the bow and possibly shortening it to 60". I've never been satisfied with the job I did on string grooves, so I hope to shorten it up a bit and do a better job on them this time. The bow tillered out nicely and shot well, my shoulders just can't handle the weight any longer (not to mention doctor's orders). The bow has been stored inside the house if that makes any difference. What say you...have at it or leave it hang? Thanks, Mike

[frank bullitt]

Yes, Mike, have at it!
Haven't been to the bowyers bench in awhile, just log in and here's your post.
I'm "pulling" for ya!
I know the knowledge here can help make it
happen!

[Roy from Pa]

Well by taking it down 2 inches shorter is going to add 5 pounds to it first of all.

After that maybe narrow it 1/8th of an inch, and deepen the facets a bit and take wood off the belly and re-tiller it like you did when you made it.

How thick is it back to belly?

[Mike Bolin]

Roy, mid limb it is 1/2" thick (including the rawhide backing) and the limbs are 1 7/16" wide at that point.

[Roy from Pa]

I'd let the tips as they are unless they really bug ya.

You have plenty of wood to work with.

I'd take the facets lower then take about 1/16th off the belly and tiller it out and see how much it drops.

Then go from there.

[Mike Bolin]

Thanks Roy. I will try to post up some pics as I go.

[Pat B]

Roy has covered it pretty well.

[Eric Krewson]

Make a tillering gizmo to keep wood removal even from stem to stern.

[Mike Bolin]

Haven't posted in a while. I've been way too busy this fall and haven't worked on the bow much and really haven't hunted as much as I would've liked. I am making progress on the weight reduction, just going at it slow and easy. I tend to get in a hurry sometimes, so I am being careful to take my time and not screw up. I do appreciate the previous comments and I am going to start a new thread to address some of the new questions I have. Thanks to all!

[bownarra]

Reducing the thickness will reduce the efficency. To remove weight off an already tillered (and good shooting) bow you need to proportionately reduce the width NOT the thickness. If you have too much width (1 7/16ths isn't overly wide but it could be narrower being osage) you could even increase the efficency if you do it this way. I've had 2 customers over the years ask me to reduce weight on old bows. Both times I managed to make the bow better by reducing width and also making sideview match up with tiller shape.
Say you want 10% less weight remove 10% of the width. This has many benefits over removing belly wood. You may not be happy with the bow if you only remove bellywood - it will get proportionately slower (assuming good tiller to start with!).