Hello,
This weekend my father in-law gave me a bow that he got as a kid in the 1930s. They lived on a sustenance farm near Akron Ohio. Considering it was the Great Depression, I'm sure this was not an expensive rig. It�s a longbow, solid wood, not much grain w/a simple leather grip. It has a dot where one should set the arrows. All around pretty neat w/ the family connection. It has its string, maybe original.
I'm new to bows and arrows. How could I go about finding its draw weight? It's a little over 5" long. The only thing that concerns me is that one limb has a nice slight taper but the other is much more curved. So, when strung up, the string is NOT straight up and down perpendicular to the bow but instead, about in 15 or so degrees off. Its like one limb is from a flat bow and the other a hybred recurve. He said it has always been this way. Perhaps his dad bought it "cheep", not surprising given the times. He never hunted it, just targets and screwing' around.
So is the bow flawed or is that how it is support to be? Can it be fixed? The limbs are not twisted. Thanks for any insight. I posted a while ago "Lost in a Bow Wilderness� You were all very helpful.
Thanks, HC

Hybred recurve" is a bit dramatic. One limb simply has more arch than the other. Thanks!

Pics, would help a LOT!

Best bet hang it on the wall, as it will , more than likely break, and they can hurt ya! John

It sounds like the bowmaker just tillered the limbs until he got it draw to his length, and shoot straight, and that is how the limbs ended up. As someone said, it may break if you try to string and shoot it. I sure wouldn't get rid of it. I wish I had the wood bows I made when I was young, before I struck it rich and bought a solid fiberglass one for $8.00 that I still have.

My dad had a friend who kept a bow, set of arrows, quiver and knife he made out of a truck spring on Guadacanal. I always wanted that setup.

Naw, it probably sat on one limb so long the limb took a set. Or the limb was ovestressed.

The lower limb should be about 1/4" closer to the string than the upper limb. That's the way they tillered them to make the lower limb slightly stronger because the handle made it slightly shorter. Most bows take a set in the lower limb.

If it's whitish wood, or a light lemony color, it's either degame (lemonwood) or hickory. Lemonwood came from cuba, and it didn't show much grain. It's not the tree lemons come from, but it's an almost ideal bow wood because of the grain.

Sounds like you've got a flatlimbed bow. They were popular at that time.

If you mean the limb is twisted so the string does not bisect the limbs at the arrow pass, you can easily fix this by steaming the limb and twisting it into the proper configuration. You may have to do it a bit at a time.

Need a picture, badly.

Thanks guys, I'll send up a pix soon (never done it before)
I really appreciate the info.
HC

The other option could be a wooden "working recurv" bow that's lost its recurve entirely on one limb and partially on the other...they tend to do that, unless they're "static recurves."

Need a pic.

Hardcut:

If if were mine, I'd hang it on the wall, vertical, unstrung. Sounds like its shooting days are well behind it.

The draw weight is whatever the user pulled it back to and that could be a lot less than guys draw a bow today. Be careful, if it is unbacked and it sounds like it is, it might not take well to being "overdrawn"--as it may have taken a set to whatever the user drew it to.

A selfbow is a beautiful thing...

If you take the leather handle off and there's a shallow hole there, it means the bow was made on a machine, which was typical of the mass-produced bows of that era.

+1 on that. You don't want to have it come apart like a grenade on you if you draw it back. It could also blow up just sitting there, either from decay of the wood or string. Take it to somebody familiar with stick bows and let them unstring it for you, then retire it. Best of luck.

The bow is strung??? I didn't know that. If so, it's probably irrelevant now if you leave it strung or unstrung. The damage has been done.