Hey Ernest from what I know that might not be the way to go. See if I can kind of do this: You need to put a strip of masking tape, on the face of the bow, midways between fade out & tip of both limbs and midways between that point and tips. String bow, measure your brace height, distance from string, top and bottom limbs, to inside of bow in both places taped and record measurements. With unstrung bow it’s a tedious process of taking wood down, on the trap is what I do, like 10 strokes, with fairly rough file, on each limb side. You’ll get the feel but be nice to the bow as you learn. I do maybe 10 strokes twice on each of the 4 limb sides then restring bow and check all your marks. You can tell then if you be doing more or less on either end. I always go for the bottom limb to be a 1/16″ to 1/8″ closer to the string than the top (bottom limb stiffer). When you get close to your goal, go finer with your tools and sandpaper like with any project.
There may be other bows that differ but my old buddy of Yellow Jacket longbows was very particular about tiller and thus am I.
I have only managed to get 4#’s max weight reduction. Be careful, be gentle and don’t get in a hurry. I did trap the opposite side of one bow from what was original to get a bit more weight off. Worked. I still shoot it a lot. 52# down to 48#.
A recurve is totally different. You take “meat” off of the insides of the limb. I’ve only done one recurve and I’m glad it still shoots great cause it worried me that I might not have had a clue what I was doing.
Any help from you guys on methodology or if I expressed myself incorrectly, please. Thanks, Ralph. Good luck.
