Jack,
The bow wasn't made in 1953........if you list the serial numbers most likely someone can point you in the right direction for aging that little beauty.
My buddy Frank has one and its such a neat old Bear. I have a Kodiak Hunter which is the 60" and love it.
You definitely want a dacron string on it.......I'm sure it probably wore an endless loop style string but a nice 2 bundle Flemish twist dacron in matching colors looks much nicer and should be quieter.
The man to see about strings is Chad Weaver......aka "LBR" here. He can be reached for strings through
www.recurves.com
I am having him make several for 2 of my recurves and a longbow.
Get ahold of Chad and he'll know exactly what you need.
