I made a top of the line osage bow for a guy 4 years ago 65#@27", well seasoned wood. He called about 6 months later and said the bow felt like 75#, I tested it and it had gained 10# so I dropped it back to 65#.
A couple months later he called and said the bow broke, my heart sank thinking I would have to make him another(I stand behind my bows). Then he told me the bows tip broke off when he slammed a car door on it and could I possibly fix it. I made the former top limb(broken tip) the shorter bottom limb, glued wood to the handle to be able to flip the grip, retillered and gave him back what was now a new bow.
Age took a toll on his shoulders and he asked if I could drop about 10 more pounds off the bow which I did. The bow was an OK shooter at this point but nothing special.
A month of so ago he said he wanted to buy another bow from me , something in the 48# range, his shoulders were killing him.
I said " let me take your bow home with me, keep it a while, shoot it, tweak it, drop some poundage, rework the handle and see what I can come up with".
I am just about at 48# on this bow, got it shooting good, will tweak it a little more this afternoon and hopefully be done with it.
I have to say this was the finest piece of osage I ever had in my hand, so tortured, twisted and doglegged it took me a month to straighten the billets but I could tell it was special stuff.
Of course Noland is a good friend and sometimes shooting partner, wouldn't do this kind of work for just anybody. He finished second in the IBO Worlds shooting another one of my bows he owns last year.
Here is the bow when I had it almost finished, very special indeed.
Nolan with stone point a hog kill with the bow.
