Hello everyone! It's been forever since I've been here. I've been thinking it is time to see if my 4 yo grandson might be interested in learning to shoot a bow. I came across a little osage bow I started years ago. I believe the lower limb is too stiff and I'd like some advice on what I should do. I'm thinking I could heat it a bit and try to get the backset closer to the upper limb and I need to thin the tip a bit. I'll try to add pis.
Hey, B, glad to see you back. That looks like you could easily set that bow up for your grandson. If you have a caul you could add even reflex to the whole bow with some heat and clamps. A handle wrap would finish it off for him. You could narrow the tips instead of thinning them. That would reduce the physical weight without allowing them to bend.
Hey Pat! Thanks for checking this out. It's difficult to see from the pics but the lower limb tip is a little thicker than the upper. I'll get pics of the back view as soon as can. Also, I was laying awake trying to remember if I'd sprayed a finish on it already. I used gun stock oil the most back then but I might have used a spray on poly. Definitely a leather wrap and probably a glued on shelf.
If you used Tru-Oil and/or spray poly they are easy to repair after the changes are made. You can lightly scrape and sand the belly before heating it to remove the finish, do the reflexing and narrowing the tips and refinish the bow. Narrowing the tips is a better option than thinning and after you do that you can thin the thicker tip to match the other.
This is the tip compared to a dime. It's not a very good picture. I hope you can see it. I can see a thickness difference in the tips but it's a pretty small difference. I hope I can try the reflex fix this evening. I watch my 4 yo grandson and his 2 yo brother 4 days a week.
The tip doesn't look bad. I'd leave it as it is and just maybe math them to each other.
Are you planning on doing a tip overlay? What's the draw weight on that little guy, and how old is your grandson?