Thanks, guys! You're a real encouraging bunch. I added a diagram of the original bow in the first post as a reference.
Upstatenybowyer, That's all I need is another project. I'll leave that to Ryan.
Del, I have a little thump in the hand with my lighter arrows but when I shot a heavier arrow it was fine. It's not a world record holder for speed but it shoots just fine. How long was yours, Del? From all that I read, I wasn't too surprised with any of that. The original was estimated to be well over 100# draw weight. That changes things, for one, a little extra wood on the tips probably doesn't make a lick of difference at that weight.
WillS, not sure what you mean by bracing handles. Is that what they suspected the fat tips were for? If so, they did come in handy during the early stages of bracing when it was still a beast. I couldn't handle it doing push/pull and the tips were too fat for my stringer. I had to resort to the step through method and it was handy to grab those tips.
Strichev, I used pure beeswax. I softened up a hunk with heat, and rubbed it on a limb. Then I heated up a small section with the heat gun until it was soaking in. Then I buffed it vigorously with cheese cloth while it was still hot and melted. I worked my way down the bow doing that. I let it cool and repeated the process but didn't add any more wax. It had some excess from the first time. After it was cool I buffed it with the cheese cloth again.
