A friend is gifting me a old longbow, all he knows is it says "Firestone" and he said it's Lemonwood so i'm assuming it's a Ben Person Firestone Olympian...
should I just hang it on the wall
or
try and restore it and shoot it?
Yes I would those old lemonwood bows are know to come apart at full draw don't ask how I know that..... :)
Some times you can rejuvenate the old lemonwood bows but you have to go very slow and gradually retrial them to bend.
That being said, if it were me I'd hang it up and enjoy the history of this old bow.
What Pat said.......
Sounds like a wall hanger to me then... Thanks for the input guys
Good, sound advice I think. I lost a nice little lemonwood longbow that I picked up at a yard sale a few years ago. I was going to try exercising it gradually. Drew it to about 18" and SNAP!
After I changed my pants I admired what a clean break it was - no splintering, just a nice clean break :)
I have an Old Lemonwood bow my Barber gave me, I shot it for awhile, But then got nervous, so it hangs on the wall now....