Reduciung Weight On A Shot-In Bow

[PeteDavis]

My osage/hick is pulling 56# @ 26.5. Probably 500 arrows at this point.
If I were to shave the SIDES of the bow to reduce the weight by 3-4 pounds would this carry the same consequences (lost cast) as taking material from the belly?
To a great extent I think the neutral axis on the bow would not really change. Or put another way, by re-tillering from the sides, the compression wood would remain compression wood-and like wise for the tension wood.
Or do I just build a lighter bow?
Curious at this point-I may just re-do the grip and leave it.
PD

[NTD]

I can't really answer your question the way you asked it but if it were me and you are happy with the FD profile I would remove the weight from the sides.  It won't take much and ,for me anyway, it's easier to keep my tiller, plus it should drop you some mass.

[Cameroo]

I would just leave it if you're only wanting to remove 3 or 4 pounds.  If you can pull 52, it's not that much harder to pull 56... er what?

[Bill Skinner]

I have retillered two shot in osage bows.  On one the tiller was off, each limb was equally strong so I had to take some weight off the upper limb.  The second bow was about 5 years old when I got it and was about 70# at 27".  I scraped the belly mostly but took a little off the sides.  It is now 53# at 28".  I did both bows with a very experianced bowyer watching every move I made, I didn't lose cast or performance.  Bill

[Pat B]

I think it would only take a few scrapes on the belly to reduce the weight 3# to 4#. It would take more than that from the sides.
  How wide is the bow? I make most of my osage bows about 1 3/8" wide because I like a deeper cross section on an osage bow.
  You may be able to round your edges ant that plus a good sanding might just get rid of that much weight.

[Del the cat]

I'd go for removing width everytime because to acheive the same effect it removes more wood and thus mass than reducing the thickness.
Therefore the fnal cast should be slightly improved compared with removing thinkness. Also it's much easier to remove an even shaving off the width than the thickness, and it's less critical/twitchy.
After all you know the thickness is ok as the bow is shot in and hasn't chrysalled/hinged/snapped, so why mess with the most tricky part, the thickness?
All in all a no contest in my book.
Del

[Steve Milbocker]

If you reduce the sides and especially the last 8'' of the tips will that cause a bow with an otherwise good tiller to become whip tillered?

[adb]

I'd reduce weight from the belly, with nothing but sandpaper. A good sanding with 150 grit over the entire belly would probably do it. Re-check tiller... good to go.

[PeteC]

I agree.Reduce the weight in this case,(3-4#),by lightly scraping ,then sanding the belly.As you near the target weight,finish sand each trip,that way, when you reach target,no more sanding will be necessary.If you were only coming down a pound or so,I'd take it off the sides.JMHO  God Bless

[George Tsoukalas]

Belly. Jawge

[Pat B]

Steve, if you remove enough wood from the sides that will weaken the tips enough to bend the will be whip tillered.

[Del the cat]

Steve, if you remove enough wood from the sides that will weaken the tips enough to bend the will be whip tillered.

Hmmm, yeah, but surely exactly the same can be said of removing wood from the belly?
Wherever it's removed from it will probably need to be done progressivlely with less at the tips.
Only if the limbs have constant thickness will an even reduction in thickness keep an even tiller.
Similarly if the limbs have tapered thickness, then an even reduction in width should maintain an even tiller.
But of course most limbs taper a bit in both width and thickness, so I guess it's just down to taking it easy and doing what suits the bow.
I happen to be thinking of wide flatbow/pyramid styles at the moment as that's what I've been making. I s'pose with an ELB I'd take it off the belly, so it depends on the bow...I'll just keep arguing with myself for a while...
Del
(I the reserve the right to be completely wrong (I'm reliably informed by Mrs Cat that it does happen!
Hope you guys don't think I'm being too argumentative?)