I just  bought an old lemonwood long bow probably made back in the 50's. All things considered it looks to be in pretty good shape - no cracks, the finish looks better than what one might expect.It is a commercially made bow that is backed with black plastic material. It has maybe an inch at most of set. Do I need to take special precautions before stringing it to prevent an explosion? Can I somehow reduce or eliminate the set? Also - there is a very small hole drilled thru the upper tip. What is that about? Thanks, Earl

If it looks ok, I wouldn't be afraid to string it. I wouldn't mess with the set, it will shoot fine with a little set. The hole is either how they hung it up to spray it or it's for a string keeper when unstrung.

Thanks, Roy. Just ruminating here - thinking about refinishing the bow which would entail re-backing it. The finish is pretty good for a 60+ year old bow but I like pretty shiny things, ya know? Maybe an exotic backing of some sort. Do you think it would be worth while or is it one of those things that would decrease the value? I don't think it has much collector value and have a grand total of $70 in to it.

I wouldn't back it with anything but wood personally.

Refinishing could be pretty straitforward and you could keep he original backing. Would probably come out really nice and still be original.

How bout some pics?

I would just make it look nice and be shoot worthy.

I would post pics before I did anything.  

QuoteOriginally posted by Roy from Pa:
I would just make it look nice and be shoot worthy.

X2

I'll post some pix tomorrow when I have good light. Thanks you all for your interest.

http://imgur.com/72nepM2  
 http://imgur.com/tMmZBel  
 http://imgur.com/j41OTg2  
 http://imgur.com/AikWvRE  
 http://imgur.com/XXvt5uw  
 http://imgur.com/owciDrs

Here are the links to promised pics. Haven't figured out how to simply display the images. Anyway, the bow shoots great - I am not going to putz with refinishing, etc. I like it just the way it is!

Very nice..