Shorten a selfbow or.......

[Duncan]

My first selfbow was rife with rookie mistakes, too narrow, worked to fast, could'nt wait for the wood to completely dry. Consequently, it turned out to be about 38# so it was relegated to kid duty and they had fun with it.
I've been wondering if I could shorten it a little and up the draw weight. Or could a steam the tips into a static recurve and acheive the same effect? Any thoughts on this?
I know I could leave it as is but it seemed like a good one experiment on.

D

[Pat B]

Being that the bow was over stressed to begin with, doing anything to it will only stress it more. Give it to someone that will shoot it and make another. You know you can now!

[DVSHUNTER]

I agree with pat. Move on. if they like it then its doing its job. Make another. You will jave lots of em to frankenstien on.

[Frank]

I would not mess with it.  It's your first selfbow and it is what it is.  Keep it forever.

[PEARL DRUMS]

My opinion differs. Regardless of what number bow it is if your not happy and wont shoot it, fix it. I left my first hanging on the wall for almost 10 years before I got tired of looking at it and made a bow out of it. Its 4" shorter, covered in sinew and about 12-15# heavier now! Its a super bow and my best buddy now owns and shoots it regularly. I dont even own my first bow.

[Dimondback]

I am no expert by any means but I came in way light on my first board bow for many of the reasons you stated and a hand tool that unexpectedly took a big bite out of a limb. I took it down a couple of inches on each end, got more practice shaping string nocks and ended up with a 29# bow that is a joy to shoot. I have been using it to practice my shooting form with the lighter draw weight and has acutally got me shooting my 45# Savannah a lot tighter. My son/daughter/wife can shoot it as well. All was not lost.

[GREG IN MALAD]

If you're not happy with it then fix it. This sounds like a good candidate for a short sinew backed recurve.

[George Tsoukalas]

Duncan, fixing and shortening  rarely works and if you do you won' get the experience and joy of making another. Jawge

[John Scifres]

Give us some specs on the bow.  Hard tellin without knowing what you have to work with.  I have reworked many bopws into better ones.

[Duncan]

John,

It's basically a hickory flat bow. 64" long 1-3/8" wide at the fades to 5/8" at the nocks. The main problem with it is that I made it too narrow so as others have advised there may not be much else that can be done to it.

Thanks everyone for your opinions. I would have to think about this long and hard before I could change it I was just wanting to tap into the vast experience here before doing something I might regret.

Thanks,
Duncan

[John Scifres]

I wouldn't try to shorten it.  But I have had some luck with tempering the belly and getting a bit more performance.  You might give it a try.

Here's one where I was "fixing" some set but the concept is the same.  Have fun.

 Fixit