I ordered a custom recurve back in 1990 and upon arrival Byron Ferguson was in town at a big archery shoot. He looked the bow over,shot it, and then advised that the bowyer built a good bow but he would recommend that I not unstring/string the bow,just keep it strung. I've only replaced the string,never unstrung it since. I think I own the only bow made by that bowyer that hasn't had a limb blow up. I can't tell any poundage loss(wouldn't mind if it did lose a few lbs,honestly).Good luck!