I have a 62" Osage selfbow that was a gift about 8 years ago.  No backing. It is 55 at 28 and if possible I would like to get down to about 40 so I could shoot it.  The bowyer is the only one to shoot it, while making it.  It has been stored in my bow shops since I received it.  Is it possible to reduce it and who would you recommend?

A self bow isn't the same as a laminated bow, where the laminations were selected to reach a certain weight. It is just a solid piece of wood that can be reworked to any weight you want. Whether you should do this or not is another question. It might be a better plan to sell this bow to someone who wants a 55# bow and order a 40# bow newly made. I recommend John Strunk in Oregon, but he ain't cheap. He would probably rework a bow he made, but I don't know about someone else's bow.

Or, get a copy of Dean Torges' Hunting the Osage Bow, which provides all the instruction you'll need to do it yourself.  Given that the bow is already made, about all you'll need to take it down to the weight you want is a rasp, scraper/knife blade and some sandpaper.  Really isn't very hard and you'll learn a lot.  Good luck.

Basically to reduce weight on a well tillered selfbow take long, even scrapes from the belly of each limb. If the limbs seem to be getting too thin you can take wood off the sides of the limbs also. Exercise well between wood removals and check the weight.
If the bow hasn't been shot for a while I'd exercise it slowly first before reducing the weight.
Do you know the maker? If so I'd have the maker do the weight reduction if you aren't going to.

Shawn Webb made the bow and there is no way I'm taking tools to it!

I took an bamboo backed Osage bow to Ted Fry at Raptor Archery to correct a problem, the seller neglected to disclose. It was more difficult than the norm, but Ted did a great job.  He builds his own self bow and can tell you what he might be able to do.  It would be a good time to reach out to him, before Turkey season in March-May. He is a sponsor and his website is Raptor Archery.com  541-467-2777

I also had Ted Fry of Raptor archery reduce an Osage self bow to a lower weight. He did a wonderful job. There is a fee and shipping both ways to consider.
I would expect any bowyer that sells selfbows could do this for you. Best of luck.

Have you asked Shawn?

Having dropped the poundage on several bows for people, I found it is a slippery slope depending on how well they were made in the first place. The lousy ones required a complete rebuild often adding backing, heat treating and retillering to make a shootable bow (I wish I had kept my mouth shut).

On a properly made bow 15# is a stretch but doable if the wood is blemish free, heat treating is a must as well. I once dropped an osage bow from 75# to 68# to 55# and finally to 48# as the owners shoulders wore out. I had made this bow out of some of the finest dense osage I ever held in my hands, even after 4 rebuilds and at 48# it still had "0" string follow.

Ojam is coming up and so is Mojam.  There will be bowyers at both events that could probably do this for you.

John Strunk took my Spirt Curve (one of his bows) from 58# to 45# when I developed shoulder issues a few years ago. It is bamboo backed yew.
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